We didn’t have the chance to ski in the backcountry as much as we would have liked this winter due to the lower than average rainfall/snowfall in Southern California. However, Mother Nature seems to have been making up for it recently with some particularly heavy storms. The irony is that we have had to cancel or change several of our rock climbing trips this spring due to snow in the high country. This past weekend was a perfect example: it snowed 2 feet in Idyllwild, where we were planning on climbing! While it would have made sense to simply seize the opportunity and ski powder, we were excited to rock climb and have been training particularly hard lately. So, we visited some nearby crags in the Santa Ynez Mountains and camped at the beach instead. After a weekend of roped climbing at Gibraltar Rock, swimming in the waves of El Refugio Beach and a morning of bouldering at Lizard’s Mouth above Santa Barbara, we really couldn’t complain with how our plans had changed. We were treated to remarkably clear views of the Channel Islands (including the often obscured San Miguel Island!) and . . . the perfect climbing conditions we had hoped to have. I love our weekend trips!