Toulumne Meadows is the second climbing gem in the Yosemite National Park. As soon as it gets too hot to climb down in the celebrated Valley, Tuolumne offers cooler spots due to its elevation around 9000 ft (~3000m). The only hard thing about it may be the pronunciation of "Tuolumne", all the rest is pretty easy going: The Tioga...

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 Alpin_Rise arrived in California, we (obviously) started talking about potential goals for a hike. His 3 wishes for this weeks Wednesday outing were: 1. to get some scrambling in, 2. not too much of an altitude difference and 3. if possible some snow for sliding down the mountain. Still being a California novice myself, the...

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...

Last weekend the Sierra Nevada got about 8 inches of fresh snow and even though the past winter had only way below average snow, I fancied doing another ski tour before the snow definitely melts. As my goals I chose a few peaks in the vicinity of the Squaw Valley Ski Resort (which is closed for the season). The fact that the...

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...

Hidden Falls Regional Park is a popular local recreation area. It offers 30 miles of natural surface trails suitable for hiking, running, biking and horseback riding. I explored about a third of the trails on this rainy day in Northern California and saw lots of beautiful flowers and wildlife. The Park Map at the parking lot shows...

Mount Tallac is a favorite destination for Tahoe’s backcountry ski crowd and it's also popular with boarders. According to some sources it's actually rated one of the "top 10" backcountry skiing destinations in the US. My plan to get to the top via N-Ridge (which used to be the standard) and ski down the NE bowl had to be...

My original plan for this day was to do a ski or snowshoe tour up to Mount Rose. This mountain is very close to the California - Nevada border and relatively easy to get to from the Mount Rose Summit, the pass on Highway 431 between Reno and Tahoe. The goal was to first climb Tamarack Peak and via it's northern hour-glass-bowl get...

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 left the house in the morning my plan was to do a ski tour to Ralston Peak. However, on site the avalanche conditions on the Northern slopes of Ralston Peak seemed unsafe. Therefore, I decided to visit Echo Peak instead. The danger for avalanches was predicted to be "Moderate", but after I saw a small avalanche, it didn't...

Squaw Valley was the host site of the Winter Olympics in 1960 (click). Today it's one of the largest ski resorts in the USA. If you're willing to pay a whopping 114$ for a day pass you can enjoy about 3600 acres of ski areas. If you're not really into those things like me, there is also the possibility to climb mountains in the...

Folsom damn was built in 1955. The resulting lake was part of the "Folsom Project" for flood control, hydroelectricity, drinking water and water for irrigation. Most of what was "drowned" in 1955, has been submerged since then. Due to the present extreme drought in California, Folsom Lake is at a historically low level - about 100...

My plan on this day was to climb Sawmill Ridge and Robinson Peak, they are both north of Twin Lakes (Mono County). I chose these peaks due to the fact, that they have steep south facing flanks, where the little snow which the Sierra got this season should have melted away again in order to allow the ascent without any 'snow-toys'....

As Delta showed not too long ago the Mono Lake Basin is definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in California. It was on my to-do list even before I moved here. As a "local" it is now "just around the corner" (for US standards only!). On this weekend I combined the trip to Mono Lake with a hike to the nearby Robinson Peak and...

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...

A good hikr-buddy of mine gave me a hiking book as a farewell present before I left Switzerland. The book was written by no one less then Daniel Anker himself and is called "Wanderungen in Kaliforniern". It covers 54 hikes (ranging from very easy to serious expeditions) all over the state of California. It has been out of print...