I wanted to thank Sierra Mountain Center for a great trip up the Mountaineers Route of Mt. Whitney. It was everything I expected and then more. Our guide Andrew was superb in every aspect of his job. He was a complete professional and we felt we were well taken care of at all times. I look forward to climbing again with your company and with Andrew.
This week I was lucky enough to get to do our most popular trip in a two-day mega push with Luc Peltier. On our first day, climbing a little higher than usual, we made it to about 12,000 ft. At one of my favorite spots we set up camp: a set of rock ledges with snow melt for water and a great view of both the North Fork drainage and Mt. Whitney. During the day the weather was warm, and the snow felt soft under our feet. Expecting a change in weather that evening and for the next day we weren't surprised when the temperature started dropping with the sun. That night [...]
This has been one heck of a spring in the Sierra. One day is a perfect spring day; the next four are full on winter. The snow pack is still not melting and we have had to cancel trips because of the quantity of snow. But we have been lucky on Mount Whitney and managed to get to the summit on all of our trips including this one. We have worked with Katsuhiro Yamashita, a Japanese IFMGA guide, before and this year he brought a group of five women and one man to climb Whitney in a quick one week trip from Japan. All of the group was older with [...]
Eric was outstanding. I’d trust him with my life—and did. His knowledge/experience is wide, but doesn’t let his student feel this gap in knowledge and skill, which is considerable! I appreciated his patience, flexibility in tailoring the trip to our needs/desires, and his generosity in offering to drive up to Mammoth Lakes that last day in lieu of my exhaustion at Palisade Glacier, and my fellow traveler’s malfunctioning crampon/boot situation. SMC is lucky to have someone like him. I found out that I really like rock climbing, despite previous doubts about my ability to actually do it. I’d certainly like to do more. The last day at Crystal Crag, doing [...]
Overall how would you rate the trip with us. It was awesome. My first trip and I couldn't have hoped for more. Did the pre-trip information and the office adequately help you prepare for the trip? Yes. Especially considering the last minute circumstances I think the office did a terrific job of scrambling resources to make it as safe and convenient experience as possible. How would you assess your guide(s)? Chris was awesome. I felt the pace was well suited to the group and he was extremely knowledgable about all aspects of the trip, and mountaineering in general. He was friendly but necessarily firm when safety was a stake. Couldn't be happier [...]
Challenging but not overly so. Eric was terrific! The weather was fantastic, with lots of snow to practice on and the location is as good as it gets. Eric picked a great peak for day three - Petit Griffon. One of the most beautiful and not just a marathon summit or a fitness test - it required using the skills we had worked on.
I would rate our feb. attempt of mt. Whitney a 10 .I met all my primary goals for the trip even though we were not able to summit.I used the gear list you provided to guide me in my purchases and all my stuff worked well.You did a great job of supplying me with the info. needed to make the trip a success. Our guides,what can I say, Braden and Aaron were outstanding.Their knowledge and style of guiding made them both a pleasure to work with.I feel they made the right decision to turn back based on their experience and common sense.I learned a lot from them and it seemed [...]
just wanted to take the time to Thank You very much for having put the basic snow travel class together for us; although, the class was not commonly scheduled for Mondays. I will tell you that Tim Villanueva was a great instructor to have. He did not pull punches when it came to conveying the seriousness of snow travel risks. Tim was fun, yet, stern about getting us to learn the proper technique. The day went by fast and I was left eager to learn more. I am now more convinced than ever in that, had my wife and I continued to snow travel without the basic skills, we would [...]
20-22 MAY 2011 Headed up Whitney for the first, but not the last, time this season with three great clients: Heather Krauss, Regina Froemmiling and Aaron Howell. The forecast looked more like winter than a mid-May spring trip. I think that we all dressed a little too heavily for the warm sunny weather that was our actual Friday. Conditions were great; we hit soft snow on the slopes, clean rock on the ledges and had crystal clear skies. Up early on day two to beat the forecasted storm we silently forced down some food, strapped on our crampons and started hiking. Just below Iceberg Lake the morning alpine glow [...]
