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An interview with Dave Nettle: Where to ski in Tahoe

We caught up with legendary ski/rock guide Dave Nettle in between a climbing trip in the Bugaboos and hosting a gondola evacuation training at the Oakland Zoo.

Q: Hey Dave, what’s one of your favorite places in Lake Tahoe to ski guide?

Dave: For me the Silver Peak – Pole Creek area is definitely a personal favorite.

Q: What’s the terrain like?

Dave: The terrain has many exposures, slope angles and forested or open bowl choices to pick from… I can…

Some creative fun with “CHO OYU” photos

After enjoying a traditional Tibetan lunch and some hot tea, the team headed out for an acclimatization hike up to 5,350m/17,552’. Guide @estebantopomena reports that everyone is feeling good and fired up to keep climbing. Tomorrow the team will organize gear and then head out for another acclimatization hike in the afternoon. The team has been traveling for the past 3 days. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s happened so far:

Traveling to Chengdu,…

Cho Oyu, the 6th tallest mountain in the world at 26,906′ /8201m

Things are heating up at Alpenglow Expeditions as we make our final preparations for our Cho Oyu Rapid Ascent Expedition, which begins next week. Just hours before guide Topo Mena boarded his flight for Tibet, we had a chance to catch up with him at our office in Squaw Valley, California. We got the full scoop on the upcoming expedition, check it out below.

First, a quick bio on Topo: …

YESTERDAY WAS A BIG DAY FOR OUR BOLIVIA EXPEDITION- THE TEAM SUMMITED ILLIMANI AT 7:30AM.

We love starting off a post with “CUMBRE!!!” The team has achieved the third successful summit of their trip!

Two days ago the team moved from base camp at elevation 4,230m up to the “Condor’s Nest” (high camp) at 5,550m. Yesterday morning, long before sunrise, the team departed high camp for their big push to the summit. They traveled across broad snow slopes, navigated crevasse fields, and traversed across the final, classic, knife-edged summit ridge to stand at 6,438m- the highest mountain in the…

Adrian Ballinger sent in this report from day 2 in the Cordillera Huayhuash with the Eddie Bauer team.

“Another 15 miles plus our first 16,000 foot pass. Amazing views of the east faces of Yerupaja, Siula Grande, Jarishanka and Trapecio. Now we’ve circled around from the east side of the range to the south, and we are camped off the normal route at 15,300 feet right below the amazing south face of Trapecio.”

Here’s a photo essay from day 2. All photos submitted by Adrian Ballinger:

Reflection in Lake Carhuacocha

Sunrise over Carhuacocha Lake

On the…

Team of Eddie Bauer athletes is trekking in the Huayhuash scouting some ski lines…

When Eddie Bauer calls and says “hey Adrian, let’s take a team on a beautiful trek… no skiing, no climbing, just a beautiful trek” you say yes. We’ve got a team of 3 athletes (Adrian Ballinger, Drew Tabke and Lysey Dyer) out on the circuit hiking their brains out at high altitude taking in the sights and sounds of this beautiful part of the world.

Yesterday they were on trail for 7 hours and 45 minutes, all above 13,000′ / 3962m including 2 passes over 15,000′…

Pico Austria & Glacier School

With the team so deep in the mountains, we get satellite text updates every day. Unfortunately for us here at home we don’t get to see many pictures yet. Those will come once they return from the mountains and we’ll be sure to post them to our blog and social channels.

On Friday, August 3 the team climbed Pico Austria. Standing at 17,438′ / 5315m this “little” peak is nothing to shake a stick at. It’s higher than any peaks here in the contiguous U.S. by nearly 3,000′ / 1000m! Our team however uses it…

Summit of Elbrus at 5:30am local time

Successful summit for Jim on Elbrus! 

We’re a little behind on posting this blog, because the guys moved so fast! Gaspar and Jim took advantage of a small weather window on Friday morning and decided to make a bid for the summit. They took off in the dark and working together as a team they made the summit at 5:30am in time to catch an incredible sunrise. Gaspar said they had no wind and clear sky’s, making for a great climb.

Homeward Bound

The guys made quick work of their descent and in fact…

We have a special team in Russia this season with just one guide and one very strong client. Gaspar Navarrete is leading the charge with Jim Walker right behind him. The target is Elbrus, and the guys are making great progress already.

Before they even arrived…

Jim and Gaspar

For his final training push, the week before leaving for Russia Jim climbed a 14’er in Colorado to get prepped for the fast expedition. This is a fantastic way to get the body ready for higher altitudes and something we always recommend to our climbers. If you can fit it in,…

Alpenglow Expeditions is back in Bolivia for our annual expedition to climb three different peaks. Every year we head down to the landlocked country to explore it’s incredibly deep culture and of course to climb peaks that hold almost surreal beauty and adventure within them. Out of our South American expeditions, Bolivia is still one of the more wild places we explore filled with a unique culture and history all it’s own.

On their way to the mountains…

Early Sunday morning (July 29) the team led by Topo Mena left La Paz in their rear view mirror headed towards the mountains.…