Entries filed under 'Winter'

Guidebook Getaway: Hiking on Golden Coastal Bluffs Near Seattle Can Brighten a Winter Day

In the northern U.S., "winter" and "hiking" don’t often get paired in the same sentence. An exception lies in the Pacific Northwest, where a decent assortment of attractive lowland landscapes remain snow-free, usually, year-round. In this edition of Guidebook Getaways, we feature a beauty of a hike near Seattle. ...

Posted by T.D. Wood on January 30, 2013 10:00 AM & Tagged Craig Romano, Guidebook Getaways, Hiking, Winter and guidebooks | permalink | Comments



Winter Wonders: Ice and Snow as Art Forms

Turn artists loose in the cold and you can get amazing results. Examples: the annual St. Paul (Minn.) Winter Carnival, slated to for Jan. 24-Feb. 3 in 2013, and the 29th annual Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival which opened Jan. 5 in China. It runs through Feb. 25. We provide links to some dazzling photo galleries. ...

Posted by T.D. Wood on January 9, 2013 9:00 AM & Tagged Snow, Winter, art and ice | permalink | Comments



Winter in Yosemite: A Pair of Videos Contrast How It Is and How Lots of Us Wish It Was

In America's traditional winter wonderlands, people are wondering if they'll see much snow at all this winter. Consider Yosemite National Park where, like many areas of the country that are experiencing a dry, warm winter, snow is a no-show in January. A webcam in Ahwahnee Meadow shows a snowless scene on the Yosemite Valley floor, and high-elevation webcams on Sentinel Dome (which looks across the valley to Half Dome) and west from Turtleback Dome offer snow-free views that look downright ...

Posted by T.D. Wood on January 9, 2012 7:23 PM & Tagged Snow, Winter, Yosemite, Yosemite Nature Notes, Yosemite Steve and national parks | permalink | Comments



Lonnie Dupre Begins Solo Winter Attempt on Denali

Lonnie Dupre loves cold weather. Seriously cold weather. Last week, Lonnie flew from Talkeetna, Alaska, to the Kahiltna glacier on the flanks of Denali (Mount McKinley) where he embarked on a journey that could make him the first solo climber to reach the summit in January. Denali in winter is not a hospitable place. Only 9 expeditions, totaling 16 people, have ever reached the summit of Denali in winter. Never has a solo climber stood on top of the 20,320-foot peak in January, one of the ...

Posted by Joe P. on December 30, 2011 2:51 PM & Tagged Climbing, Denali, Lonnie Dupre, Mt. McKinley and Winter | permalink | Comments



Hibernation Envy: Time for a Long Winter's Nap?

Would you hibernate if you could? We're deep into daylight-shrinking time here in the northern hemisphere, and many of our fellow mammals (and some other creatures) have already bedded down for a long winter's nap.   Faced with the extra pressures of the holiday season, I admit to some envy for the European dormouse (shown below), who famously snoozed through the Mad Hatter's tea party in Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll was onto something:  Each fall, the dormouse stuffs itself to twice its ...

Posted by KellyH on December 27, 2011 3:29 PM & Tagged Winter, animals, hibernation, rei and torpor | permalink | Comments