Seems like this year spring comes and goes, with a day of spring followed by a day of winter. But it is ski tour season so Sp and Chris set off with John Miller, His son Rob, Pascal Poignard, Chrixx Finne and Dan Silverberg on May 6th from Keasarge Pass. Our route took us over the Pass the first day and down towards Charlotte Lake where we camped the first night. The next day we ascended to Glenn Pass and then dropped to the Rae Lakes drainage. From here three passes (we called them small ridge crossings before we did them and passes afterwards) and into Gardiner Basin to a [...]
At this point in life one would think that I would take days off at a beach somewhere with drinks in tall glasses and little umbrellas in them. But no, have to go skiing. Friend Jen Giraud and I had talked for years about skiing Mt Ritter the prominent peak visible from Mammoth. A fantastic peak with the history of John Muir's first ascent and a ski from the very top. So we took snowmobiles ( have learned a few things) to Agnew Meadows, camped there and climbed and skied the next day. About 6000 vertical and about 17 miles. Snow was pretty good, but up high still wet winter [...]
A lot of people think that winter is the time to learn ice axe and crampon skills. Not so; when the snow is deep and soft ice axe and crampons will not add a lot of safety and security and it is better to be on skis. But now that we have hard snow, cold nights and good cramponing conditions spring is the time to pick up these skills. We did our first skills course up at Rock Creek Lake on Sunday April 30th and conditions were perfect. We covered, cramponing, ice axe work, step kicking, belaying, self arrest and talked about a host of other things - such as [...]
Charlotte Dome is one of the finest climbs in the Sierra backcountry. Every single pitch is excellent and the climbing challenging, but not too hard. if only it was not such along walk..... The approach is about 12 miles one way and makes for a long day. But the campsite is at one of the best springs in the Sierra with cold clear water bubbling from a hole between rocks. A wonderful place to hang out. Jay and Haimei had been here climbing for a week before with us and were tuned up. Ray is an "old school" climber with lots of experience so guides SP and Gonzalo knew that [...]
If you have been around skiing for a while you have seen photos of Glen Plake. The guy with the multicolored mohawk and who skis on 210cm skis with no sidecut - and looks better on them than the rest of us put together. SMC worked with Julbo (the sunglasses people) to put on a three day program with the Julbo contest winner judy Wu and folks from a bunch of media outlets - skiing, Powder, Backcountry, Backcountry.com etc. The idea was to have Glen show people his home turf in his indomitable style and sleep out under the stars for the full backcountry experience. We went in and camped [...]
My personal speed was quite slow - much slower than last time! What a difference two years and a new spine makes! BUT that being said, I did it - and Andrew was was wonderful. He stuck right by me in all the right spots and I never felt unsafe. He inspired absolute confidence. Thank you so much. This was really a little dream come true for me and I have you guys to thank. It was very very hard but worth the work and I'm so glad I decided to try again. You guys are great!
Hi Sierra Mountain Center, On behalf of my brother and I, I wanted to email you and tell you how amazing of a time we had climbing Whitney this past weekend! It was one of the most exciting things I have ever done, and I am so glad we had the opportunity to experience such an adventure! Both our guides (Chris and Gonzalo) we outstanding! They really knew what they were doing, I learned so much about climbing and the mountain itself, and I really trusted and felt safe climbing with them. Their leadership really made the trip so fun and do-able! I can't emphasize enough what an AMAZING, INCREDIBLE, [...]
Dave Meyers put together a custom trip with his sons Grant and Nick after climbing Whitney via the Trail Route a little earlier. The boys were tired after all of that exertion and after a day of rock climbing at Benton Crags Nick decided that his body and feet were sore so SP, SMC's 2010 intern Aaron, Dave and headed up Rock Creek Canyon to camp at Mills Lake. Summer really hit the Sierra over the last few days and temperatures were hot. We spent the afternoon of Day 2 working on snow skills above Mills Lake. Still lots of snow out there and the uppper lakes ares till frozen. [...]
