If you look at the numbers, skiing in the Sierra Nevada seems like a challenging undertaking. The April 1 snow totals are out, and by all measurements, we are at 35% of average statewide, although local drainages like the Mono basin is closer to 50%...
Ah, the winter of feast or famine. What started off so promising, with a record breaking December snowpack, quickly turned to a mid winter where the headlines were major wind events and little snow. During January and February, we were able to ferret out snow that...
SMG Guest Dmitry at Chouinards Wall in full conditions! (March 19th) Well the 2021/2022 ice season is a wrap for Sierra Mountain Guides and I’m happy to say that it was another successful one! This season we provided 72 different guests ice climbing instruction on a...
“Keep the cool temps coming!” It’s been a busy winter out on the ice this season in the sierra and it’s not slowing down. Good thing the conditions are absolutely fantastic! This past week was maybe our busiest one yet with three of our guides out...
“What Happened to Climbing Etiquette?” I spent the last five days out ice climbing in Lee Vining Canyon with a series of different groups and a total of seven different guests and let me tell you, the conditions have been spectacular! The cold snap that hit...
“Still Solid in LVC” I spent the last few days up in Lee Vining Canyon and enjoyed some surprisingly great conditions for ice climbing. With the warm temperatures down in the valleys it was hard to imagine the ice not falling down the mountain, but LVC...
“Let’s keep our fingers crossed!” Pitch 2 of North Gully with SMG guest Caitlyn Bidwell on Feb 5th The ice in February is off to a great start here in the Eastern Sierra and this past weekend was just delightful with cool, sunny, bluebird days with pretty...
“Getting into the Swing of Things” While we have been having some unseasonably warm weather lately here in the Eastern Sierra, without a single drop of precipitation in the month of January, the ice seems to be coming into its own. While the overall conditions are...
Lee Vining: Just had another really good weekend of ice climbing in Lee Vining Canyon with four stoked new ice climbers. This might have been the busiest weekend that I’ve ever seen out in LVC in the past several years”. The parking lot was completely full...
I just finished up a couple days of guiding out in Lee Vining Canyon this past weekend (Friday and Sunday) and was pleasantly surprised with the conditions we had! The approach is fully packed in and no longer requires snow shoes. Be careful on the...
One week later and our ice climbing venue in Lee Vining Canyon is starting to come alive, but it still has a decent way to go. “To be or not to be?” That is the question! Ice climbing and California, two words that not many people...
Main Wall Well it’s been a slow start to the winter out here in the Sierra but that’s changing as we speak. We’ve got a storm hitting that is expected to drop about 5 feet of new snow by the end Tuesday with another smaller storm...
