Dewey Point, 1/11 to 1/13/2013

[Marc Eldridge]

14 people showed up for this. A pretty impressive turnout considering how cold it was.

[Kattt]

Dave

Our kitchen

The Elridge brothers

Zinc Oxide Kat

Rick Niemi

Crow landing

Jacob's photo with my camera and his lens

Jacob's photo with my camera and his lens

More later….

[Kattt]

Jack Elliot

Kitchen shot

A few of us, trying to stay war. Coldest trip I have been on. My thermometer quit at 20. Rick's quit at 5. The ranger at Badger pass was calling for a low of 0 to -2 for Friday, and I think we got that!

Another's Jacob D. shot combining my camera and his lens and skills, to capture the mood..

[chris smead]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing! I'm thinking of doing that route soon. I have a few questions:

1. Was the terrain and snow pack such that snowshoes were adequate the entire time? (I'm trying to avoid hauling crampons and ice axe)
2. Where's the best place to camp? I was told you can't camp on the actual Dewey point overlook.
3. Any other tips?

[George Maung]

Thanks for sharing. Always nice to see BPL people getting together.

Any other trip planned?

[Jacob D]

Thanks for starting the thread, Marc.
Thanks to David W. and Ken H. for getting the trip together.
Thanks to everyone who came out for being awesome.

A family member told me one weather report they saw showed -5ºF for the area/elevation on Friday night. It's possible. I'm sure it got down right around zero both nights.

Before my memory card debacle I managed to take a few photos…

David Skiing In

Rick and Marc's Pyramids

Kat's Sublite

Rick's Gatewood Cape

David's Trailstar

Adam's Hexamid

Adam Looking for a View

Snack Break near Crocker Point

View from Crocker Point

View from Camp, Near Dewey Point

[Nico .]

Looks like a fun trip with great, if a bit cold, weather!

Thanks to everyone sharing photos. Look forward to seeing more from this outing. I hope to make it one of these times.

-Nico

[Chris S]

Thanks to everyone for making this such a fun trip. I had a great time. In fact, I'm probably heading out again this weekend, which should hopefully be a bit warmer!

Here's some of my pics:

Passing through one of the meadows on the way in.

The views opened up as we approached Dewey Point

The kitchen area

View near Dewey Point

More yosemite valley from Dewey Point

Jeremy and Jack at the point

One more view from Dewey Point before heading back

[michael levi]

Crisp photos!

[HkNewman]

Great photos. When I glanced at the pre-trip announcement, thought you all were going to do a day-trip. Seeing packs, shelters and stoves, what were everyone's sleep insulation at below zero?

[BlackHatGuy]

I hope David has a cuben Trailstar, because it would take a lot of effort to pitch a sil Trailstar that loosely…… ;-)

[Tony Wong]

Thanks for posting up the pics…..great to see BPLers getting together in mass.

Daytime pics looked great, but man…..sooooo cold!

Brave people.

Maybe one day I will be brave enough to do another snow trip.

My navigation skills just suck in the snow.

-Tony

[David W.]

What can I say? It was snowing and I was more interested in soup and tea. I admitted at the time that I felt like the little piggy that built his house of straw. Maybe if I had a willy warmer from New Zealand or a cat suit I would have been able to stay warm and put some more effort into it.

In spite of my terrible tent pitch I somehow managed to have a great time. It was great fun catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. What a great group! I look forward to seeing many of you at Coe in 2 weeks.

[Kattt]

Hopefully others will answer your question as well.
Obviously we had a variety of sleep systems and some were more comfortable overnight than others. I don't think anyone was truly miserable throughout the night.
I sleep very cold to begin with so I brought plenty of insulation, what would be overkill for many. That said, I slept very well; comfortable and warm, other than having to cover my face and waking up with the humidity of my breath having turned to ice on the sleeping bag around my face.
My system, from the ground up:

2 feet of Ridgerest, which I laid sideways to catch my arms and elbows .
Exped. Down mat 9 . Full length.
1/4 inch gossamer gear Thinlite mat. 5' long.

Montbell SS #2 and inside of that a modified Golite Ultra 20.

I wore some Goosefeet down pants, some Feathered Friends down booties and a Paragonia R 1 hoodie. On Friday night I also wore a Montbell Alpine Light Parka.
I mostly wore a beanie I made with Quiviut wool.

I would have survived with a little less, but I am glad I had all that!

[Backpack Jack]

Thanks everybody for a great weekend even though it was a short one for me and my son. This was a great trip to meet old friends and meet some new ones. I wish I could have spent more time with Mike and his wife, they came in to camp late Sat. night after most of us were already in bed, for this I'm truley sorry, normaly I would have been out there helping them set up there shelter. I think that I was more worried about my cold feet and getting them warm, plus dealing with my 16 year old daughter at home kind of gets you off track, at least for this old man, boys are so much easier to raise. No excuses, I need to slow down and taste the snow, or is that smell the roses? Well here's to the next snow trip, and some more pictures.

Come on sun!

I think this is where my son asked Jack if he brought his "fly suit"

1st one down this wins a free snow cone and some new undies!

Me and my boy on top of the world.

[Justin Baker]

Wow, Yosemite looks even more amazing in winter. I really wish I could go on a trip like this. Some day, when I get the gear together. That's some seriously cold weather.

