Hey there Sierra Alpine Climbers….I just wanted to do a quick update on some of the conditions that have been encountered so far this season. This has been an unusual season for climbing in the High Sierra. We didn’t have a very large snowpack this past winter but cooler temps in May and June gave us some great early season snow travel conditions. Entering into August the biggest factors that affected travel in the high alpine was almost a full …
Alpine Conditions Report – October 8th, 2017
Hello mountain aficionados, It’s time for a autumn alpine conditions update! What a record hot summer it was! Then, a very odd September weather pattern that caused devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean and gulf of Mexico gave us above normal heat in early September complete with monsoon thunderstorms at all times of day. In the later part of the month, we saw temps drop well below average with a significant snowstorm in the high country that left the high mountains …
Alpine Conditions Report – August 2017
Howdy all, Why have we waited this long this summer to publish this report? Because we have been busy connecting people to the mountains, of course! The backcountry ski/snowboard season was extended, and summer alpine climbing has been off the hook. Finally taking a breather to catch you up on how things are doing out there, if you haven’t been out there doing your own reconnaissance. The record wet winter/spring of 2017 has changed the tenor of this report from …
Alpine Conditions Report – August 6th, 2016
Hi mountain folk, We are in the full steamy heat of the summer season. Climate change is real and we have seen multiple days in the past month with high temperatures in Bishop above 105 degrees. Some days in the mountains have felt too hot and lately I have not had any need to zip myself completely into a 40 degree sleeping bag, even at elevations up to 12k’. It’s been a good summer though. More snow around in early season …
Alpine Conditions Report – November 22, 2015
Hi everyone, hope you have enjoyed the fall. The Eastside air is getting crisp and the sun has that low angle glow all day here where the desert meets the mountains. We have had a pretty good start to the super-hyped El Niño 2015-16 snow season. Mammoth Mountain’s study plot at 9000′ has recorded 47.5″ of snowfall since October 16. With some cold, easily transportable snow on the ground, a few big wind events and some unseasonably warm spells in …
Alpine Conditions Report – July 8, 2015
Hi Sierra Nevada aficionados and enthusiasts, Quick update to our last report on July 1, as things in the high country are changing quite rapidly. As we have been reporting, the Sierra remains in a steady stream of daily thunderstorm activity from monsoonal air flow and warm, moist air rising that condenses clouds, resulting in precipitation and electrical activity. Precipitation has been in the form of intense short or, in some cases, up to a couple sustained hours of rain …
Alpine Conditions Report – July 1, 2015
Howdy mountaineers and high country enthusiasts, Hope you are all enjoying summer at this point. We are! After the driest winter on record, the High Sierra experienced one of the wettest calendar months ever. The town of Bishop hit May records for amount of rainfall and consecutive days with precipitation. In June, mountain weather has remained somewhat unusual with daily high temperatures spanning more than 30 degrees F in many locations. In Bishop, 17 days have hit highs in the …
Alpine Conditions Report – June 6, 2015
Howdy Mountain People! Happy almost summer, as it may be. Certainly isn’t acting like summer. But 2015 is a year for weather extremes. After the biggest drought year ever recorded in the Sierra Nevada, somehow May was the wettest ever recorded in Bishop. The forecast is for more of the same lingering low pressure, with another 1+” of H2O projected over the next week with thunderstorms. The high country is currently in alpine form. Snow in couloirs ranges from styrofoam neve …
Alpine Conditions Report – May 8, 2015
Crazy year. After the biggest drought on record in California, we enter late spring with a series of storms, the last two of which are the biggest of the year to date. This weather is wackbards! It’s supposed to be high and dry in the summer/fall and stormy in the winter/spring. That’s what all of us high mountain lovers have come to expect and appreciate. The situation is out of sync, like a mountain guide trying to dance to 90’s …
Alpine Conditions Report – April 18, 2015
Hi everyone, Welcome to the High Sierra Alpine Conditions Report! This is the first one of 2015, transitioning early from the Backcountry Snow Report for skiers and snowboarders which we will not be updating further this season, courtesy of “the big dry” (the biggest drought on record in California). The drought is a bane for almost everyone, and we should all be a lot more concerned than we seem to be, but it does represent a boon for alpine …
Alpine Conditions Report – November 2, 2014
Split Mountain and the Big Pine skyline emerge from the clouds on November 1, 2014 Well mountain lovers, another summer has gone down in the books and autumn is in full gear. The High Sierra has just received its first fall storm, late enough where the short days, cool temps, and low sun angles will cause it to stick in high and shady places. For most people this marks the end of the high elevation hiking for the year, …
Featured Alpine Route: The Southeast Ridge of Mount Russell
The Southeast Ridge of Mount Russell (III, 5.9) is a classic alpine gem of a route that gets relatively little traffic or mention by guidebook authors. There are 7 different guidebooks for climbing on Mount Russell in my library and the route is listed in 3 of them. There are surprisingly very few details about this route that I could discover in these books, or from internet searches, so I figure this might be useful for someone. A conversation …
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