Meetup – Yosemite Snowshoe/Ski to Dewey Pt. – Jan. 11-13

[David W.]

Thanks for the helpful information Richard. I will update the original post with this information. See you all soon!

[William Johnson]

I just did this hike a few days before Christmas. I had a great time and hope you do, too.

I snowshoed and my partners skiied. It worked out well because the last three miles in to Dewey Point were snowed over and no tracks remained. I was able to break a trail for them. Snow was a fantastic corn like layer. Wonderful!

I would suggest eating at the Curry Bar, in Curry Village, Yosemite. It has moderately priced eats (one of the lowest in Yosemite), a good cafe selection of foods for the vegetarian and up, a fantastic Mammoth Double Nut Brown Ale, and a warm, cozy fireplace.

[Kattt]

David and all,
Could we have a list of who is going and what days they are getting there?
Also, does anyone know if there are enough suitable trees for hammocking?
Thanks!

David, I cannot take all of Friday off, butI can leave work( Santa Cruz) around 9 or 10 am…

[David W.]

Kat, There are enough trees to Hammock.

[Chris S]

Is anyone driving up from San Francisco or near a BART station on Saturday morning that I could get a ride with? Or even Friday evening?

I could drive if necessary, but would prefer to leave the car behind for my girlfriend to use.

[Backpack Jack]

Looks like I'll be heading up early Sat. morning with Me, my son, Brian, Andy, and maybe Kevin S. You can add my son Jeremy to the list.

Jack

[Adam Criswell]

Those coming in of Friday: What time are you planning on starting? Should we try to start together or just meet out at the point? If starting separately, should each person be responsible for their own permit?

[Andrew F]

Chris S and I will be heading up early Saturday. I'm heading out from Sunnyvale then picking him up at the Dublin BART if anybody wants to carpool.

[Bob Gross]

"If starting separately, should each person be responsible for their own permit?"

Yes. If you are separate, then you are not in the group.

A park ranger might stop you at any time and ask to see your permit.

–B.G.–

[Jane Baack]

I believe that only the group going in on Friday to spend the night out at Dewey Pt. needs the permit. Others going in on Saturday will join the group with the permit, up to 15 allowed. No one who is just snowshoeing or skiing needs a permit at Badger Pass so no rangers will be checking for permits unless you are camping overnight. While going to Dewy Pt. the Sat. group should not need any permit-their permit is already at the site. This is the same as when someone skis or snowshoes ahead of the group-no permit needed until camping.

Actually, based on what happened two years ago, with Jack going in we'll all need to monitor the situation to make sure another blizzard doesn't arrive and keep them up there drinking beer and eating the Badger Pass cafeteria food all night and day until they can be dug out and Rangers caravan them out. With Jack along AND some of the others who got stuck with him, who knows what will happen? Of course if Kevin S. and Jack's son surely everything will be just fine. Oh, sure! Goo luck on that.

Jane

[Bob Gross]

Some interesting words may be found on page 21 of the current Yosemite National Park Superintendent's Compendium:

• When Glacier Point road is closed due to winter conditions, camping is prohibited in the following
areas:
• Within 1½ miles of the Badger Pass ski area boundary
• Summit Meadow, Dewey Point and the Glacier Point area.

===============
I don't write the rules. I just read them.

–B.G.–

[Richard Niemi]

When I spoke with the Badger Pass Rangers last week I told them I was going to be camping out near Dewey Point in a few weeks. They told me to camp out of visual site of the trail and I will be okay.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wildwinter.htm
Quote from the page listed above –
"In general, winter Wilderness users must camp at least one mile away from a plowed road. Camping is not allowed within 1½ miles of the Badger Pass ski area boundary. Camping is also not allowed at Summit Meadow, Dewey Point, or Glacier Point (camping is permitted near both points, but not at the points themselves)."

I'll go with what they told me and what it says on their website.
Rick

[Bob Gross]

Another good place to try is out near Sentinel Dome, or across the road from the Sentinel Dome access trail. You get more of a view toward Half Dome. Once you are 50 yards or so off the road, nobody will know that you are there.

–B.G.–

[Backpack Jack]

If anybody has a tarp to bring for a kitchen set up, you might want to bring it, incase the weather turns bad then we have something to cook under out of the weather.

I'm bringing at least one 8×10. and maybe a 10×10

Just saying!

Jack

[Kattt]

@Jack
I will be bringing one of my tarps for my hammock set up. If need be we can huddle under…

[Backpack Jack]

Here's the weather report so far.