[Chris S]

HK,

I had

Marmot Helium 15* Bag
Exped DownMat 9
Six Moon Designs Meteor Bivy
MLD Duomid

and was wearing

Thick wool socks with fleece socks over them
Cap 1 bottoms, Softshell Pants and Micropuff Pants
Merino wool t-shirt, R1 Hoody and Nanopuff Pullover
Fleece balaclava

I also had a nalgene filled with hot water in the sleeping bag. I was barely warm enough with all that and sleeping with all those layers wasn't very comfortable since they'd get tangled when I tossed and turned.

[Chris S]

You should have seen how loosely it was pitched after the first attempt :)

[Ken Thompson]

shameful…

[Backpack Jack]

For me and my son's sleep system we had a Mountain Smith Morrison double wall 2 man tent, we left the fly hang down to keep more heat in.

I was in a Borahgear silnylon bivy with a 20* over stuff EE Tim Marshall quilt, and a syn. over quilt that I made out of Nobul 1, Ripstop nylon from Joanns and 2.5 Apex for insulation inbetween, on top of a Neoair, an emergency blanket that my son brought was under the Neoairs to reflect heat back to our bodies.

My son was using the other EE quilt that was a 0*, he had to strip off clothes in the middle of the night, he said he was uncomfortable and hot, that was untill the quilt became untucked from the pad, then he said he could feel cold drafts, his feet got a little cold also, but that was due to not shifting more down towards his feet.

To be fair though, when we went to bed, and after restling around with all the gear we generated a lot ou btu's, and the temp inside before we went to sleep was a balmy 48*,

Later that night I wanted to check the temps, and as I unzipped my bivy I noticed it was soaked, it was totaly wet between the syn over quilt that I had made and the bivy, but the down quilt was completely dry and warm next to my body, that proved one point I wanted to try out, and that was to see if the over quilt would soak up the condensation and still keep the down quilt dry, plus add a few more degrees to my sleep system for little weight gain, success! I never got cold at all, the final low temp in our tent was 21*, it may have got lower, but out of all the times I checked that was the lowest reading.

Overall I was impressed with my new over quilt and will make another one that weighs a little less to take on future winter trips, not so much for the added warmth, but more for the condensation barrier.

I also wore silk base layer top and bottoms under my Merino wool base layer top and bottoms. Then for my feet I wore merino wool socks inside my goose feet down booties and foot warmers on my socks and between the booties.

We did create a lot of condensation inside the tent being that there was two bodies exhaling all night, most of it froze to the tent, but a lot was inside our bivy's from keeping our heads tucked inside the quilts. I also was wearing one of Kats beanies, those things really work well.

[Adam Criswell]

Good times were had by all. I really enjoyed meeting new people and seeing friends again. Here are a few pictures, I added a couple from the valley for variety. :)

El Cap and the Merced

Grazing on the snow

Lower Yosemite Falls

Rick N

At the edge

Snowing at Dewey Point

Looking East

Beam Me Up

Jacob with Locus Gear pyramid

Rick E with Duomid (?)

Ultralight yard sale at 7000 feet

Jacob and David gazing into the clouds

Wandering

Sunrise on Sunday

40 Below Commercial

Strike a pose

Group Shot

Sorry I didnt get individual pictures of you all, maybe next time. If anyone from the trip would like a copy of the group shot, PM me your email address and I will send it to you.

As far as gear went, I admit I was a little nervous that what I had wouldnt cut it. Turns out I was fine.

Clothing worn when sleeping:
Cap 4 LJ's
Cap 1 shirt
Hooded wool shirt
light wool socks
Hooded fleece
Thermawrap vest
Thermawrap pants
Montbell wind pants
Montbell Alpine Light
Fleece balaclava
Houdini wind shirt
Liner gloves
Primaloft booties

Old (15- 20 degree?) down sleeping bag
MLD bivy
Thermarest Solite pad
Thinlite pad
3/4 length inflatable
Torsolight pad
Hot water bottle (in a dry bag, thanks for the idea Jacob)

See you all soon!

(edited: forgot pads)

[Mike Oxford]

Just a note…
Weather.com had the low at Badger Pass at -17F on their "weather yesterday page" on Monday when we looked. Seriously. I don't know how cold it was at the point, but it's the same elevation.

Great to meet all of you; thank you for welcoming us late-in-the-dark-arrivals and letting us use the kitchen! :)

This link will expire, but it'll be good through the end of January…

http://www.weather.com/weather/monthly/29:11

And of note… it looks like what was previously -17 is now -20? Odd.

We passed some snowshoe people while we were coming out that thought Badger Pass was 8 at 7:30am. At any rate … it was a cold cold night. :)

-Mike and Katie

[Jacob D]

Adam, you posted that 'just be a model' photo of me, lol. I'm glad now it was too cold to deter me from going the nude model route that I normally insist on. :D

Mike it's possible that weather report is from the Mammoth weather station, which is probably the closest one to Badger Pass. It was well cold out there, but -20 doesn't sound right. Coldest I've been in was -15ºF and the gear I had wouldn't have kept me warm in that.

[Ken Helwig]

Looks like a great trip guys! Bummed that I could not make it, but considering how cold it was….kinda relieved! Next time, I promise

[Jacob D]

I added a more long winded write up on my blog if anyone is interested.

If anyone is interested in another snow trip, hit me up. I'm thinking something for mid Feb would be nice. I have a couple of ideas, but open to whatever as long as I can snowshoe in.

[Author]

Posts