Rainbow Pools / Yosemite / Tioga Pass Report & Photo Tour: I drove through Yosemite on Friday and Saturday. Rainbow Pools was going off. I’ve never seen so many people there. I had to park up the road and walk down. That’s never happened to me. There were over 100 people hanging out, fishing, swimming, peanut gallerying, and cliff jumping. One guy threw a double backflip and put the rest of us to shame. A couple other guys, who’d clearly been drinking, tried flips and ended up doing 1.25 flips with very loud, painful, and entertaining consequences. The crowd that spends time at Rainbow Pools is the classic American crowd. I call it the Big ___s and Tattoo crowd – B.T.&T. in [..] Conditions Report Miles Clark | July 21, 2014 1 Comment
Tioga Pass Scouting Report: Ellery Bowl Chutes | + Rainbow Pools Report: I drove over Tioga Pass today around 12:30pm. I didn’t have time to ski but did have time to stop and scope out Ellery Bowl. Things are melting fast on Tioga and you can only fully ski down right now on the far skiers left at the bottom. I skied Chute Out last Friday and it was still good but you can’t ski the very upper section now. It’s all rocks. Poop […] Conditions Report Miles Clark | May 27, 2014 2 Comments
California Adventure Report: Tioga Pass, Rainbow Pools, Mono Lake, Hot Springs, Water Spouts… California can shine and it very well may shine brightest in springtime. This year, we had a low snow year and that’s the yang. The yin is that Tioga Pass opened very early so in one day, you can easily experience the foothills, the white granite domes, the high mountains, the east side, and the desert. Today, I woke up in Waterford, CA and got on the road by 7:30am. From there, it was a classic California adventure: Flipping into Rainbow Pools in the foothills, gaping at Half Dome, skiing Poop Chute on Tioga Pass, gawking at […] Miles Clark | May 16, 2014 3 Comments
Yosemite Rim Fire Aftermath Rainbow Pools Did Not Burn Report & Photo Tour This past Sunday, I drove up to see the damage from the Yosemite Rim Fire and to check if my favorite cliff jumping spot, Rainbow Pools, had been burned. The Yosemite Rim Fire was a highly destructive fire in August and September that burned over 257,000 acres (full fire statistics below). I took highway 120 up towards […] Miles Clark | October 22, 2013 6 Comments
Tioga Pass Report Today: 12″ of New Snow in Ellery Chutes, Ice Cream, Half Dome, Hot Springs I left Waterford, CA this morning at 7:30am headed for Sonora Pass. At the highway 108/120 split, the sign said Sonora Pass closed, Tioga Pass open. Change of plans. I drove up highway 120 to Yosemite, stopped to jump into Rainbow Pools, took pictures of Half Dome, stopped to take pictures of a guy who’d driven out onto Toulomne Meadows and gotten stuck, asked the Park Rangerette on Tioga Pass how much snow they’d gotten, she said 8-12 inches since May 6th, then arrived at Ellery Lake on Tioga Pass at about 11am. […] Conditions Report Miles Clark | May 9, 2014 2 Comments
Mammoth, CA Conditions Report: Closing Day Goodness – Day #222! Mammoth Mountain, CA was open for 222 days in a row this season.  They just closed yesterday and yesterday was damn fun. The day was cooler. 50ºF was the high and there was a stiff breeze. The cooler temps kept the snow great all day. Drop Out off Chair 23 was skiing great and so was the Cornice Bowl groomer. […] Conditions Report Miles Clark | June 18, 2018 1 Comment
Mammoth, CA Conditions Report: Pond Skimming, Cliff Diving, Backfliping Fun! Yesterday, we drove from San Francisco through Yosemite up over Tioga Pass and down to Mammoth Lakes, CA. On the way we stopped at Knights Ferry and Rainbow Pools for some classic cliff diving. We also stopped at Olmstead Point in Yosemite to watch sunset on Half Dome and Clouds Rest. Today we cruised up to Mammoth Mountain and the […] Conditions Report Miles Clark | June 8, 2018 0 Comments
One Day in CA: Surf → Water Ski → Cliff Jump → Ski → Ice Cream → Hot Springs California. It’s simply an amazing place. Today, it showed off what it can really do. I was up early and got into the water at Ocean Beach, San Francisco by 7am. The waves were terrible, it was windy and cold. I got a few “fun” rides and called it good after about an hour. Size was in the 2-4 foot range. From the beach to the Stockton Delta. Met up with […] Conditions Report Miles Clark | May 24, 2014 7 Comments