Sierra Nevada

As one of California's grand old craft breweries, Sierra Nevada has always specialized in ales, but for summer it does make a wonderful lager. Summerfest is a little richer and smoother than your ordinary lager, which they credit to extra-long lagering. Naturally, it has plenty of piney-citrusy hop notes in the nose and a spreading floral finish -- after all, this is Sierra Nevada, the virtual creator of our present-day hop-head phenomenon. Still, this is nowhere as hoppy as an India pale ale.

Teams will fan out across the Sierra Nevada on Thursday to perform their final snow survey of the season, a closely watched rite of spring that helps determine how much water will flow to farms and cities in coming months. But 18,000 feet above the Sierra slopes, an airborne experiment is underway that could revolutionize that ritual. Starting in early April, researchers have made weekly flights over the upper Tuolumne River basin, taking sophisticated instrument readings of the snow depth and reflected sunlight.

Just one week after your May 15 editorial, "Sierra Needs a Grand Plan," I was spending time in the Sierra Nevada. Some of my time was spent rejoicing in the sounds, smells and sights of old-growth forest; unfortunately, some of it was spent observing the effects of logging and road building. The logged area that I was in looked to have been logged for many years, from the old, gray tree stumps; some of the area was replanted--in nature trees do not grow in rows and all the same size.

Officials at Yosemite National Park say snow plows will begin clearing Tioga Road next week and hope to reopen the highway by May 11. The road across Tioga Pass is a crucial one for tourists crossing the Sierra Nevada range. Park officials said a dry winter should speed the work. Plowing on the road to Glacier Point began this week, according to Yosemite spokeswoman Kari Cobb, with a projected opening of May 3. Mariposa Grove road is already open Cobb cautioned that the opening dates are subject to late spring storms, road damage and other  safety concerns.

The craft beer revolution kept charging ahead in 2012, when 12% more barrels were shipped than the year before, the sixth straight year of growth. Of 27 major craft brewers - all of which saw some gain - 16 had double digit increases, according to industry research group Beer Marketer's Insights' Craft Brew News publication. In all, the craft beer industry enjoyed a 1.5 million barrel boost to 13.7 million barrels total. Samuel Adams Boston Lager maker Boston Beer led the segment, with craft beer shipments rising as much as 3% to nearly 2.2 million barrels.

SOUTH AMERICA Slide show Analia and Darek Przebieda will present "Atacama and the Altiplano," with images from their trip to northern Chile and southwest Bolivia. When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 56 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220 or distantlands@earthlink.net. SIERRA NEVADA Slide show Author Daniel Arnold will present "A History of Climbing the Sierra Nevada," with stories and images from four years spent retracing the steps of early climbers in the mountain range.

The newly formed group of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep barreled up rugged Olancha Peak last month, the 10 females and four males becoming the first new herd of the endangered animals reintroduced in California in 25 years. Once abundant throughout the region's alpine areas, the state's population of Sierra Nevada bighorn had dwindled to two herds by the 1970s. Their numbers have been devastated by disease spread by contact with domestic sheep and goats and unregulated commercial hunting.

There's good news from the Inyo National Forest for the hundreds of thousands of Southern Californians who hike or backpack in the gentle wilderness of the eastern Sierra Nevada. The U.S. Forest Service has decided to take back the operation of its wilderness permit system from private contractors. Beginning next Jan. 1, hikers can reserve a permit by mail or fax for a fee of $5 for any time during the year 2000.

Boasting some of the world's most breathtaking wilderness, California's Sierra Nevada mountain range continues to draw huge summer crowds. In its foothills lie lakes and campsites accessible to any weekend warrior with wheels and an inclination for the great outdoors. Its real majesty, though, is experienced only by those on foot.

It's a little hard to remember that Americans once merely tolerated hops. Sierra Nevada was one of the pioneers in teaching us to enjoy the flavor, and a few years ago it produced this hoppy extreme, brewed with the fresh herb, harvested just 24 hours earlier. The effect is a startling burst of hop flavor, almost dank with heady, resinous aroma. It's a seasonal brew, so it will go out of stock, but good news: Sierra Nevada will produce another Harvest Lager (Southern Hemisphere) in about six months.

