Choose Your Adventure
Sierra Mountain Center
California’s premier mountaineering school and guide service.
Located in Bishop, California SMC offers rock climbing, summer mountaineering, waterfall ice climbing, backcountry skiing, emergency training, summer and winter instruction and custom guiding in the Eastern Sierra of California.
SPRING IS HERE
We are past the equinox now and the days are warming. Mountain bluebirds are back with flashes of blue across the meadows. And best of all we are heading towards spring corn season. As skiers this is the snow that comes close to powder. Ego snow – you get to ski things steeper than you thought you could.
NEWS FLASH. Tioga Road just opened to the Yosemite Park boundary. Now we can access Mt Dana, White Mountain, Mt Conness, the Saddlebag Lake area and whatever else might appeal. Get it now because with our limited snow this will be a short corn season so call the SMC office now before it is gone.
Summer is coming so after the long winter of Covid get out and recharge your soul and experience the Sierra Nevada.
Sierra Spring Skiing
Winter is leaving and it is the time of year we start to think about spring skiing on Sierra corn snow. Warm days, cool, calm nights and easy-to-ski “ego” corn snow makes this our favorite time of the year.
We are tracking the plowing and opening of the roads such as Rock Creek and Tioga, which once open, will give us easy access to the best the Sierra has to offer.
Overnight tours, or long day trips – we have it all. Don’t wait since this might be a short spring season before summer arrives.
Early Season Mt Whitney Climbs
The Southern Sierra got very little snow this winter and while this is bad news for skiing it is good news for Mt Whitney ascents.
Snow covers up the talus of the Mountaineers route and makes for an easier ascent and descent without the loose rock and the spring is our favorite time to climb the peak. It is also outside of the July 4th to Labor weekend which means that we ar eless limited by our quota numbers and we can accommodate more requests for programs.
If you don’t have the snow and crampons skills needed get them first with a one day Snowskills Course.
If Whitney is on your list then this is the ideal time to climb. Call us and set up a program.
Sierra Mountain Center & Covid-19
We reopened on 5/27/20, taking procedures seriously doing it correctly to protecting our staff and you as well. This has involved a lot of discussion and interaction with other professionals to feel our way down the best path.
Please read more about our precautionary measures and know that we are doing our best to protect our clients, staff, and community.
There are other guide services offering trips in the Sierra Nevada.
So why do we believe that you will get the most out of letting us be your guides?
We are knowledgeable and local
We are the oldest, most established local guide service. The Eastern Sierra has been our home for over 40 years. These are the mountains where we love to climb, hike and ski. There are no working guides who know the Sierra as well as we do, from the popular paths of the Sierra, but also the little-known places where we have been exploring new routes, tours and remote summits. We know the best routes and the small details that make for a successful trip. When you call us and ask what conditions are, we simply look out our office window and give you up to date information.
We literally help write the books on climbing. “High Sierra Climbing” by Chris McNamara, of Supertopo – “Eastern Sierra Ice” – self-published by us and the “Climbers Guide to the Bishop Area” by Maximus Press.
We are qualified
We believe in the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) programs and the level of quality assurance that they give you in choosing a guide. Our climbing and mountaineering guides are trained and certified by the AMGA. Certified guides have demonstrated before his or her peers high levels of competence and judgment as well as fulfilling technical requirements such as emergency medical certification, rescue training, and snow stability forecasting. Guides certified in rock, alpine and ski gain the international (IFMGA) credential. This IFMGA credential gives us the ability to provide guides to work in other IFMGA member countries such as those of Europe.
Our groups are small with low guide to participant ratios
Large groups can detract from the learning process and the wilderness experience. We work to keep ratios as small as practical, and our small groups give you more of what you came for: skiing, climbing and exploring the Sierra.
Our Programs are All Inclusive
Scheduled trip prices are all-inclusive (except for any rental equipment). Overnight backcountry programs include permit fees; group equipment such as kitchen, group technical gear, first aid supplies and avalanche beacons and good backcountry breakfast, lunch and dinners.
We are an AMGA Accredited Business.
AMG Accreditation is a process that reviews operational guidelines, staffing, permits, and insurance helping to insure professionalism by self-evaluation. It is a means of quality assurance and external review that examines such important business practices, compliance with state, federal and local regulations, staff training and professional development, resource stewardship, and adherence to current industry standards. This credential represents a commitment to excellence through exemplary operating standards and an adherence to the highest ethical standards. We are proud to share this credential with some of the nation’s most recognized and respected guide services, climbing schools, and educational institutions.
SMC supports LNT and abides by LNT principles on our programs.
Leave No Trace is best understood as educational and ethical guidelines, not as a set of rules and regulations.