High Sierra Topix

Since I don't have experience in the Sierras, I am thinking of using this outfit initially to go along with their guides and the group to learn the skills and the area. My primary interest is scrambling, and they seem to have both courses and guided hikes.

Here is their website.

Anyone care to share their opinions?

Pardon my ignorance, but what is "scrambling"? If you have an interest ,then drive to a place. Learn the flora and fauna. Start out with some day hikes. Talk to people. Even buttheads like me will give advice from personal experience if asked. Progress to overnight short campouts with trusted friends. When you come to a realisation that you are never lost in the Sierra's, [you sometimes just don't know EXACTLY where you are] You will be free. Leave no sign of your passing. jls

P.S. Is this a skill? Had an inch of snow fall the other night. In the dark ,on the way down to the truck I noticed some cat tracks. Too big for Bubber's. They backtracked on themselves till they got back to the woodpile and went around it and around the house and wherever. Had to get to work. Got my blood going.First day of trapping season and I have no license and hadn't planned on indulging myself this year. I realised by their size that it was a young lynx and a little out of it's better habitat. A ghost just passing through. Nevertheless it would be an easy catch if pursued. Chances are a yearling may not last the winter anyway. Life is harsh in the arctic . But now Bubber is at risk ,so if he disappears I am back in the bidness. If there is enough excess of cats to hang out in my neigborhood then I wonder how the canines and wolverine are doing? jls

I have heard some good things about them but have no personal experience. There is another outfit in Bear Valley - Mountain Adventure Seminars - I took some telemark lessons from them last winter, and was favorably impressed.