Postholing on Sweeney Peak

Sweeney Peak

From the crest of Sweeney ridge, you can see into drainages very rarely traveled because they have no trail: North to One Horse Creek Drainage and South to the South Fork of Sweeney Creek.

Pyramid Buttes

The mountains are big and inspiring, and I wonder if they'd be worth the bushwhack, or at least skiing up in winter when the snow covers some of the brush.

Little St. Joe and St. Joe

The Sweeney trail starts up high, the most challenging part of the trip was holding on while the Mighty Honda (Accord) sweated the steep narrow bits beyond the sign that read "Trucks with trailers not recommended beyond this point."

Bass Creek Spires

We followed a good trail up through the forest with tantalizing glimpses to the South of snowy, craggy ridges.  Just past the apex of the trail we stepped over a small stream and headed North to a saddle between two small bumps on the ridge and West up the ridge to Sweeney.

We followed the ridge and a pretty good boot track up.  The snow starts piling up over boot height just beyond a minor peak in the ridge at about 8500'.  There is a bit of crust and consolidation, and the snow pack at around 9,000' is about 2 feet deep - just about knee height.

I might bring snowshoes next weekend unless the weather turns and we get enough snow to cover more rocks.  We stopped shy of the summit - I'll say it's because dense clouds and snow moved in, but really it's because we got tired of punching through snow to the rocks below.  Click here to view and print our map.

Major Hillmap update

Hillmap received a major update: it's faster, more streamlined, significantly less buggy and better for mobile devices.  We pushed the beta site up to the main site - so if you've been using the beta site, the main site is now identical.

We will keep the beta site around as we play with new features.

For more info on the new hillmap site check out this and this.  As always, if you have questions, comments or concerns give us a shout at contact@hillmap.com.

From Peak to Creek

The movement of water through the mountains is dramatically visible standing at the trailhead for Little Rock Creek: snowy peaks tower over a green, mossy drainage, leading to the empty shores of Lake Como.

Lake Como is a large reservoir used primarily for irrigation.  I swam in 30 or 40 feet deep water in early summer.

Fall rains and snows are refilling alpine lakes and streams.  I bet the waterfall (above) on Little Rock Creek was a trickle about a month ago.

New version of Hillmap going live next week

We are launching the new version of Hillmap next Tuesday!  Check it out here.

The new site is now significantly less buggy than the original.  It also is easier to use on devices with small screens.

Just click in the box to highlight the url to share.  Then copy and paste.

If you have been using the beta site for awhile now, we've also fixed bugs that some of you have reported: the gpx import tool found on the Tools tab is fixed, it is easier to select the url on the share link screen, and we are now using Caltopo's new slope map.

In other interesting news, the Hillmap custom slope analysis tool is not working while the government shut down is on.  The tool works by calling data from the USGS website, which is not possible at the moment.  It should be up and running again as soon as the government is.

The red arrow points to the menu button for a small screen

Changes

• When you access Hillmap from a small screen, the top bar navigation is replaced by a menu button on the top right of your screen.  You can find all of the tabs and tools there.
• The new Hillmap is much faster.
• The user interface is updated and simplified.
• The print screen has been updated to give you more support and options.
• The Data and Analysis tab is now named Overlays.
• There is a new Tour tab that has basic information on how to use Hillmap, as well as links to blog articles on different features.
• The Points tab now has a link to peakfinder.org so you can see the view from your point.
• Clicking on the Hillmap logo on the top left of the screen collapses the menu bar so that you have more room on screen to explore the map.
• The new Caltopo slope overlay shows more slope increments (seven instead of four), however the slope overlay does not show up when you are zoomed in all the way.