Thursday A 20 percent chance of snow. Partly sunny, with a high near 36. North wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday Night A 20 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 21. North northwest wind 10 to 15 mph becoming northeast in the evening.
Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 35. East northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north northwest in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 15 mph.
Friday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 23. Northeast wind around 10 mph.
Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 37. Northeast wind 10 to 15 mph.
Saturday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 26. East northeast wind 10 to 15 mph.
Sunday Mostly sunny, with a high near 38. East northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 15 mph.

[Jacob D]

Hey Jack.

What elevation/area of Yosemite is that forecast for? Those lows sound pretty optimistic to me. Is that for the valley? I was up on Mt. Diablo a few nights ago… and it was damn near that cold up there.

[Backpack Jack]

@ Jacob,

That was from the NOAA web site and it was for the area of Cathedral peak and Brideveil falls. I think that should be pretty close to whre we are going.

Jacob I think you were right, I did another check and the forcast is a little different, but not much. I think before it was around 4,000 ft elevation, even though I clicked on Cathedral Peak it was still picking up the valley floor, so I redid it at almost 7,000 ft and here's what it gave me.

Thursday A 20 percent chance of snow showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 23. Calm wind becoming north northwest around 5 mph in the morning.
Thursday Night A 20 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 10. Northeast wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 21. North northeast wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Friday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 14. Northeast wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 25. Northeast wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Saturday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 16. Northeast wind 10 to 15 mph.
Sunday Mostly sunny, with a high near 27. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming northwest in the morning.

Jack

[Jacob D]

Thanks for the info Jack.

I'm a freak when it comes to weather checking, that's all :)

I plugged in the lat and long into NOAA just now and it looked pretty similar to your original post. It's the weather so anything can change, but teens overnight seems more probable to me, esp if it's clear out. I've also used http://www.mountain-forecast.com in the past as another source, and they've been pretty good at predicting the weather at elevation (if curious try a search for Sentinel Dome @ 8100 ft).

Any way you cut it, it's gonna be brisk!

[Backpack Jack]

@ Jacob,

Brisk is a nice way of putting it, either way we better bring our warm undies!

This just made up my mind on which shelter to bring, looks like the double wall free standing 2 man heavy tent that me and my son will share.

[Kattt]

Jack, and Jacob, how close will we be to Badger Pass? Because the forecast there calls for lows as low as 5 Fahrenheit…

Also, do we have confirmation that no fires are allowed? Not even if we lug some Duraflame logs up there?

[Richard Niemi]

Here are the snow conditions, temperature, road conditions, etc according to the Badger Pass Ski website.
http://www.yosemitepark.com/DailySnowReport.aspx

Park Road Conditions:
http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/conditions.htm

This is another website I use for weather forecasts.
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=37.67512527892127&lon=-119.67063903808594

I will be arriving Friday or Saturday. It depends on what happens at work.

Update: If you haven't camped in the teens before you might want to know that canister stoves don't work very well at 15 degrees unless they are designed for this type of weather. You will end up with a little tiny flame. I know from experience. You can warm up your canister by keeping it in your pocket before use.

Can't wait!
Rick

[Jacob D]

@ Jack
Brisk? Well, yeah… I didn't wanna be too much of a downer :)

@ Kat
Not too far from Badger Pass. I wouldn't be surprised if temps dip that low, I wouldn't mind if we get cloud cover around bedtime. A fire would be nice. Last time I had a bitter cold, oops- I mean brisk, snow outing like this the fire sure helped lift the spirits.

@ Richard
That's the same weather site I checked earlier (NOAA) with the lat and long… it must have updated because now it's showing lows of 12-15. In any event, I think preparing for 0 is a good idea.

I was thinking of maybe bringing my SL5 (just the outer) to pitch for a cook tent / room for a few to huddle up out of the breeze. I'm on the fence whether I should bring (or want to carry) it. Any opinions?

[Backpack Jack]

I have a catalitic herater I was thinking of bringing, it runs off those 10 oz bottles and will last 8 hrs. I don't know how well it will work in those temps, I've only used it down into the mid 20's.

I also made a heater out of a quart paint can, it uses denatured alcohol and toilet paper roll for the wick, it will burn for about 3 hrs, but if you have it near silnylon that could be, how do you say "hazardous" but it does work and packs smaller and lighter.

@ Kat the trail head is only a few hundred yards from Badger Pass Lodge, and from there it's about 3.5 miles to Dewy Point.

[Richard Niemi]

This might be a good trip to sleep in a snowcave. Relative to the outside temperature they are fairly warm. The snowcaves I've slept in hovered around 30 even though the outside temperatures were in the 20s with super strong winds. One of the snowcaves I help build got up to the low 60s inside with two people working and a candle burning. Maybe we were just full of hot air but it sure felt good.
Rick

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