Yosemite New Year Ski Report

“Photos here. First 19 photos of this album only....

Thursday, 1/1/04
Left home at 7:30 or so in a nasty storm, heading for Crane Flat. Sure enough, it rained sideways all the way to the mountains. The forecast was for a 5000' snow level, but it started snowing pretty hard at 3000'. We got to the Big Oak Flat entry station at about 11 AM, only to find that the road had just been closed - seems a snow plow had spun out. Rangers said they hoped to reopen the road in a while, but admitted they might not be able to keep up. They said we'd have to put chains on our Subaru (yes, chains on an all-wheel drive vehicle!) in any case, so we pulled over into the lot, put them on, and had lunch. After lunch, we got out and made a snowman, threw some snowballs (Cameron got me in the head with one - nice shot!), and got good and wet. Finally, at about 1 PM, the ranger came by and said they were aiming at a 3:00 opening, but weren't optimistic, and would potentially leave the road closed until Friday. So we hit the road, back down 120 to a county road shortcut leading down to Coulterville and Hwy 49. The scenery was terrific, and we finally arrived at our Oakhurst hotel a little before dinner.

Friday, 1/2/04
Awoke to cloudy skies, which spit some snow on us during the drive up to the park. Temp was about 30. At the entry station, they told us the road to Badger Pass was closed until around noon, due to fallen trees. So we opted to park it there and ski up to the Mariposa Grove. The snow was really thick, so it was a good thing someone else had broken the trail. We got up there at about lunchtime, so, since it was still spitting some hail-like snow on us, I dug a big trench and set up a tarp for a covered dining room. We had some hot soup from a thermos, crackers, cheese, etc. With the snow and wind, it was kind of miserable, so we decided against visiting the Grizzly Giant tree (seen it in the snow before anyway), and headed back down. I fell three times going back down, laughing loudly each time. Dinner at a Mexican place that night.

Saturday, 1/3/04
The plan was to get up and head home, so that's what we did. But we only got a half block away from the hotel when we decided to be spontaneous. So I whipped a U-turn and we headed to Badger Pass. We were stuck in Wawona for an hour for some undetermined reason, then put chains on. The rangers recommeded putting the chains on there, since there wasn't a lot of room to do so at Chinquapin. Sure enough, the road from Chinquapin to Badger was in bad shape. We finally got there, had a quick lunch at the car, thawed the ski rack with water to unlock it, then thawed and chipped away the ice from our bindings, then finally headed out skiing at about 1:30. It was just gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky (until late afternoon) and about 20 degrees. The trees were almost invisible from all the snow on them. And the snow was good for skiing, too. We headed up the road to Summit Meadow, then decided to ski toward Dewey Point for a while. We got to the top of the hill about 2/3 of the way there, had a fun ski back down through the powder, then made our way back to Summit Meadow. After a break, we went up the steep hill toward Old Badger Pass and back down to the lodge and the car. We packed up pretty quick and went home via Hwy 140, thus covering all three western Yosemite entrances. Unfortunately, we missed the light show at the Wawona Tunnel overlook by about 15 minutes - got there just in time to see all the hot shot photographers packing up their enormous cameras after catching what must've been an amazing sight. As it was, seeing El Cap enshrouded in snow and clouds was darn cool. The rest of the trip back was uneventful....

Gear Report
Tried out my new skis: Fischer Outbound Crowns. I should have had my skins, as there's less of a crown base on these metal-edged skis than I was used to. So any significant uphill was pretty much impossible. They were awfully good on the flats and downhills, though. Also, the guys at the REI ski shop seemed to have applied about a gallon of Maxiglide (or equivalent), so that didn't help much. Cameron used some toe warmers and Pamela some hand warmers - both got good reviews from the users. The portable DVD player Santa brought us was put to good use, both on the drive up and back, and at the hotel.”

“Nice report B-man! That virgin snow looks real nice. I'm totally disgusted, all waxed up and no place to go.”

“Hey, Bobo, what's up? Are you injured? Saw reference to your ankle on another thread, but did I miss something?


Forgot to make note of my disappointment in the NPS's road-clearing abilities. I guess they're not really in the road business, so it's probably not completely fair to criticize. But there wasn't really that much snow coming down, yet they had a terrible time keeping the roads passable. Poor Badger Pass - they must have missed out on a small fortune, as I'm sure many people just gave up trying to get there. All that snow on a holiday weekend, but hardly any customers. Ouch.”

“Good job and interesting report, Marty. Those pics are awesome. Postcard quality. And the sky blue against the white snow. Great!”

“Great shots Marty!

I didn't know you guys finally made it up to Chain Lakes. I must have missed the post if you posted the trip report.”

“Hey, HM!! It was easy to get great photos on Saturday - too bad we couldn't have gotten up to Badger early enough to make the whole trip out to Dewey - that would have been spectacular!! Did you see us waving on Saturday night when we passed thru town on our way home?

Yeah, re: Chain Lakes I just realized that you must not have seen that (short) thread. Here ya go.”

“Ahhh, so that was you... :D

Chain Lakes is a great place. That was one of Hannah's first bp trips (~18 months old). Too bad the road there is soooo long!”

“Yeah, that's one of those roads that makes you frustrated it's so bumpy, but also glad because there'd be a whole lot more people there if it was a nice smooth ride.”

“cool pictures.
i say it everytime, and I say it again "I want to go"”