After an extraordinary long winter with more than average amounts of snow, the Sierra Nevada really lived up to it's name: there was and still is a lot of "Nevada" up in the Sierras and it'll take quite some time to melt it all. One ski resorts for example decided to stay open until August! (click). I was in the Donner Pass...

The previous week my wife and I spent some time at Loon Lake, a wonderful place in the boonies on the north side of the lake. I did a little stroll then and saw a peak at the east end of the lake which looked interesting and decided to try to climb it during this weeks outing. After looking at a map at home, I found out that this...

Mount Tallac is one of the classic and popular hikes in the Tahoe area. It is well known for the spectacular view of Fallen Leaf Lake, Lake Tahoe, two small Alpine Lakes and the Desolation Wilderness. The standard route from the trailhead is about a 10 mile round trip with an elevation gain of about 3300 ft. Don't expect to be...

A friend was visiting from the mountain-less part of this country and expressed the wish to accompany me on one of my Sierra Nevada hikes. Whenever someone asks me if they can come hiking with me I say yes, but hardly ever does it happen that someone actually comes along. My choice for this hike was Ralston Peak from Camp...

There are only a few peaks left around Lake Tahoe which I haven't stood on top yet. Monument - and East Peak are two of them. The main reason why I haven't been there was the fact that they are within a ski resort: Heavenly. Since there are several gondolas which take you almost to the top of these peaks, I wasn't too keen on...

This hike is more or less a repeat of Freel Peak and Jobs Sister with a slightly different way back down to the Horse Meadow. I start my hike shortly after 8 AM and walk along the well maintained trail to Armstrong Pass, there I take a right and follow the Tahoe Rim Trail to the saddle northwest of Freel Peak and then up to El...

A friend recently told me about Frog Lake near Castle Peak and how beautiful it is. After doing some www-research about the lake, I found out that it (and it's surroundings) is still privately owned by a family, but will be purchased by Truckee Donner Land Trust and made publicly available in 2020. To get a glimpse of this gem, I...

The general setup was more or less the same as last week, not too much time for an extended hike so something with little ramp-up time was needed. Since I also didn't have time to prepare any new hikes I just decided to go back to Pyramid Peak once again. In order to make sure I would reach my goal on this day, I didn't only start...

Today I had some commitments in the evening and had to be back early. Therefore, I chose a hike with a relatively short drive. I also wanted to check out my original plan from here, the south-southeast ridge to Pyramid Peak. Turns out my plans were a little too ambitious to reach Pyramid Peak in time, but I made it to P.8844 and...

Since I'm still employed in Switzerland, I get the Swiss Holidays off at work even though I live in California. This has advantages and disadvantages. One of advantages is that on those Swiss Holidays almost nobody has the day off in the US and therefore, it's hardly ever crowded, neither on the roads nor in the mountains. If you...

As you might have noticed by now, Round Top is one of my favorite goals in winter and summer. So far my starting point for this tour has always been Carson Pass. For back-country ski tours, the section from Carson Pass to Winnemucca Lake is somewhat sub-optimal. The main reason is that this part is rather flat with only little...

Same setup as last week with the difference that I wanted to ski a little more. Almost the same start, just "the other" pull-out on Highway 431 at Incline Lake. My goal today was Relay Peak via the west ridge, ski down to Ginny Lake, skin up to Incline Peak and then back to the car via the same route as last week to Incline Lake....

After a very slow start to the winter 2017/18 with very little precipitation, the Sierra Nevada received a lot of snow in the last weeks to reach an almost average snow-pack by now. This finally gave me the chance to open the ski tour season. This tour had to be short and sweet for many reasons and was also meant to find out what...

California's weather is currently influenced by a so-called "blocking high" off the Atlantic coast which brought us nice warm and sunny T-Shirt days down in the valley for almost all of December so far (and it doesn't look like it will change any time soon). Unfortunately this prevents the winter storms from rolling in and the...

After my failed attempt to climb Tells Peak last week I did my home work, studied what went wrong and why I didn't find the Highland Trail. After checking the different topo maps on caltopo.com, I realized that the US-Topo Map which I had with my (and was on my GPS) was outdated and contained an old version of the Highland Trail....

Recently I discovered that the 4 peaks of the extended Crystal Range north of Rockbound Pass (Red -, Silver -, McConnel - and Tells Peak) have a relatively short access from west. The so-called "Ice House Road" from Kyburz to Loon Lake is a regular asphalt road and supposedly plowed all winter long too. The minor single lane...

Quick trip to the Sierra to check out the snow situation at Round Top. I should have brought my skis along, because there was more than plenty of the white stuff. Walked from Carson Pass to Winnemucca Lake to the saddle between The Sisters and Round Top and then via west ridge (snow free) to the top. Back the same way. (For...

After last weeks outing to Flagstaff Hill, I actually didn't think I would go back to this mountain (ever) again, because there wasn't really much which was extremely attractive for a mountaineer like me. However, I kind of had to, because I lost something precious up there (most likely during the bushwhacking up to the summit)....

Fall has arrived in California and with it the first winter storms. My plans for the Sierra Nevada were cancelled the night before due to extensive snowfall in the Tahoe area. As an alternative I planned to visit Flagstaff Hill, a mountain on Folsom Lake which should give me a rather good view of the Lake and the surrounding area....

Anderson Peak is one of the few mountain tops in the Tahoe area which haven't received a visit from me yet, even though I tried twice already. The first time, I failed due the icy steep north face and not carrying crampons with me and the second time I ran out of time due to an unplanned detour. This time I was rather sure I would...