Justin Lichter is one of those quiet crushers and unheralded badass mountain athletes whose collection of feats will make your head spin if you sit back and truly try to comprehend them. He sent us a note the other day about a ski trip he is planning along with his dog, Pepper. Justin has been a CAMP athlete for more than 5 years and has relied on the light and fast gear for his huge mountain traverses on nearly every continent. Check out what he has in store now in the Sierras.
Pepper and I are gearing up again! We are getting excited to get back outside after a weather roller-coaster winter. It started off great but the ups and downs started in January. There were always signs and anticipation for more snow, but not much panned out. We are mixing it up a little on this trip and will put our hip flexors to the test………and hopefully get some good turns to accompany all of the elevation gain. We are looking at putting our skis on, slinging a pack over our shoulders and skiing from just north of Lake Tahoe to Mt. Whitney, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Our goal is to ski the 400-500 miles roughly following the Pacific Crest Trail/John Muir Trail and Sierra High Route corridor (depending on snow conditions and weather). With the mixed bag of weather this winter we are hoping we'll be on snow the whole way because there’s nothing worse than hiking in ski boots and carrying your skis!
We are setting of on Monday, April 15. It looks like winter is going to return for the start of the trip, with temperatures in the teens (Fahrenheit) and 50 mile per hour winds. We are making some last minute adjustments with the weather forecast, and scrambling to get our gear ready today so we can head out the door tomorrow.