California Institute of Technology

Avalanche

• A list of Avalanche courses for the upcoming winter (this webpage only available in winter)
• Cyberspace Snow and Avalanche Center (CSAC)
• CSAC Eastern Sierra Forecast [information is taken from the Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center (see link below). They have a RSS feed as well, but it's not specifically for California so it's not very useful.]
• Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center [advisories only available in winter]. From the mountains, you can call (760) 924-5510 for the report. This is their homepage. They operate off of donations.
• For the cascades, you can find good weather and avalanche info at the Forest Service's Northwest Weather and Avalance Center and their detailed Avalanche Forecast.

Weather

All sites are from NOAA unless otherwise stated

• Cool new tools, Oct 2009
  • NWS model data It appears that it directly gives you virtually every model parameter used for the forecast for any point in western united states, viewable in either table or graph form. These include temperature, dew point, wind speed, wind gusts, wind chill, cloud cover, precipitation likelihood, type and amount, and a few others; you can also customize the output to some extent (things like time intervals, display format, and a few others- play around with it a bit).
  • Experimental NOAA tool for showing current and recent precipitation in google maps
• Bishop and Big Pine area forecasts
  • NOAA's current weather conditions in Bishop
  • Bishop forecast (4,198')
  • Big Pine forecast (4,048')
  • Big Pine Creek forecast (10,496')
  • Palisades area forecast (11,795')
  • Forecast discussion from San Joaquin Valley / Hanford, CA forecast center
  • Forecast discussion from Las Vegas forecast center
  • Weathercentral.com forecast for Bishop, CA
  • Weather.com weekend forecast for Bishop, CA
• Whitney Area
  • Lone Pine (3,759')
  • Near Whitney Portal (9,715')
  • Whitney area (11,926')
  • Whitney area (12,697')
  • Forecast discussion from Las Vegas forecast center
• 395.com weather (for all of Owen's Valley)
• Joshua Tree
  • near Lost Horse (4,221') [from Phoenix forecast center]
  • near the town of Joshua Tree (2,700') [from Las Vegas forecast center]
  • Forecast discussion from Phoenix forecast center
  • Forecast discussion from Las Vegas forecast center
• Las Vegas and Red Rocks
  • Las Vegas (2,000')
  • Red Rocks area (3,700')
• Pasadena and SoCal Mountains
  • SoCal Weather.net offers a nice interpretation.
  • Pasadena (800')
  • Forecast discussion from LA forecast center
  • Tahquitz/Idyllwild (8,000')

Forums and message boards

• Whitney Portal Store forums. For the Whitney region, this is the best forum (it's very active). However, topics are mainly about the Whitney Trail. A great resource if you're trying to climb Whitney for the first time.
• mt-whitney.info, self-described as for "Mt. Whitney, The Sierra Nevada, & Beyond...". It has dedicated topics on Mt. Whitney, Mt. Williamson/Tyndall, Palisades, White Mountain, Shasta, John Muir Trail and PCT, Desert Peaks, and SoCal peaks. Unfortunately, it's not very active.
• Summitpost.org's California Forums.
• Mt. San Jacinto Outdoor Recreation forums. Pretty active.
• High Sierra Topic, with forums divided by activity, not region. Also not very active.
• Cascade Climbers, a very active forum with many sections, including gear sections. Obviously geared toward Cascade climers, it does have a dedicatd message board for California topics, but this is mainly Yosemite and Shasta related.