Last week I added a mountain to my Sierra to-do list. Looking west from the top of Donner Peak, Devils Peak caught my attention. This week I can report that this to-do is already completed. After searching the net about Devils Peak, I found out on Bob Burd's site and on summitpost.org, that climbing this mountain was...

Two days ago while hiking in this area I spotted Red Lake Peak on the other side of Carson Pass from the top of Round Top and it's inviting snow free south flank. At home I checked the map to find possibilities which could be combined with this peak. A logical choice would have been to traverse from Carson to Luther Pass bagging...

On their short visit in California Omega3 and partner stopped by at our house and "oh surprise", the next day we planned to go on a hike together. Unfortunately the Sierra Nevada got hit by the first winter storm of the season on the weekend before they arrived. However, judging from webcams and the word from a friend's relative...

During my hike to Hawkins - and Pickett Peak, I saw a very interesting looking mountain somewhat south of me. At home I checked out udeuschle and found out that my newly declared goal was Reynolds Peak. After checking Bob Burds pages, I knew it would be an interesting scramble, in particular the last part all the way to the top....

An altitude of 4000m is not really something which is important in a country where people measure the height of the mountains in feet. Who cares if a mountain is more or less than 13123.36 feet? According to this list California has 123 peaks with a prominence >300 feet, which are above 4000m, more than the Alps. And who wants...

My fitness has somewhat suffered since I moved to California (I sit in cars too often ;-). So for my first hiking day on this extended WE near Bishop, I put something not too strenuous on my want-to-climb list. It should also help to acclimatise to the altitude for the main course on the next day. Today I wanted to climb Hurd Peak...

When I stood on Round Top and looked down towards Caples Lake I saw this interesting little volcanic fellow. At home I looked up what it was and immediately put "Black Butte" on my wish list. It would perfectly do for a short little scramble when I didn't have a full day for hiking at my disposal. On the webpages of Bob Burd I...

Mount Whitney is one of the most popular mountains in the US, most likely due to the fact that it is the highest point in the contiguous US and it has some rather easy paths to it's summit. It is so popular that the government decided to regulate the access and only allow a certain number of people per day to climb it. This would...

Originally I wanted to climb the Black Buttes on my way back from Old Man Mountain, about a month ago. However, on that day I ran out of time and had to skip these interesting looking peaks. During the summer, a dirt road - which is not too bad, even for low clearance cars - takes you rather close to the summits of the Black...

Matterhorn Peak was one of the very first mountains which I put on my Sierra Nevada "to-do-list", even before I moved to California. A mountain with such a legendary name is a must for a Swiss and in addition the routes to its top seemed quite interesting. It seems like every mountain range on this planet has to have some peaks...

After I looked at Old Man Mountain on the US topo map, I was wondering why there was a "Tunnel" clearly indicated as such in its south flank at an altitude of approximately 6700 ft. After doing some research and asking a friend, all I found out was that it probably is connected to the former mining activity at the Carlisle Mine at...

On my tour to Thunder Mountain at the beginning of January, I peeked over to Thimble Peak and noted it as an interesting project in this area. After reading up on it on summitpost and Bob Burd's page, I knew that getting to it's highest point wouldn't be easy. After Thimble Peak I also planned to visit the Covered Wagon Peak...

On my hike to Pyramid Peak (my first Sierra hike after moving to California last October) I noticed an interesting looking mountain in direction southeast which looked like a volcanic peak. I asked the person who was on the summit of Pyramid Peak together with me what the name of that mountain was, but he could not tell me. After...

Mount Diablo, the "center peace" of Mount Diablo State Park is an isolated peak which is visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area and much of northern California. It's "only" 3557 feet high (1178m) but has a remarkable visual prominence. On a clear day one can see many of the Sierra peaks, a lot of the Central Valley and of...

When I drove to Carson Pass for this adventure, I knew I would be back soon again. Not only because I liked my snowshoe hike a lot then, but also because I saw many other potential and interesting goals in this area. The view of Thunder Mountain and in fact the whole ridge northeast of Silver Lake made such a good impression to me...

The Sierra Nevada hasn't gotten much snow so far this season. In fact it looks like this will be the driest year on record (all over California). Therefore the amount of snow in the Sierra is rather meager and after my last weeks test of the snow up there, I decided to not scratch my skis any further until some serious snowfall...

On my hike down from Freel Peak two weeks ago, I met two locals from the Tahoe region and asked them about back country skiing in this area. They recommended the west side of Lake Tahoe and its mountains there. After some research I found Rubicon Peak to be a good starting point for my Sierra Nevada ski adventures. It's not too...

Viele von Euch haben es bemerkt… ich war 1 1/2 Monate lang alpinistisch untätig. Dies hat einen tieferen Grund, denn mein Lebensmittelpunkt hat sich seit meiner letzten Tour geographisch um fast 10'000km gegen Westen und knapp 1'000km gegen Süden verschoben. Die CH-Alpen sind nun nicht mehr mein Haupt-Gipfel-Jagdgebiet,...