The newly formed group of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep barreled up rugged Olancha Peak last month, the 10 females and four males becoming the first new herd of the endangered animals reintroduced in California in 25 years. Once abundant throughout the region's alpine areas, the state's population of Sierra Nevada bighorn had dwindled to two herds by the 1970s. Their numbers have been devastated by disease spread by contact with domestic sheep and goats and unregulated commercial hunting.

High-altitude dust blown thousands of miles across the Pacific from Asian and African deserts can make it rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada, according to new research that suggests tiny particles from afar play a role in California's water supply. The study, published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, grew out of researchers' questions about two similar Sierra storms in winter 2009. Even though the storm systems carried the same amount of water vapor, one produced 40% more precipitation than the other.

The craft beer revolution kept charging ahead in 2012, when 12% more barrels were shipped than the year before, the sixth straight year of growth. Of 27 major craft brewers - all of which saw some gain - 16 had double digit increases, according to industry research group Beer Marketer's Insights' Craft Brew News publication. In all, the craft beer industry enjoyed a 1.5 million barrel boost to 13.7 million barrels total. Samuel Adams Boston Lager maker Boston Beer led the segment, with craft beer shipments rising as much as 3% to nearly 2.2 million barrels.

Lonely Planet's top 10 U.S. destinations for 2013 leans toward outdoorsy more than urban spots and gives a big thumbs up to the Eastern Sierra, the sole California location that made the list. "This year, hop past Yosemite - just beyond lies the secret California dream: the Eastern Sierra, the overlooked flank of the Sierra Nevada range, with other-worldly natural attractions and surprises (Basque culture?), not to mention far fewer visitors," Lonely Planet author Robert Reid writes.

It was the summer of '72 when 13-year-old Tim Taylor reached the summit in the Sierra Nevada outback. Inspired, he wrote a note - "please write" - and tucked it into a metal film canister that he left on the 12,000-foot peak. Four decades later, a 69-year-old grandfather on an 11-day trek with his son and grandson came across the canister , rusted and now nearly the color of the rocks themselves. "I had my 14-year-old grandson with me. If he wrote a note like that, he'd be interested to have somebody respond decades later," Larry Wright said.

In a state with nearly 38 million residents, it's inconceivable that there's a county with a peewee population. But Alpine County, with just 1,102 residents, is by far California's smallest. But what this county, in the Sierra Nevada about half an hour south of Lake Tahoe, lacks in numbers, it more than makes up for in recreational opportunities. The bed Although Markleeville (population 210) is the county seat, the best bet for cozy lodging is about 15 miles north at Sorensen's Resort (14255 Highway 88, Hope Valley; [800]

Last Christmas, the Sierra Nevada ski industry did everything it could to put on its best face in light of little snow and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The smile was fake. This year the optimism is genuine. "Because of the early snow, everyone I've talked to has never been more optimistic about this season," said Rob Brown, president and publisher of Orinda, Calif.-based Mountain News Corp., which publishes Onthesnow.com and provides snow reports for media outlets.

One passenger was killed and 27 were injured when a shuttle bus carrying employees of an upscale mountain resort crashed Saturday morning on the main highway through the Sierra Nevada. The bus, operated by the Resort at Squaw Creek, was traveling west on Interstate 80 when it veered to the right, said Officer Steve Skeen of the California Highway Patrol.

On a cloudless morning, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden stood at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. — where the U.S. dominated human spaceflight for half a century — and revealed plans for the space agency's next chapter. On Friday, NASA handed out $1.1 billion in contracts to three companies to privately develop a new generation of spacecraft that could one day ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Now that the space shuttle fleet has been retired, NASA has no way to travel to the space station other than shelling out $63 million each time one of its astronauts rides on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

Re "They told it on the mountains," Column One, July 3 I too have hiked and climbed Sierra Nevada peaks and seen and signed those registers atop the summits. Hopefully the registers at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library, which contain the signatures of legendary naturalists such as John Muir, can be copied digitally or to paper and then be returned to the summit for others to peruse and sign. Hopefully, all the registers can be preserved in this manner. It is sad that anyone would steal such registers.