One of the most classic multi-day ski tours in the country is the Sierra High Route. Stretching across one of the widest points of the range, the tour consistently stays above 10,000 feet and travels through some of the most impressive alpine terrain anywhere. Jeff, Michael, and SMC's new intern Aaron joined me for a trip that seemed daunting at first, but became absolutely sublime by the finish. SMC adds mileage, terrain, impressive scenery, and fewer people (we saw none this year for the whole tour) by starting in Onion Valley and crossing Kearsarge Pass. This is a higher start - indeed, we were able to skin almost [...]
The Monarch Divide is SMC's favorite ski tour. More difficult than the high route is takes one into little visited areas of Sequoia Kings National Park, has great down skiing and fantastic scenery. Over the last decade or so this has become our signature tour and we are the only guides to guide this trip. John Miller has long wanted to do this trip but we were thwarted two years ago and went back out via Taboose Pass from upper Basin. This year John recruited two co-workers,, Heather Hollister, Danielle Carlin with Serge Dubovitsky and Peter Caldwell rounding out the group. Also along as an assistant guide was Andrew Soleman. [...]
We have done lots of trips with Joe over the years and Dan was on the Mini Mountain Camp with Eric earlier in the year. Both guys were in great shape and knew what they were up for so guide SP PArker and apprentice Gonzalo Montenegro were happy to be able to move quickly and smoothly with them for three days. We hiked in over Bishop Pass on day one and made camp in the upper reaches of Palisade Basin at the small tarn we use for our Fourteeners trip . The goal of the trip was to traverse three peaks in one day so we were off before daylight [...]
Some trips with Sierra Mountain Center seem to have seasonal popularity: I remember doing trips into the west access of the Palisades 3-4 times a summer when I first started. A few years ago I did a huge number of summer ice climbing trips, hiking in and out of Mt. Thompson often enough that I quickly developed a preferred route from the Treasure Lakes basin. This year the emphasis seems to be on rock climbing. Jeff, Cory, and Doug decided to buck fashion and asked Andrew and I to join them on a trip to the Palisades, west-side style, from 9-13 August. Absolutely! The Palisades are most commonly climbed from the east. From Glacier [...]
Charlotte Dome is one of the finest climbs in the Sierra backcountry. Every single pitch is excellent and the climbing challenging, but not too hard. if only it was not such along walk..... The approach is about 12 miles one way and makes for a long day. But the campsite is at one of the best springs in the Sierra with cold clear water bubbling from a hole between rocks. A wonderful place to hang out. Jay and Haimei had been here climbing for a week before with us and were tuned up. Ray is an "old school" climber with lots of experience so guides SP and Gonzalo knew that [...]
20090803: Day 3 After yesterday's adventure on Walker Tower, we had a late breakfast at the Base Camp Cafe before taking a more mellow day - the North Arete on Crystal Crag. This is a classic II 5.6 route outside of Mammoth, featuring three pitches of steady 5.6 and another 600' or so of 4th class ridge scrambling. After the "II 5.6" of the previous day, this was a nice walk in the park for Jay and Haimei. crystal crag / the north arete follows the right-most corner for a pitch / pitch 2 follows ramps up and left / and the final fifth-class pitch climbs a chimney to [...]
This condition report uses direct observation from the Palisade Range to make some general predictions for the current conditions in the High Sierra. Don't use this as your sole source of information to trip plan! This photo shows the Palisade Range from Polemonium to Thunderbolt Peaks. Clearly in view are the V-Notch Couloir, U-Notch Couloir, Clyde Couloir, NE Couloir on Thunderbolt, North Face of Thunderbolt, and an un-named couloir to the right of the North Face. Photo taken late July, 2009. The alpine ice routes in the Sierra continue to be in the best shape I have seen them in 7 years. The L-shaped couloir on Mt. Sill is also still filled in [...]
