Early on the morning of February 11th, Linda and I left for our second snow camping trip in Yosemite National Park. Like last year our destination was Dewey Point - a spectacular spot on the rim of Yosemite Valley with views of Half Dome and El Capitan.

We got off to a later than planned start and it took longer than usual to get to our trailhead at Badger Pass Ski Area off the Glacier Point Road in Yosemite. The weather report for the weekend looked OK. There was a storm expected Friday night that was suppose to last until Saturday morning. Then a period of clearing from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon when another even bigger storm was expected to roll in. If all went according to our well-timed plan, we would be snug in our tent at Dewey Point by the time the storm hit Friday night and out to the parking lot before the Sunday afternoon storm arrived.

We expected Saturday to be our day-hike day to Crocker Point to view Bridalveil Falls under a beautiful blue sky. And we were looking forward to star gazing Saturday night after the always spectacular sunset at Dewey Point. None of this quite worked out the way we planned it...

It was already started snowing lightly by the time we arrived at the trailhead parking lot - about an hour later than planned. While getting our Wilderness Permit, I asked the Ranger about the weather and how much snow we might expect from this storm. He thought maybe we could expect about 9 inches. (They had just had 9" the day before and he thought this storm would be much like the last one.)

We located the overnight parking area and finished the final assembly on our backpacks. Planning ahead, we put the snow chains on the car so that we wouldn't have to deal with that bit of hassle when we came out. Especially since we knew there would be an accumulation of snow in the parking lot to deal with on our return. We also (cleverly, I thought) decided to remove the rubber tighteners from the snow chains so that no one would steal them while we were gone thereby making it impossible to use our chains. I stowed the tighteners in the trunk along with everything else (so bears wouldn't be tempted) where I could get to them easily upon our return. Feeling excited and confident, we headed out.

We made it about 50 feet when we noticed that all the other cars in the overnight parking area had parked noses out and had their windshield wipers sticking out - presumably to make it easier to get out of the new snow and to keep the wipers from freezing to the windshield. All this made sense to us, so we turned the car around, pulled out the wipers and headed off down the trail.

Since it was later than we planned, and we knew how long it would take to hike to Dewey Point, and it was already snowing, and we didn't want to set up camp after dark while it was snowing, we discussed alternate plans. We decided to take a different trail and camp in a clearing about a mile and a half in that I remembered from my first snow camping trip to Dewey Point with the Sierra Club. It was a more challenging trail - up and down - but our destination would be much closer. And since Saturday was going to be a beautiful day, we figured that we could pack up and finish the hike over to Dewey Point the next day.

Leaving the parking lot, we hiked about a half mile down Glacier Point Road to where the trail to Dewey Point takes off. During the winter they close Glacier Point Road past the Badger Pass Ski Area and turn it into a groomed ski trail all the way out to glacier Point - about 12 miles. From the groomed trail we figured it would be about another mile to the clearing. What I didn't remember was how much uphill there was between the road and the summit where the clearing was. We took our time since our sea level lungs were working harder at 7,600 feet and we had lots of goodies (read heavy) in our backpacks. After what seemed to be an unusually long time (hiking in a snow storm seems to distort time), we arrived at the clearing with about an hour of daylight left with the snow still falling lightly.

By the time we had leveled a spot for the tent, set it up and got hot water going for tea, it was snowing more heavily. Fortunately, there was not much wind since that makes for pretty miserable conditions while you're trying to cook a meal. While I made tea and melted water for drinking, Linda set up the tent with our brand new 0° sleeping bags that we got especially for this trip. We were gonna sleep warm no matter what!

After a warm, delicious dinner, we tucked ourselves into our new bags and listened to the snow fall on the tent...  and, boy, did it fall! It fell, and fell, and kept falling...  all night long. During the night I woke up and noticed that the snow had drifted about 3/4 the way up the sides of the tent which were sagging under the load. Time to shovel!

I donned my fuzzy, warm, high-tech clothes and unzipped the door. Snow had drifted up the front of the tent and I had to push it away to get out. It only took about 15 minutes to dig the tent out and shovel a space around the tent where more snow could accumulate, as I knew it would. While I was outside, I noticed that our snowshoes were fast disappearing under all the fresh snow. So much for the Ranger's perdiction of 9 inches. We had already had more that a foot of snow and it was still coming down.

