Another saturday, another early morning drive to Tahoe. This time it was an even longer drive to Nevada, to get some beginner backcountry skiing experience on Tamarack Peak. Thanks to Marusa for guiding us on this half-day tour, it was a lot of fun! Snow conditions were good and the way up was well tracked. I managed to fall a couple of times on the icy parts of the skin-track, until I learned to trust my heels and keep looking up. Read more...

In the never ending attention grab for weekdays, sometimes adventure wins. This time the adventure was the Cross Couloir on Mt. Tallac. So it was that I woke up at 2:30am on Wednesday, instead of a leisurely 6:30 and drove to Folsom to meet the rest of the team. Mt. Tallac is an imposing mountain in the Desolation Wilderness, west of Lake Tahoe. A local favourite for skiing and climbing, it is one of the harder ones with about 3400ft of altitude gain. Read more...

February was a pretty relaxing month. It also hadn’t snowed in ages, so skiing wasn’t that high a priority. I had a friend visiting, and an upcoming trip to India, so I couldn’t do anything too technical. I did still manage to get out a bit, but nothing that needs a full trip report. Recent rains have made the Bay Area hills a treat, so we went for a quick Saturday morning hike from Stinson Beach to Pantoll Ranger station. Read more...