Skiers at Peter Grubb Hut
Welcome
The Loma Prieta Ski Touring Section (STS) of the Sierra Club
leads ski trips to the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere.
Trips range from
touring on skinny skis or snowshoes to backcountry skiing with fat skis
or split boards on steep terrain.
Trips are rated to indicate the trip
difficulty level.
Lodging for trips may be in backcountry huts, snow
camping, or other private or commercial lodging.
We publish a newsletter (TRACK), we promote conservation of wilderness areas, and we hold meetings from November to May.
NOTE: Webpages under
construction. The Webmaster is converting the webpages to a more modern
implementation. You may encounter the older format on some pages until
they are converted. Thanks for your patience.
We are currently in the "off season". Section activity will start up again sometime in late September, with a trip planning meeting in October and regular meetings starting in November.
For a great summer or fall activity, consider volunteering on a Sierra Club backcountry hut work party. It is the work parties in the summer that make our winter ski trips to these huts possible. And besides, its fun in a grubby, hard work sort of way. For more information about hut work parties contact:
Dick Simpson
rsimpson at magellan dot standford dot edu
(650) 494-9272
Previous STS
Monthly Meetings of This Season
November2008 STS Monthly Meeting
Map and compass review by Karen Davis.
December 2008 STS Monthly Meeting
All are
welcome. Agenda:
- Review
the list of planned ski trips for this year.
- Gear
Review. We’ll cover the
differences/pros/cons of gear from skinny track skis with small boots
to wide
metal edged telemark skis and plastic boots (and everything in
between.) Included in this review will be videos of different skiing
techniques.
January 2009 STS Monthly Meeting
January 5th, 2009,
7:30 - 9:30 pm
Peninsula Conservation Center
3921 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303
Guest Presenter Marcus
Libkind
The evening will include two movies and a mini-slide show.
Ski Memories and The
Original Mugelhupf Movie
This home movie begins in Switzerland in 1930 when Wolfgang
Lert learned to ski on wooden skis with toe-irons and hazelnut poles.
He and his
friends would go on to explore the western US for places to ski
including Yosemite. The second half
of the movie is a ski chase
that took place on the flanks of Mt. San Antonio
near the
Sierra Club’s San Antonio Ski Hut. It’ll make you smile and laugh!
The Lost People of
Mountain Village
Anthropologist Wade Davis calls it “no less than the most
spectacular archaeological and anthropological discovery of our
lifetimes.” Dr.
Jerrold Sapphire, author of “VANISHED: Why Bad Things Happen to Bad
Civilizations,” calls it… well, you’ll find out what he calls it. But
when a
lost backcountry skier high in the Rocky Mountains
stumbles on a monumental complex of structures – apparently completely
uninhabited – the only thing that experts agree on is that we may never
know
what really happened to “The Lost People of Mountain Village.” This
film is
very serious! It’s also hilarious!
A Few New Places
Marcus Libkind will inspire you to visit new backcountry
places. This mini-slide show will include places few people visit
although you
have probably driven by them many times.
BIO: Marcus Libkind is best known for his backcountry ski
guidebooks Ski Tours in the Sierra Nevada (four volumes) and Ski
Tours in Lassen Volcanic National Park. He is the author of the Ski Tours in the
Sierra Nevada webpage.
Marcus' love for the winter backcountry drove him to found and
currently is the chairman of Snowlands Network, a nonprofit organization whose
mission is to promote opportunities for quality muscle-powered winter
recreation and to protect winter wildlands in California and
Nevada.
February STS Monthly Meeting
February 2nd, 2009,
7:30 - 9:30 pm
Peninsula Conservation Center
3921 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303
Presentation: Backcountry
Huts Throughout California
Did you know that there are over 23 backcountry huts in California? This presentation will provide information on
- where they are
- how hard/easy is it to get to the huts
- amenities in the huts
- how to reserve them (if needed)
- costs
- information webpages