Mountains in the Fall! Enough Said

Pinnacles National Monument: High Peaks Loop

By: Backpacker Magazine
Activity: Hiking
Difficulty: 7 / 10
State: California (CA)
Average Rating: Not yet rated

See the result of millions of years of tectonic movement on this 7.9-mile loop beneath massive volcanic monoliths. Bring a flashlight for optional cave trails. TO TRAILHEAD: US 101 S past Soledad, CA. Head E on CA-146 13 miles to park entrance. Park at Chaparral Ranger Station near Juniper Canyon trailhead.

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Farmer Dave Profile   by William Deleo – added September 20, 2006Dave Van Dame is an Alta skier and a local legend because of his skiing technique. I first saw his unmistakable tracks in the backcountry in the winter of 1992 and thought, “What the hell made those?” It looked as if a snowmobile made about 40 turns side by side. It was not until we got closer that it became apparent the tracks were made by a skier. The snakey grooves were cut side by side and about a foot apart and took up an entire snowfield. I think I was with Matt West at the time and he said, “Oh, that’s the work of the snow farmer, he’s out here in the backcountry a lot.”

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Ski Tour of Utah from Gravity Fed

A Tale of Two Utah Ski Tours   by Alex Wellen – added October 21, 2006Many local ski tourers consider Broads Fork to be the crown jewel in the Wasatch Mountains. Home to some of the most spectacular and foreboding alpine terrain in Utah, it has been the location of some of the finest ski days in my long and storied backcountry career. This is the story of two ski tours that took place in Broads Fork.

The Access Fund Breaking News- Cave Rock, NV Update: Access Fund Lawsuit Still Pending, Climbing Remains Closed

Over a year ago in mid-August of 2005 the Access Fund filed its most recent legal brief at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the on-going attempt to keep climbing open at Cave Rock, a popular and important climbing area on the shore of Lake Tahoe in Nevada. For more: http://www.accessfund.org/pdf/CRbackgrounder3-28.pdf

In January 2005 at the district court level in Reno a judge upheld the US Forest Service (USFS) decision to ban climbing at Cave Rock; however, the district court prevented the USFS from removing any climbing bolts pending the lawsuit’s result.

The AF Board subsequently voted to pursue an appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. For now, since all briefs have been filed, we continue to wait for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to schedule oral arguments or render a verdict. The USFS declined to pursue mediation despite the Access Fund’s hope that the conflict may be resolved out of the courtroom.

The climbing ban remains in place at least for the duration of the lawsuit, and it’s critical that climbers continue to respect the climbing closure at Cave Rock while we work our way through the courts—ignoring the ban will only harm our case in court and reduce the chances that it will reopen.

For more information contact Access Fund Policy Director Jason Keith at Jason@accessfund.org.

Continental Divide Trail Alliance Volunteers Made a Difference on National Public Lands Day

Continental Divide Trail Alliance volunteers who turned out for National Public Lands Day on Sat., Sept. 30, got to help build and rehab a section of the countrys longest, highest, wildest backcountry trail. They also were part of a larger contingent of volunteers joining a national one-day effort to care for Americas public lands.

Our volunteers did an incredible amount of work on the Trail in just a few hours, said Susan Westhoff, CDTA director of volunteer programs. A project like this shows how much people can make a difference when they work together as a team. It was a great day.

Some 20 volunteers, plus several CDTA and U.S. Forest Service staff, worked a section of the Trail outside Fraser in Grand County, Colo. They built 18 drains, eight check dams, two stream crossings and two bridge abutments. They also removed two windfall trees, filled and crowned 100 feet of trail, rerouted 500 feet of trail and rehabbed 200 feet of existing trail. Several hardy volunteers even got training on how to use a large crosscut saw that takes two people to operate.

Work on the Continental Divide Trail was one of five projects in Grand County on National Public Lands Day, an annual event coordinated by National Environmental Education & Training Foundation, based in Washington D.C. Organizers expected up to 100,000 volunteers to participate at up to 1,000 sites across the country, resulting in as much as $10 million in improvements to the places Americans use for outdoor recreation, education and enjoyment.

Our volunteers even had some snow to contend with that was leftover from storms more than a week ago, Westhoff said. But it didnt even slow them down.

To read all of the article, click here.

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