We got shut out trying to ski into the Benson Hut this weekend by a massive Pacific front that dropped precipitation across the West Coast. When the high winds finally eased we set out in steady snow, low visibility and about 5 hours of day light. And I was really looking forward to it.
It [...]

Next weekend a group of us are hiking in to the Sierra Club’s Benson Hut, a sturdy mountain cabin at 8,350 feet about 6 miles south of Donner Pass. It’s a 4 mile hike from the the Mt Judah lift at Sugarbowl and offer access to what we hope will be some big fields of [...]

Where’s in the world is Bode Miller? Actually he’s in Lauberhorn, Switzerland where he wonh his fourth World Cup race of the year. He won the 2.8 mile-long storied downhill slide/crashing across the finish line 0.65 seconds faster that local Swiss favorite Didier Cuche.
“Miller took an aggressive line through the quirky and perilous obstacles of [...]

Schralp is a weekly internet video program dedicated to tearing it up on and off slope.
I love it because it’s skier/snowboarder-positive no matter what your level and they have a great global mindset.
Now I love them more because they made a mobile site to easily watch the latest episodes on your handheld.
Shralp and go!
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Snow riders, check it. Shralp is a superdope German vlog dedicated to snowboarding and skiing. They’ve got a worldwide perspective and a confident yet modest take on all things snow.
Watch their intro trailer or a recent episode. Each one’s different. Beginner, backcountry, soulriding, big air, womens, european, north america, movie clips, new product makers, you [...]

Surprising fact. For a year I was the weather writer for SFist, a great San Francisco blog-news-zine. Since I wrote every other week I found I could never wrtie about exact weather events, but rather the trends.
After an 8 month break, I submitted another tautological-styled weather entry, this one about the state of our [...]

Four amateur spelunkers recently discovered a large cave in Sequoia National Park, CA. Though cave finds are not uncommon in the Sierras, at over 1,000 feet long, this one is so big they named it Ursa Minor and have promised to never specify where it is. These photos will have to do.

Photos taken by Dave [...]

Molly and I hiked into Kings Canyon a couple weekends ago and it was quite sublime. Kings Canyon/Giant Sequoia National Park is about 1.5 hours east of Fresno and pretty much far from everywhere save Visalia. With far fewer roads and neither the biggest of the giant sequoias or Californian peaks, Kings Canyon is far [...]

 
Two good friends Patrick and Cody climbed up and skiied down Mt. Rainer last weekend. They asked me to go about 100x times, but the vision of roping up, shifting crevasses and melting snowbridges made me decide otherwise.
Cody did an excellent job photo documenting, annotating and story telling … so good in fact [...]

Death Valley is assuredly a place that is impossible to imagine without having experienced in your own skin. An early settler is quoted as describing it as “20 miles from water, 30 miles from wood, 40 feet from Hell.” Even with today’s 1,000 spot RV campground, gas stations and radiator water spiggots, one does not [...]