Estland ist nicht in erster Linie für seine Berge bekannt, denn das Land ist ähnlich flach wie zum Beispiel Holland. Der Landeshöhepunkt Suur Munamägi ist gerade mal 318m üM und deutet darauf hin, dass dieses Land nicht mit allzu vielen interessanten alpinistischen Leckerbissen auftrumpfen kann. Neben dem Touristenmagnet...

Dicks and Jacks Peak have caught my attention on many of my hikes in the Tahoe area already. These two mountains are both quite high (almost 10K ft) and stick out. You see them from many other peaks in the area. However, a day hike to these two peaks is about 14 miles long with an altitude gain of more than 4000 ft, no matter from...

Ehrlich gesagt hatte ich vom heutigen Tag nicht allzu viel erwartet, sowohl was das Wetter anbetrifft, wie auch die geplante Route an und für sich. Um so mehr habe ich mich gefreut, dass sich die Tour in jeder Hinsicht als voller Erfolg entwickelte. Zum Wetter muss ich wohl nichts sagen, denn andere leiden sicherlich...

Wie in meinem letzten Bericht beschrieben, habe ich irgendwo zwischen Glaubenbielen und Chringe mein Portemonnaie verloren. Auch beschrieben habe ich die Schönheit dieser Gratwanderung. Zwei gute Gründe nochmals dorthin zurückzukehren. Meine Hoffnung, dass ich mein Portemonnaie wirklich finden würde war nicht allzu gross,...

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...

There are at least 9 different mountains called Madone in the Ticino, why it is such a popular name or what it actually means I don’t know. So far I’ve only been on one of the many Madones, the one above Locarno belonging to the Gruppo Poncione Piancascia. The one I visited on this day is between the Valle Onsernone and the...

In Northern California we had an unusually long lasting period of very hot weather for more than a week now. The high temperatures were up to 110°F (43°C)! Luckily where we live, we have two options to flee the heat, we either go to the Pacific Coast where temperatures are always cool even during the hottest days in the summer,...

Even though almost all of the ski resorts in the Sierra Nevada are closed for the season by now, a lot of places still have more than enough snow left for skiing. I usually avoid ski resort not only because the day passes in the ski resorts around Lake Tahoe are outrageously expensive (typically > 100$), but also because I...

I actually wanted to do another ski tour on this day, but the weather forecast predicted snow fall for the Sierra Nevada over night and cloudy skies until noon. Therefore, I decided to do something in a coastal mountain range instead, where the weather was supposed to be very sunny. I didn't have much time to prepare a hike and...

The precipitation of the storm on the days before this tour shattered the all-time high of the wettest water year on record in the Northern Sierra Nevada. The new record is now at 89.7 inches of water (2.24 m)... and growing & the current snow pack is about twice of the historic average! For my tour toady, I actually had...

By now you've probably heard or read that California's Sierra Nevada got a lot of snow this winter. The Squaw Valley ski resort officials already decided that their ski lifts will stay open until the Fourth of July weekend. No wonder, because their cumulative total snow fall this season currently is at 623 inches (15.8 meters)!...

During my stay in Switzerland, I couldn't resist to pay a visit to my beloved Churfisten - actually the mountains which are not considered Churfirsten: everything west of the 'Selun'. Omega3 was willing to accompany me on this tour which we originally planned as a repeat of this one. Due to uncertain weather conditions we...

What's special about 10935 feet? Nothing really, except if you convert it to meters, you end up with the "pretty number" 3333. Well that's the height of Highland Peak, my goal for the day. This peak also has a pretty high prominence of 2456 ft, so the view up there is expected to be quite impressive. One more time, the...

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...

My main goal for the day was Needle Peak. Well, I saw Needle Peak today, but didn't even get close to it. The reason for not reaching my goal on this day was a mix of unexpected rain and disappointment/frustration about a prime example of how nature can be destroyed by the installation of ski lifts. The name of the mountain I...

Der Anstoss für diese Tour stammt von Omega3, welcher mir anlässlich meines "go west/Wallis" Projektes eine Liste von lohnenswerten VS-Gipfel zukommen liess. Ein Vorschlag war: "Gemsspitz - Die Matterhorn-Nordwand als ständigen Begleiter - wunderbar". Wenn Omega3 wunderbar sagt, muss was dran sein! Als ich mir den Gemsspitz auf...

After my last weeks outing in the Carson Pass area, I was hoping for a little more snow on the north facing slopes in the Tahoe region, maybe even enough for a ski tour. However, due to the absence of the white stuff up to almost 8000 ft, I had to leave the skis in the car and took my snowshoes along instead. For my goal today I...

After a long abstinence from the mountains (for several reasons), I finally was able to get back to the beloved mountains. The California Sierras haven't gotten a lot of snow yet this winter, but with a big storm passing by last week I was hoping for enough of the white stuff to take my snowshoes out before it's summer again here....

Originally Vauacht and I had planned to pay a visit to Mount Lyell and Mount Mclure on this weekend. However, several constraints were not fulfilled (in particular the fact that an overnight stay of any kind at the Tuolumne Meadows is not really feasible any more after October 15) and therefore these plans had to be put to its...

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...