We awoke to snow. I got out and shoveled the tent out again while making tea and breakfast. Nothing like a warm meal to keep the cold at bay. It was now about 9 am and it had been snowing continuiously since the previous afternoon. According to my calculations, we had gotten about 18" of snow. Twice as much as predicted.

Around 10:30 am the sun began peeking it's way through the grey clouds. Beautiful blue patches of sky started to appear and we had every expectation that it would be a spectacular day - fresh snow and blue skies. By noon it was gone.

From what I remember on my previous trip on this trail, the spot we had chosen had a great view of a forested valley looking west. Perfect for a much anticipated Saturday night sunset. I say, from what I remember, because visibility never cleared to more than about a 1/4 mile the whole time we were out. Grey skies, mist and snow as far as the eye could see. We saw some trees on the hillside near us and that was about it. No sunset, no sunrise. Just grey, grey, grey as far as the eye could see...  which was not very far.

By this time, we had already decided to stay put and not relocate our camp to Dewey Point. Instead we planned to day-hike there. That way we could have a long walk on a beautiful day and a short hike out (mostly downhill) back to the car. It turned out to be a good decision because it began snowing again around one o'clock. Lightly, but unexpected. This was suppose to be our beautiful day in the gorgeous outdoors.

We waited for the snow to stop, had lunch in camp and waited some more. By mid-afternoon, it was clear (although not weather-wise) that it was going to snow for the rest of the day. We huddled for an executive decision making meeting and decided to take a nap. We awoke to more snow.

And more snow. And more snow. We read, talked, stretched, memorized poetry, napped and napped some more. And it snowed some more. We had an early dinner and turned in for the night, knowing it would be a long night of snowing and shoveling. For once, we were right.

I only had to dig the tent out twice during the night and I kept moving our snow shoes so they wouldn't disappear entirely. By my calculations, we had another 18" of new snow by morning.

Now don't get me wrong. We really enjoyed ourselves. Sunday morning I felt really rested and relaxed. It felt more like three days of rest, rather that the actual two it was. We only saw 8 other people the entire time we were out - and they were in the distance. It was peaceful and it was quiet. Very relaxing and totally rejuvinating.

It was now Sunday morning and it had snowed almost continuously the whole time we were out. Linda and I figured that 3 feet of snow and two days of forced rest was enough and decided to pack up after breakfast (another warm, delicious meal) and make it back to the car and down to a lower elevation before the BIG storm hit on Sunday night. So we did.

By the time we had finished getting everything packed up, the weather had warmed sufficiently for the snow to turn to rain! Fortunately, we were well prepared and stayed warm and dry the whole way out. We were dry (under our rain gear) but everything else was soaked! The most amazing part for me was that even though my gloves were totally soaked, they were warm. They were a pair that I bought especially for this trip. They were made by Patagonia from a material called Synchilla. Totally soaked and totally warm. The only time they got cold was when I took them off and laid them on my pack for a while when we took a rest when we got back to the groomed main trail on the way back. Even then, all I did was put them back on and let the warmth from my hands re-warm the water held in the material. Boy, was I glad I had good gloves!

When we got back to the parking lot, the adventure was not over. My car was buried! If I hadn't parked it near a van and put the windshield wipers out, I might still be digging around looking for it. Add to that the fact that the snow plow that was clearing the parking lot had stopped about 8 feet from the front of my car. I got more practice shoveling snow. Wet snow.

And remember how clever I was by putting the snow chain tighteners in the trunk so that no one could steal them. Well, of course since I had backed the car in, the first thing I had do was to shovel my way all the way to the back of the car so I could get them. If I had trusted the fates, I would have only had to shovel my way to the driver's door and driven the car out to a clear spot to load up our gear. Live and learn...

Well, it really wasn't THAT bad. With Linda and me both shoveling, we managed to get loaded up and out of the parking lot in just about an hour. Having chains on the car slowed us down considerably and it took us almost 20 minutes to drive the 5 miles down to the main road where we could take off our chains. From there it was smooth (?) sailing out of the Park. Raining the whole way.

The rain only got heavier as we drove home. We stopped for dinner hoping that the rain might slack a bit, but no such luck. It only got heavier. It rained the whole way home. The good news is that it stopped right as we pulled into Oakland so we could unpack the car without getting soaked again.

Linda and I both agreed that we would have preferred better weather, but we also agreed that being out in the wilderness and sleeping close to the earth sure did beat our regular urban environment. So, even with all the hassle, we're ready to do it again as soon as we can!

Wanna join us?