Mono County, California: Choose Your Own Adventure Mono County, California: It’s Time To Choose Your Own Adventure The Eastern Sierra is a premier winter destination. Home to Mammoth and June Mountain, Mono County attracts powder chasers eager to ride storms and spend days at the resort. However, adventure lies far beyond the ski area boundaries. Let’s explore what lies beyond the ski area. It’s time to choose […] Featured Article Aunika Skogen | March 28, 2025 0 Comments
SnowBrains Podcast Ep. 63 | Christian Pondella – Senior Photographer at Powder Magazine, Adventure Photographer, Extreme Ski Mountaineer, and Ice Climber This episode of the SnowBrains Podcast is brought to you by Club Med. On the second episode of Season 5 of The SnowBrains Podcast, Miles Clark sits down to talk with Mammoth-based adventure photographer and ski mountaineer Christian Pondella. Christian Pondella is: a top adventure photographer a senior photographer at Powder Magazine a photographer published in: National Geographic Sports Illustrated […] Podcasts Podcast | August 13, 2024 0 Comments
Prescription Mother Nature to the Rescue: Experience Winter in Mammoth Lakes Brought to you by Mammoth Lakes Tourism Covid got you down? After months of the mundane, you dream of adventure, crave a change of pace, and long for a deeply satisfying breath of fresh mountain air. Luckily for you, we’ve got a prescription that will fulfill these wishes and more. It’s a remedy to the blues, a medicine for the […] Featured Article Spencer Cox | March 15, 2021 0 Comments
VIDEO: Watch Josh Daiek Ski a Huge Eastern Sierra Line at Mock-Looney Tahoe local and friend of SnowBrains Josh Daiek tackled some serious projects this past winter. A lot of which, were in his own backyard in the Eastern Sierras of California. This video shows him skiing a massive chute somewhere in the Sierras with a bit of a funny entry to the line. RELATED: VIDEO: Pro Skier Josh Daiek Sends Biggest […] Backcountry SnowBrains | May 2, 2020 0 Comments
Mammoth Mountain, CA Conditions Report: Spring Groomers, Wind Buff, and Wild Mountains At the end of every season, a spring Mammoth Mountain trip is called for. We left Donner Summit, CA early on Saturday morning and showed up for some afternoon fun. Friday night brought low temperatures, skiffs of new snow, and high winds, so we took our time and let things heat up. Lower aspects were perfect creamy corn snow– always a spring favorite. Steep wind buffed […] Conditions Report Katy Shipley | May 15, 2018 0 Comments
12,397′ Dunderberg Peak, CA Conditions Report: Fresh Snow, Good Crowd, No Vis… We headed up to 12,397′ Dunderberg Peak, CA from Mammoth on Saturday. We met up with a terrific cast of characters and had an incredible time. About 4-8″ of new snow coated the mountain and a thick fog we hoped would lift clung to the mountain like glue all day. The new snow allowed skinning directly to the summit with no boot-packing. […] Trip Report Miles Clark | May 2, 2016 4 Comments
High Sierra, CA Alpine Conditions Report: Hope you are all enjoying summer at this point. We are! After the driest winter on record, the High Sierra experienced one of the wettest calendar months ever. The town of Bishop hit May records for amount of rainfall and consecutive days with precipitation. In June, mountain weather has remained somewhat unusual with daily high temperatures spanning more than 30 degrees F in many locations. Conditions Report Guest Author | July 2, 2015 3 Comments
Tahoe Backcountry Breakdown: Sierra Chuting Gallery The last couple weeks have not brought much snowfall to the Tahoe basin, however there are plenty of good turns to be had if you play your cards right. Most worthy objectives will come in the form of springtime corn shredding, but there is still some recycled powder out there on sheltered high elevation north-facing slopes. Over the last week we checked out some of the classic couloirs of the Eastern Sierras and rowdy terrain of […] Conditions Report Keegan Kliman | March 29, 2015 0 Comments
Eastern Sierra Backcountry Report & Video: It hasn’t snowed in weeks? months? years? I can’t even remember anymore. But here’s the thing: sliding down snowy mountains is fun, even during a drought. The high elevation and crystal clear nights keep the snow in the High Sierra nice and wintery even when it’s tee shirt weather down in town. The crux is mustering up the motivation to get to it. While I haven’t been ski touring as much as usual this year, every time that I have gone out I’ve had a great time. On February 18, two friends and I set out to ride some chutes north […] Conditions Report Guest Author | February 22, 2015 0 Comments
Eastern Sierra Report: Powder Day in Bloody Couloir I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel and give up on winter for the season. With a rapidly melting snow pack and phenomenal dirt for mountain biking, why fight it? I began settling into my summer routine when mother nature sneak attacked with a nice little thunderstorm. My first thought was of how good the mountain biking would be, but as the storm got colder and flakes began falling my mentality instinctively flopped to skiing. I jumped on my computer to research snow reports […] Conditions Report Josh Daiek | May 29, 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
Tioga Pass, CA Report: May 11th = Not Good | Surf Conditions = A+ Last night, Mammoth got a bit of late season snow. It was a nice day until about 3pm when clouds rolled in, the wind picked up (it was already blowing), and it started to snow. It didn’t accumulate much, but the wind howled like a banshee and the low in Mammoth Lakes was 23F last night. We weren’t quite sure what that weird May weather would equate on Tioga Pass, but we hoped […] Conditions Report Miles Clark | May 11, 2014 2 Comments
How To Ski & Ride The Eastern Sierra, CA | 1. Ice Cream, 2. Hot Springs, 3. Ski & Ride There’s a plethora of options on an Eastern Sierra ski trip. So, you need to focus. Know the classics and tick them off. To start with, there are 3 mandatory experiences on any Eastern Sierra ski trip: Jolly Cone, Mono Cone, and the Mobile Mart. Don’t mess this up, please. People will laugh at you. The best food is likely at Mobile Mart. Yes, a gas station has the best food in the Eastern Sierras. But this is no ordinary gas station. Mobile Mart is the what’s what of the Eastern Sierra displaying the who’s who. Why? Because it’s excellently located at the junction of 395 (the Eastern Sierra highway) […] Miles Clark | May 8, 2014 9 Comments
Eastern Sierra Backcountry Conditions: Virginia Lakes Our week in the Eastern Sierras came to and end last Sunday. On our way back to Tahoe, we decided to hit Virginia Lakes again due to the ease of access and the ability to have a quick tour. First thing we noticed was the large amount of snow that had melted away in the week since we’d been there. Second thing we noticed were the lakes. The lakes now have large open spots and nothing but thin ice where a week ago there were people ice fishing all over them and they were totally frozen over. We measured the lake ice thickness a week ago and found the ice to be 4” thick, which is the […] Miles Clark | May 6, 2014 4 Comments