EISPIRATEN

There were no 40 degree slopes or massive peaks to climb, but there was the pristine beauty of my favorite national park, Yosemite!

Tracie aka Blooty and I did the Ski Hut Trip offered through YNP this week from Badger Pass to Glacier Point with a night at the Glacier Point Ski Hut. Since it hadn't snowed in a week the road which has a trail cut for x-country skiers was hard packed, so we chose to boot most of the 10.5 mile (each way) trek. We used our snowshoes when we went off trail.

I have been to Yosemite over 30 times but never in the winter, until now. Shame on me! It was beautiful to see all my favorite views and more, bathed in snow. The weather was spring-like perfect and the lodging at the hut was delightful. Good food, warm & cozy accommodations. Two Randonee skiers showed up in the evening by snowplow and jumped off Glacier Point in the monring to ski a chute near Staircase Falls. I was jealous! No photos, as it was straight down!

I will be back, to snow camp and hopefully ski it, maybe in a storm. I would love to do this again when snow is falling.

Clouds Rest and Half Dome in the glow of a sunset


Petting a snow elephant (photo courtesy of Tracie)


El Cap


rest of the pix are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... iteFeb2010#

Great Report, great Pictures Norma, way to capture the beauty of the place. Next time I do that trek I'm doing it on snow shoes as well, spent way to much energy and effort trying to master cross country skies on the way out to the HUT, that I wasn't able to enjoy myself or the great scenes as much - learned later that the skies were complete "Junk", little did I know They were rentals from the Badger Pass Rental shop.

Looks like you had the perfect time Thanks for sharing it.

Gorgeous!!! I loved every single one of those photos! As always, I love the smaller details that you notice, like the ball of snow on the tree stump. Cool stuff.

The panoramas are just jaw-dropping.

Great job on the captions, too!
Looks like you sure are enjoying your new camera.

Glad to see you made it up Sentinel Dome.

Ernie,
my new camera did not come in time Tracie was gracious enough to lend me an old but very nice Canon she had. i could not have imagined being in Yosemite without a camera. again, thank you Tracie!

Patrick,
i didn't want to ski since it had been nearly 30 years since i had last x-country skied and figured this was too long a trail to be a newbie. i did notice that the trail is mostly downhill on the way out there and uphill on the way back. those skiers were "workin' it!"

Johanna,
thanks for your kind words. i loved having a camera in my hands again!

I love this TR and the great annotations and pictures you've made -- thank you Norma

Glacier Point Ski Hut looks very nice and huge.

Overhanging Rock is just awesome, and I gather you like El Cap a lot

Vitaly,
the hut is the GP Store & Gift Shop in the summer, so it is plenty huge. this might be a great trip for you and your girlfriend.
yes, i love El Cap, and i have a dream that invloves me & El Cap on my 60th b-day (a few years from now ) we'll see if dreams really do come true!

norma r wrote:Vitaly,
the hut is the GP Store & Gift Shop in the summer, so it is plenty huge. this might be a great trip for you and your girlfriend.

That explains it and is exactly what I was thinking about -- nice weekend getaway ...

norma r wrote:yes, i love El Cap, and i have a dream that invloves me & El Cap on my 60th b-day (a few years from now ) we'll see if dreams really do come true!

I had a feeling there was something special about it -- may your dreams come true!

norma r wrote:Vitaly,
the hut is the GP Store & Gift Shop in the summer, so it is plenty huge. this might be a great trip for you and your girlfriend.
yes, i love El Cap, and i have a dream that invloves me & El Cap on my 60th b-day (a few years from now ) we'll see if dreams really do come true!

If I'm around and have the time, I would love to join you on the backside of El Cap for your 60th whenever it is - I'll bring a cake and candles in a special container, then put the frosting on right out of the can. The cake will have a big "smiley face" on it, cause that's the one you always present to everyone

Patrick, your'e a hoot! but i might be craving salty potato chips with a rum & coke after i first sleep for a week. just say the dream invloves, ascenders, a guide and $$!

Hi Norma R,
I enjoyed your TR and pictures very much.
I have been amazed by your so many interesting trip you had done in a past.
How do you come up your new adventure week after week and enjoying them all? You are amazing lady.
How was the road condition to the YNP? Need 4x4?

Thank you for sharing your adventure.
Looking forward for next one soon.
Shin

Hi Tracie,
You have been training already secretly.
This is the best way to train and enjoy.
Thank you.
Shin

Hi Shin!

What can i say?... I love to stay active! Thanks for your kind words.
We drove to Badger Pass from the south entrance with no 4WD necessary. I'm sure they do there best to keep the roads open for 2WD vehicles so tourist may come and spend their money.

We had also hoped to snowshoe to the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees on Monday, but there was no parking available. Since it was a holiday, there was probably more traffic than the average Monday.

Maybe by then, we could race each other up El Cap.

TacoDelRio wrote:Maybe by then, we could race each other up El Cap.

Ryan vs. Ryan! You're on!

norma r wrote:

TacoDelRio wrote:Maybe by then, we could race each other up El Cap.

Ryan vs. Ryan! You're on!

We'll see what's superior: Having Ryan as a first name, or having Ryan as a last name!

And I get a helicopter.

We have a family trip planned to Yosemite the week after Easter. Hopefully conditions will be good for plenty of snowshoeing and some skiing at Badger Pass. My 7 & 9 year olds are becoming quite competent snowshoers but they really want to ski.

Here's a photo of the kids in Sequoia last week:

JimQ,
Great photo! Badger Pass looks like a perfect place to teach children how to ski. The lodge is like a step back into the 60's. Small, casual and looked like mostly families. Have fun!