California

There are quite a few mountains called "Twin Peaks" in the US, but the "double hill" in San Francisco is most likely the one which is known best. It is located near the geographic center of SF and offers spectacular views over the city, the many bridges, the Bay and the Pacific ocean. The hike up to the tops is very short because...

Deadwood Peak didn't really show up on "my radar" until now, but I am almost running out of peaks which make sense for me to do as "day hikes" (meaning: leave home early in the morning, drive not much more than about 2 hours, hike and then return home the same day). Deadwood Peak is one of the few left on this list. After reading...

The chain of hills between San Luis Obispo and Morro Bay is referred to as the Nine Sisters. During a previous visit of San Luis Obispo I already climbed two of then: Bishop Peak and Mount Madonna. This time I wanted to pay a visit to the 2 sisters which are closest to Morro Rock: Cerro Cabrillo and Black Hill. My starting...

During an extended weekend in the vicinity of Morro Bay we decided to climb a few of the many "Cerros" in this area. "Cerro" is the Spanish word for "Hill" and since this part of California has a lot of Mexican roots, most of the hills here are named Cerro "Something". As "Alto" in "Cerro Alto" suggest, the hill we climbed today...

Hiking without any alpine challenges in an environment of amazing beauty. Especially the views of Silver Apron and at the foot of Nevada Fall are exceptional and the photos probably worth sharing.

Ralston Peak is a popular mountain in the Desolation Wilderness which is typically and often climbed from the trailhead close to Highway 50 near Camp Sacramento. However, my goal was to climb it via East Ridge from Echo Lake and also bag Becker Peak and Talking Mountain on the way up. For my way down I planned to take the...

Signal Peak wasn't exactly the prime peak on my todo list. I didn't expect too much of this mountain with little prominence, close to the highway, telecommunication installations on top and no apparent 'interesting' route to it's peak. However, my current fitness level and some minor health issues kind of forced me to look for an...

The two main conclusions from my hike a few days ago were: "There is plenty of snow on the Northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains for a ski tour and I need to improve my fitness" helped me decide on what to do on this day: A ski tour with only little altitude gain on the northern slopes of Round Top. Since I hiked Round...

After a very long break from "real" mountains, I wanted to find out how bad my fitness was. During the past 8 months I did almost nothing which would have helped my fitness. Working "as a contractor" and not really doing any cardio exercise made me wonder how much altitude gain was still possible for me. In order to find out, I...

Was mit vierzig nicht zu schaffen war, ist es wohl mit sechzig. Vor etwa zwanzig Jahren versuchte ich, den Mount Shasta in einem Anlauf zu besteigen - und blieb auf 3750 Metern stecken. Jetzt, bevor ich das sechzigste Lebensjahr abschliesse, will ich es noch einmal versuchen. Warum aber soll jetzt gelingen, was damals nicht...