While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to keep California State Parks open, he didn’t stress how drastic some changes would be to deal with the 14.2 million dollar reduction in the Park budget.
A summary of the service reductions in store for most of California’s 278 state parks was created by the park superintendants to highlight the major [...]

From the realm of the superhuman:
Between Oct. 16-21 Doug Engelkirk managed to send Leaning Tower’s Westie Face (V 5.13a /b AO , 9 pitches, 700 feet)  and Washington Column’s Quantum Mechanic (V 5.13a , 15 pitches, 1000 feet) in Yosemite National Park. Any route designated grade V is generally accepted to take at least two days [...]

Homewood is doing some simple, but powerful, things to keep Tahoe blue.
They’ve begun an effort to keep sediment from running right down the hill and into the lake.  If you haven’t been to Homewood, it sits right across the street from Lake Tahoe, so any intense rain washes sediment from the hill down into the [...]

The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the U.S. Forest Service is seeking public comment on the actions proposed to deal with invasive plant species on National Forest lands in the Lake Tahoe Area.
According to the public letter issued by the Forest Service, chemical treatment is proposed for approximately 100 acres of infested area, and alternative treatments (manual, [...]

I'm finally at a point where I can feel okay about the fast-approaching end of backcountry ski season. It's not here just yet – there's still a ton of snow out there. I might even try to get some in this weekend, but what I'm really excited about is a long summer of alpine [...]