Yosemite in Winter

The first memorable adventure of this year commenced with what in mountaineering is called an "alpine start" - leaving camp usually between midnight and 3 a.m. to ensure the summit is reached by sunrise or early daylight, in order to avoid the hazards of melting ice or snow that can occur later in the day when the temperature increases.

(Ok, that was a mouthful for the opening sentence, but I hope you will keep on reading).

Honestly, it wasn't a true alpine start (I stole another half hour of sleep after the alarm rang at 03:00) and it had nothing to do with climbing, but I figured thinking about it that way will motivate me to stick to the schedule. One of my online hiking groups organized a Yosemite snowshoeing trip the weekend of Valentine's Day - look, the trip had nothing to do with Valentine's Day; it was some people taking advantage of the fact that they had Presidents' Day off to go hike in the snow in the Sierras.  Since that didn't apply to me, I decided to start a day earlier and do my own trip, knowing the whole group would eventually come together somewhere along the trail.  Only one other person decided to join me, so on Friday morningI arranged for the pseudo-alpine style start in order to pick up my partner from Culver City.  After a mishap in finding the freeway exit, I made my way to his place and we hit the road at 05:20.

In Fresno it was time to heed the call of the stomach, but we found ourselves driving round and round looking for a place open for business at 8:30 in the morning (!). Despite this, breakfast turned out to be satisfyingly good at the only café willing to serve us. Then it was back on the highway, hauling ass on Route 41, the Southern Yosemite Highway. The view on the foothills east of Fresno was such:

(Alright, so the colors here were not that intense, I just increased the saturation when editing the original photo for effect)

We finally arrived at Badger Pass Ski Resort in Yosemite half an hour before noon.  Was a clean, crisp day, with waves of sunshine coming down from a perfectly blue sky.  In fact, over the entire weekend, the weather turned out to be as good as one can possible hope for at this time of the year up in the Sierras.  We grabbed our overnight camping permit from the ranger station and lined up at the start of the trail, bulging packs on and snowshoes fixed:

 The trail was actually the continuation of Glacier Point Rd to its end at Glacier Point (a paved two-lane drive in the summer), with groomed snow and lanes for skiers and walkers on either side.  So not exactly wilderness:

After a 4-mile hike, most of it downhill, we pulled off to the side of the road and set up camp.

Setting up a tent in the snow is an exercise in patience and attention to detail. This is how ours ended up looking:

(Again, a photo with increased saturation for effect)

We went to bed as soon as it got dark as the temperature plummeted. It turned out to be a pretty cold night, in the morning we woke up to find the condensation inside the tent frozen into ice crystals… Before packing up and hitting the road, I wanted to have an idea of the snow base depth, so I took this photo of the conveniently located restroom:

Looks like about, oh, six feet…

The second day was to be the big day. Reza and I decided to hike the rest of the road to until about 1 mile before Glacier Point, set up camp, then descend the remainder to our destination light and fast, take in the sight and return to camp just in time for dinner. What we didn’t know was that the 5 miles to the second camp were going to be a manageable, but steady climb, which you really get to feel when having a full pack on.

Nevertheless, the views of the Clark Range made up for the long misery of trudging uphill for most of the day:

 

We eventually reached what in the summer is the Sentinel Dome parking lot and devoted about an hour and a half to preparing our campsite. We didn’t finish setting up the tent, but decided to take care of that upon return. Getting to Glacier Point and back during daylight was imperative and we only had a few hours left. So made for it.

The road from this point on becomes very windy and the descent steeper. Approaching Washburn Point at one of the tightest turns:

Finally, arriving at Glacier Point, the million dollar view:

Yeah, we’ve made it.

View of Yosemite Valley, with Yosemite Falls in the middle:

Reza had a political message to deliver:

It was time to head back to camp. Boosted by the water the three guys we found at the point gave us, we made the ascent back, stopping one last time for this view:

Back at camp, we finished putting the tent together, then melted some snow for water and prepared dinner:

Darkness fell fast, and with it the temperature. We were in bed not long past 18:00 and slept very well the second night. Our winter camping skills were improving: no frozen condensation this time!

The last day was basically just a long backtrack to Badger Pass. Loaded with our packs and anxious to get the weight of our shoulders, we moved fast and covered the 9.2 miles back with two hours to spare (from our initial schedule). We also met up with the rest of this group on this day, the majority of them around the same place where we camped the first night. We talked for a bit, but since they were heading in the opposite direction and had a long day ahead of them, we wished them the best and hauled ass to end our own trip. Hauled ass is the right word here – we were plowing up the hills in the final 3 or so miles of the trip. Impressed with our performance, we got back to the departure point for the end of the trip photo:

Since we had finished early, we decided to take a short detour by Yosemite Valley, as this was Reza’s first time in Yosemite. A perfect ending to the trip, and here’s why:

Tunnel View

El Capitan

Yosemite Falls

Bridalveil Falls

The last shot of the trip is, appropriately enough, a panorama of the Sierra blue – which I’ve been telling Reza about since the beginning of the trip.  Made in heaven:

The end.