Stories
Mountain adventures create the best stories, and we want to share some of ours with you. Dive into Alpenglow Stories to stay up to date on expeditions in the field, read blogs, and get tips and tricks from guides.
Field Mag: Guide Adrian Ballinger on How Expedition Travel Changed the World
Alpenglow Expeditions’ founder shares archival photos and stories about near-death experiences on Everest, basecamp snacks, and the evolution of alpine guiding.
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Wall Street Journal: The Tiny Western Town That’s Quietly Become the Coolest Place to Ski
Once a frontier town for loggers and cowboys, Truckee, near Lake Tahoe, has quickly grown into a hub of winter adventure—not to mention hip coffee shops and new restaurants.
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Backpacking Yosemite’s Glacier Point Circuit with Alpenglow
We designed our 5-Day Yosemite Backpacking Adventure to offer a full-value loop through one of the most scenic and quieter parts of Yosemite National Park.
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Backpacking the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne: Yosemite’s Wildest Side
While the crowds gather at Glacier Point and Yosemite Falls, we’re dropping into something much deeper—literally and figuratively. The Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne doesn’t get the hype it deserves, and we’re okay with that. It keeps things quieter out there.
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Backpacking Yosemite Without the Guesswork
You don’t need to be a seasoned backpacker to get deep into Yosemite’s backcountry. You just need the right plan—and a solid guide.
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Everest North Side 2025: A Season of Patience, Precision, and Perfect Timing
This spring, our Alpenglow Expeditions team returned to the North Side of Mount Everest with a small crew and a big plan. After months of preparation, pre-acclimatization, and weather watching, our Everest expedition 2025 culminated in an incredibly rare summit day—blue skies, no wind, and a quiet mountain.
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Climb Cho Oyu Before Climbing Everest
When it comes to climbing Everest, experience matters. Not just general mountain experience, but specific, targeted exposure to what it actually feels like to live and perform above 7,000 meters. That’s why Adrian Ballinger—founder of Alpenglow Expeditions and veteran of 14 Everest seasons—encourages nearly every aspiring Everest climber to summit an 8,000-meter peak first.
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Peak Lenin vs. Aconcagua
We guide both Aconcagua and Peak Lenin, and while they’re similar in height—Aconcagua at 6,962m (22,841’) and Lenin at 7,134m (23,406’)—the experience on each mountain couldn’t be more different. Both trips use our Rapid Ascent approach, which means you show up pre-acclimatized and we move efficiently through the mountain. But what those days look like, how technical the terrain is, and what you’re training for down the line—all of that changes depending on where you go.
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Patagonia Bound: Skiing with Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington
Ski with Adrian Ballinger & Emily Harrington in Patagonia’s stunning Cerro Castillo. Big lines, spring corn, world-class terrain.
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Climbing Everest doesn’t start in the Himalaya. It starts with basic skills, local mountains, and building experience one step at a time. If you’re asking how to climb Everest the right way — safely, successfully, and confidently — this is the path we recommend.
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In Northern California, the Natural Landscape Lures Outdoor Lovers With a Wide Variety of Recreational Activities
At Palisades in Olympic Valley, between Truckee and Tahoe’s North Shore, Tahoe Via Ferrata (operated by Alpenglow Expeditions) brings an exhilarating combination of hiking and rock climbing high above the valley floor.
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