Bucket-list adventure achieved: Climbing five fourteeners in a day Perched on a narrow ledge, I lean out from the rocky mountain face to scan the terrain above me. I can see a scrappy corner that’s climbable, but the rock looks sketchy, too loose to risk messing...
Mt. Whitney tests the mettle of a rag-tag group of hikers with weather, elevation and steep granite The darkening clouds clustered above us on the shoulders of Mt. Whitney were starting to look angry. It was a bad portent for our eclectic band of eight adventurers. For...
Nakoma Resort is much more than golf and Frank Lloyd Wright The two-year-old, 42-room Lodge at Nakoma was the first such amenity built in the Lost Sierra in more than a decade Forget the Frank Lloyd Wright clubhouse for a minute and the master’s architectural imprint. Put...
Record 2016–17 winter opens the door to a backcountry snowboarding adventure in the Southern Sierra Hideous knocks and squeals reverberate through the truck cab with every rotation of the tires. The veteran shocks and struts on our trusty Tacoma absorb heavy blows in a vicious off-road...
Scratching a summer itch to shred at Nevada’s Sand Mountain Recreation Area It’s mid-August, there’s not a snowflake in sight, but once again, we’re strapping in. Wishful thinking about snowboarding just isn’t enough for freaks like us. Driving east from Fallon on lonely U.S. Highway 50, you...
Like the precious metal that once lured eager prospectors, the Lost Sierra contains miles of prime singletrack waiting to be discovered We were huddled around the steering wheel, laughing at ourselves. Our idea for a pre-dawn start disappeared about seven hours prior. We thought we could...
Danger and intrigue abound on Yosemite canyoneering adventure Like a moth to a flame, the curse only made us more curious. What could really be that sketchy down there? There was only one way to find out. The sun was just cracking the horizon on a...
Backcountry adventure in Great Basin National Park reveals pristine powder, ancient trees and desolation “Maybe these are woolly mammoth tracks!” I yell with a laugh. My wife Allison and I are backcountry snowboarding in Great Basin National Park on the far east side of central Nevada. We’ve...
Everything about Mammoth Mountain is big—and only three hours from Tahoe Mammoth. The word conjures forth and sums up so very well all that is the sprawling 3,500-acre ski resort perched on a lava dome complex in Inyo National Forest, which tops out at 11,053 feet,...
Lassen Volcanic National Park celebrates its 100th birthday this year—but the area has been a geologic treasure for millennia One hundred fifty miles north of Lake Tahoe lies a scenic alpine landscape that is being tortured from below. Pools of scalding mud gurgle and churn in...