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Ebbetts Pass: easy hikes deliver high adventures
Summer brings the opening of California’s high mountain roads, like Highway 4 over Ebbetts Pass. What easy access this provides to worthy Sierra Nevada adventures. If you haven’t discovered the...
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Giant sequoias’ namesake park deserves a visit
Grand as they are, it’s easy to overlook giant sequoias, even for those who visit the Sierra Nevada range often. Tahoe skiers and Yosemite climbers don’t even pass close to the biggest clusters of the...
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Age of Pioneers
Climbers Errett Allen and Mike Corbett expected the usual challenges while ascending the famed El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. Jamming hands and feet into cracks, clinging to tiny holds on...
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Danger Zone
This is the second installment of a three-part series on El Capitan. You can read Part 1 here. Yosemite Valley’s gushing waterfalls, rounded domes and towering granite walls make a striking impression...
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Need for Speed
This is the final installment of a three-part series on El Capitan. You can read Part 1: Age of Pioneers here and Part 2: Danger Zone here. “Hurry, man. We gotta make it down before the bar closes.”...
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Mountains calling? Hetch Hetchy Offers Late-Season Outings
Hetch Hetchy, a little visited area of Yosemite National Park, features numerous options for day hikers and backpackers. Photo credit Matt Johanson Missing the mountains? Once autumn brings colder...
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Walk back in time among ancient bristlecone pines
Bristlecone pines grow only in a few high-elevation areas of California. Credit Matt Johanson A great attraction of touring the mountains is their sense of timeless beauty, offering visitors a window...
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How the Sierra Nevada is changing names to honor the more honorable
Friends of the Inyo want to change the Alabama Hills’ name, which honors a Confederate battleship. Credit Matt Johanson More than a century before Mount Whitney began welcoming thousands of climbers...
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Climb into adventure on these Bay Area peaks
Mount Umunhum / Photo credit Matt Johanson While Lake Tahoe or Yosemite get much of the attention, dozens of summits in the Bay Area deserve a visit, and ambitious hikers are climbing six of them in...
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Wet winter revved up outdoors adventure in 2023
Following an epic winter, snow blanketed the Sierra Nevada mountains deep into the summer. Photo by Matt Johanson Trekking along the top of the Sierra Nevada mountains challenges hikers every summer,...
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Proponents push outdoor diversity
Black Ice: Manoah Ainuu, featured in the film “Black Ice,” grew up in Compton but became a professional climber. Image: Matt Johanson S’lacio Bankston struggled on the icy pitch, lost his footing and...
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Skiers strive from Yosemite to Mammoth
Alpenglow fills the winter sky at dusk. Image courtesy of Matt Johanson. Our four-man group was skiing from Lee Vining to Mammoth Lakes via Yosemite, a trek we planned to complete in about five days....
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These Black Californians blazed trails in the outdoors
John Francis swore off driving for decades and hiked thousands of miles. Image courtesy of Matt Johanson. Two oil tankers collided beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in 1971, spilling 840,000 gallons of...
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Moab: more climbing, more hiking, more fun
Climbers and non-climbers alike will appreciate the dramatic landscape of Fisher Towers. – image: Matt Johanso Those who climb the Kor-Ingalls Route of Castleton Tower, a classic adventure on a...
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Climbing, falling and learning on Yosemite’s “Little Big Wall”
Steve leads the overhanging Kor Roof, the crux of the climb. Image: Matt Johanson My turn to lead on Yosemite’s Washington Column arrived about halfway up the 1,100-foot rock face. The climb’s sixth...
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Mount Shasta challenges, inspires and teaches
Mount Shasta attracts and challenges thousands of climbers every year. Photo by Matt Johanson In its early hours, my first climb on Mount Shasta bore a striking resemblance to my family’s previous...
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Oh, Henry! Family Heirloom Reveals 19th Century West
An early Yosemite photograph shows North Dome and the Merced River. Image: courtesy of Matt Johanson What if you could experience Yosemite free of traffic and crowds, as it was before automobiles...
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Try Tuolumne for crowd-beating Yosemite day hikes
Those who hike in Tuolumne Meadows may earn a view of Yosemite’s highest peaks including Mount Lyell. Image: courtesy of Matt Johanson Yosemite Valley visitors know that the park has a popularity...
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High pass openings deliver rewarding opportunities
Kinney Lake: Travelers on Highway 4 can enjoy visiting the Kinney Lakes near Ebbetts Pass.Image: Matt Johanson As summer begins, crowds gather in popular Sierra destinations like Yosemite and Lake...
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Rafting the Tuolumne
photo by All-Outdoors California Whitewater Rafting As we headed towards a raging Clavey Falls, I took a deep breath and gripped my paddle with white knuckles. During the biggest runoff in a decade on...
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