I just wanted to thank you both for making our climb up Mt. Whitney an absolutely fantastic experience. You guys were terrific and the trip couldn’t have gone any better. I have been talking about it nonstop since getting back and have recommended it and you guys to several friends at home and at work.
Joe and I are just a couple days removed from an awesome trip up the East Face of Mount Whitney. Aaron was our guide and did a fantastic job from start to finish and made the experience really fun. We would use SMC again in a heartbeat and recommend your service to anybody looking to do a trip. Thanks again,
We just returned home from our trip to Whitney via Cottonwood and I wanted to express my sincere thank you for putting together such a fantastic trip. Honestly, it will be one to remember forever. Above all, Marie and Luke were outstanding. Their expertise, encouraging words, ability to pace us and sure friendship was the ticket for success!! They both did a wonderful job supporting my 14 year old son through the peaks, teaching him about the backcountry and making the entire trip fun. We are putting together pictures and will be sure to add SMC to the email. Still flying, Rhonda
The White Mountains of California are truly fantastic. This unique range became wilderness only two years ago. It is high alpine desert and this year was marked by a profusion of flowers with fragrant phlox scenting the air. This year we had only one client, Robyn from Monaco (she hiked the JMT with us last year) but three guides, SP, Luke and Ryan.We start slowly up Cottonwood Creek. This is totally unexpected oasis of trees and meadows at above 10,000 feet on the crest of the range. We camped here one night and then stopped to visit friend Dori at Barcroft Station where she cooks (she even came over in [...]
Connie, Andrew, and SP, I'm just now back in touch with e-mail, so it's the first opportunity to say thanks for the Bear Creek Spire trip and for the flexibility in rescheduling. It was perfect. Andrew is an excellent guide; I can't imagine better. I've done four trips with SMC, all of them A+.
Hi Connie, Just wanted to say thanks for everything. The climbs were great and so was the service. You handled the scheduling (and changes) quickly, kindly and professionally. Aaron was also great -- he is a very skilled guide and also very professional with people and logistics. Thanks again for a great experience.
I'd like to thanks you for my successful summit. Nate did a great job of guiding; he's definitely a professional and I highly recommend him for anyone looking to attempt this route. As a former employer I know how hard it is to find good help. My compliments to you!. I found the climb quite challenging. There was a little bit of everything; stream crossings, crampon use and rock climbing. Getting to the summit was as much fun as actually arriving there. I'll be climbing with you again sometime.
Just got back from CA on Sunday and I wanted to drop you a quick note to let you and everyone at SMC know what a great trip we all had (Mt. Whitney - Mountaineer's Route - June 17-19). For me and my boys it was a first rate experience that we will never forget. I can't say enough about Nate and Aaron and the job that they did guiding us, and the others on our journey. Those guys are true professionals. From my perspective, there's no greater compliment. Sunday night, in Mammoth Lakes, the whole family went out for pizza and it was fantastic listening to Teddy, Aaron, and [...]
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, [...]
