Category: Snow Sports

An original, firsthand account of the remarkable first ski crossing of Tioga Pass

Editorโ€™s Note: This account, previously never published, was written by Dennis Jones in the late 1950s, and is provided courtesy of Starr Walton Hurley, niece of Dennis Jones, and Norm Sayler, president of the Donner Summit Historical Society. The story below contains some added detail from that was merged into the story from another typed retelling of the adventure that Jones wrote some time later.

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The Truly Great Ski Race

So, Mr. or Ms. Backcountry Skier, you want to be a nordic ski racer, you say? Maybe you watched the last Olympics, and marveled at the athletes and their amazing oxygen uptake and strength. Or perhaps a friend dragged you over to your local cross country ski area, and you โ€“ with your mega-wide boards and heavy tele boots โ€“ kept getting buzzed by a bunch of folks wearing colorful skin-tight lycra, leaving you feeling like you were standing still as they powered up the hill. OK, maybe you can live without the spandex; but still, it looked like fun. Those skinny little skate skis can sure fly over the trails.

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A Slackcountry Attitude

Paul Oelerich slays the Mt. Reba slackcountry during last yearโ€™s Bear Valley Tele Fest. A lot of folks are taking issue with the label โ€œslackcountryโ€ recently for its derogatory attitude. Get over it. Keep in mind I say that with a full measure of self-deprecation. Thereโ€™s no point in lying, itโ€™s my favorite kind of tour. Usually. I still love revving the meter full tilt when the tilt is at the edge of reason, but not all the time, and admittedly, not at the same RPM as 20 years ago. You too? Thought so.

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Backcountry Skiers: Make Room on Your Bookshelf

In conversations the past month with avid local Sierra backcountry skiers about Dan Mingori and Nate Greenburgโ€™s new guidebook Backcountry Skiing Californiaโ€™s Eastern Sierra, 166 Ski and Snowboard Descents in the Range of Light between Tioga Pass and Bishop Creek (Wolverine Publishing 2008) immediate comments from those newly aware of the book fell cleanly into two camps. A majority exclaimed, โ€œReally? Thatโ€™s awesome!โ€ While others grumbled, โ€œReally? That sucks!โ€

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Cโ€™mon in and Shut the Door!

Whether youโ€™re a seasoned winter explorer or a four-season greenhorn, there are few feelings as joyous as skiing to the door of a snowbound backcountry hut. Just as the natural world is at its most inhospitable, wind and snow swirling in the air, here you are at the threshold of a magical landscape with little more than a sleeping bag, playing cards, and flask in hand. At night, you lounge under the coziness of a roof, warmed by a wood stove and shared with good friends. By day, you shred lonely backcountry peaks until exhaustion. Can it get any better?

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To Uganda With Skis

โ€œThe Mubuku River is too high โ€“ too high for the dry season,โ€ our Ugandan guide John says, shaking his head. He fears we might not be able to cross the footbridge ahead. Weโ€™ve only been hiking for a few hours and already the trail is lapped over by whitewash. The river rampages through the rainforest right next to us. It is the kind of water that would make the evening news back home โ€“ the kind of water that leaves people stranded on their rooftops while a TV helicopter hovers nearby.

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Filming Freestyle at the Human Pace

With snow conditions for steep lines gone sour with the warm temps, Josh Dirksen finds adventure on our terrain park built close to basecamp. Helicopter drops onto surreal Alaskan peaks, snow cat tours to misty Canadian mountains, snowmobile rides to wherever, whenever ... Welcome to the fossil-fueled lifestyle of the ski and snowboard film industry for the last 20 years.

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Breaking Trail

Craig Dostie started Couloir magazine 20 years ago (then โ€œLe Chronicle du Couloirโ€), when backcountry skiing was very much a fledgling, little-known sport, and he did so out of a very unlikely birthplace, the LA suburb of Moorpark. It grew to become the countryโ€™s leading backcountry ski magazine and helped promote backcountry skiing and snowboarding during a period of tremendous growth that brought it into mainstream consciousness โ€“ relatively speaking, as it remains somewhat of a fringe sport, guarded by sweat and effort.

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59th Annual Warren Miller Film Tour

The opening footage of Warren Millerโ€™s 59th annual homage to the global ski lifestyle, โ€œChildren of Winter,โ€ features two Tahoe locals who run an Alaska heli-ski operation, two race-bred Olympians and a converted fishing trawler with a heli pad cruising the Chugach Range of maritime Alaska. The floating foursome picks off virgin big mountain peaks like theyโ€™re shooting ducks at a carnival booth.

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Sizing up Two Epic Tours: The Sierra High Route and Alps Haute Route

Weโ€™re at the Symmes Creek trailhead, in the high desert sage out Onion Valley Road west of Independence, about to embark on the Sierra High Route. Pioneered by Dave Beck in 1975, this ski tour became an instant classic. Beck envisioned this line across the southern Sierra as California's answer to the famous Haute Route of the Alps. Traversing 50 spectacular miles from the Owens Valley near Mt. Whitney to the grand conifers of Sequoia National Park on the west, the route crosses the highest portion of the Sierra, including six major passes that top 12,000 to 13,000 feet.

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Our recent article with Michael Allen is up! Featuring his new film A Long Road To Tao, that's being featured in the Las Cruces International Film Festival this spring along with his work as a fine art surf and wave photographer ๐ŸŒŠ๐ŸŽฅโ 
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Check out Michael's work at the link in our bio ๐Ÿ”—โ 
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Written by contributing writer @ellasuring
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When itโ€™s not raining, Castle Rock State Park offers amazing hiking and rock climbing just under an hour away from Santa Cruz! ๐ŸŒฒ๐Ÿฅพ

And when it is raining, you can still get out there and have some adventures! ๐ŸŒง๏ธ

We went out last weekend in a break from the rain and sent some climbs at Indian Rock ๐Ÿง—๐Ÿฝ

Just remember to bring water, snacks, warm clothes, and plan beforehand as there is no cell service there, adventure on!

#rockclimbing #adventuresports #outdoor
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Can anyone guess where this iconic Redwood Tree ring is in Santa Cruz? ๐ŸŒฒThe canopies of redwood trees support entire ecosystems of wildlife, insects, plants, and they even create soil up there from decomposing leaves ๐Ÿ‚. Next time you go mountain biking, running, or hiking, take a glance up and wonder at the marvels towering above you! #hiking #santacruz #adventuresportsjournal ...

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