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What do I mean by "Winter Climbing"?

To paraphrase Raphael Slawinski “Think of how many fat waterfalls there are out there. Now think how many walls of snowed-up rock…”  

This type of climbing isn't always truly "mixed" - with one appendage on each medium - and it isn't always truly "alpine" - whatever that means. Here in the Sierra it rarely involves much actual ice, though there's usually snow. It almost always involves an ice axe or ice tool and crampons at some point. It's usually - but not always - practiced in the winter, though not always the technical calendar winter (December 21 -March 21) and it almost always feels pretty wintery, as in I wouldn't want to be climbing with bare hands or rock shoes for very long. 

A very vague set of guidelines, I know, and I like to bend them. For me a narrow, absolutist view of what is alpine or mixed climbing leads to less climbing, not more, and it's my page.

About This Resource

Because this type of climbing is hard to define it's hard to find a place to aggregate these routes. Some have M grades and some have YDS grades and some have both. This is a collection of online information (including Trip Reports) for winter climbing in the Sierra.

My hope is that this resource will help folks who are interested in this type of climbing but new to it, and perhaps provide a helpful nugget or two to the climbers who've been engaging with this stuff for a while.

Beta is welcomed. I know my interest in maintaining this page will come and go, and come again, so if you are interested in contributing (with content, TR's, comments, photos, or even formatting/layout help) please please contact me!

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