March 7, 2012 – Badger Pass

Many people count their time out by how far they have gone, how high they have climbed, or similar criteria. When I am skiing it is how many time I have fallen and how. Today's total is 3 falls—2 knee downs and one rear end drag. The snow was sticky and would catch us in middle of a magnificent glide. Steven did not seem to be that affected by it, except for a huge gather of snow under his ski's. I on the other hand would do a balancing act worthy of a circus. But I better not quit my day job—ops I think I did—and go into a high wire act with three falls.

But I get ahead of myself. We started the day, leaving the house around 8:30, full packed, or so I thought, and headed for Mimi's for a two for one breakfast. Always good thing to eat there. But we realized we needed something else so after breakfast, went back home and hit the road a little after 10am. Got to Yosemite entrance at 11 and Badger Pass before noon. Nobody felt like eating lunch at that point—Mimi's was still satisfying. So we got our stuff together and headed out.

Well at least Steven and I headed out with our ski's. Sherri was doing her snowshoeing. She would spend the afternoon around Summit Meadow. That is her story and you will need to ask her about it.

Steven and I headed off down the road, leaving just a few minutes after noon. We had the intention of skiing a couple miles on the road and coming back on the Old Glacier Point Road. But we were making pretty good time, about an hour at the Bridalveil campgrounds road, we decided to continue on the Glacier Point Road. We made the Ostrander trail head around 1:30.

We did need to take off our ski's because the snow was not covering a large section of road in one place. There were other places where the road was bare, but we could navigate around it. Even at its best, there was about a foot of snow on the road. The sides of the road looked even worse in places where the trees provided shelter from the snow.

We decided to go up the Ostrander Lake trail for 10-15 minutes just to see what we could see. That area is pretty level. But we quickly ran into bare spots. One of the areas looked like ice, but when I went across it, there was a wake following me—does that count as water skiing? We stop about 300 yards down the trail. Steven spotted a nice downed tree and we had twose's. Basic fare-Cliff bar and peanut butter pretzels. We decide to turn back as the snow did not look better.

We went back up the road a ways, climbing Horizon Ridge. Not a bad climb, just a long one. Around 2:15, we decided to head back, even though we did not reach the top. I think we were about a three-quarters of a mile from some good views. But we will need to save that for another day. We had told Sherri we would be back by 4:00. At this point we had done about 5.1 miles and would need to come back another 4.7 miles. Steven was still going strong, but I started to lag behind. He would get several hundred yards ahead and look back and wait for me. But I was getting slower and slower, feeling the miles. The lungs were doing ok, just the legs were not swift. I want to blame it on the snow, but I think it was mostly me.

I got back to the car at 4:15. Sherri and met a new friend who talked about volunteer opportunities in Yosemite and the Park Service. We will see how that one goes. We get packed up and its off to Todd's. What a way to have bookend meals! Got back home, weary, but safe around 7:00.



A couple of things from Garmin's Base Camp after the tracks were loaded in:

Duration: 4 hr, 10 min
Moving Time: 3 hr, 40 min
Stopped Time: 30 min
Length: 10.1 Miles
Average Moving: 2.75 mph
Max Speed: 11 mph (Steven was faster)
Elevation Gain: 980'

2012-01-30 Meyers Ranch, CO

Andrea, Steven and I arrived in Denver to visit David and ski with him. Arriving in at 2:00pm left little time to ski, but we went to Meyer's Ranch, southwest of Denver. Got there around 4:00pm and had about an hour and half to ski.

The little time was enough to ski around. There has not been snow there for awhile, so parts of it was pretty packed down and slippery. The ranch is just off the highway, so we could ski around and be back at the car in a short time. The area is nice and sloping, so if there was a good pack of snow, it would be fun to fool around there. But with old snow, it was a combination of some slabs with soft snow right afterwards. So there was not good runs that day.

But the sky was beautiful and it was a good first evening out.

2012-01-27 Panorama Pt

Today I woke up to gloom. The ground was wet. It really did not look like a day to be up in the mountains. But the Weather Underground said that it was sunny. So we got ready to go, ate, diddled around around a bit and at 11 headed off to Grant's Grove. Steven drove up while I enjoyed the ride. The sky still looked dreary, but more like high overcast.

And then we got to the National Park border and poked through and the sky was pure blue with the sun shining. We stopped at the visitor center to find out about conditions on the Panorama Pt trail/road, but they did not have anything for us. So we ate lunch and headed off.

The snow was mostly good on the way up with a few icy spots. And even though this is the end of January, the snow is thin--in places we can see through the snow to the pavement. By Sunday, there should be many patches of ground showing through. But today, it is good. Only a few bare places. But there are four downed trees across the road, but they are easily skied over. The smell of fresh cedar is to be enjoyed.

The trip up is a lot more enjoyable than it was last year when we did this with David. Today we make good time and I only stop in a few places to get a few breaths. Am I in better shape? I do not think so. It may be just the cold weather last time got me tired enough that I needed to stop at the parking lot before Panorama Pt. But today the snow is not sticking, the air is fresh and clear and I am feeling great.

We make it to the point without incident and in good time--a little after two. And the view! Mountains are spectacularly clear. All peaks are in full view. Even the distant ones like Goddard. They make you want to go further in and further up. But this old body will need to go down soon. But we stay and enjoy the gaze. In the summer, there is too much smog and haze. In the winter, too many times the mountains are hidden by clouds. But today, today they are in full array with all of their snow topped beauty.

It is time to go back down. And it is not long before I have the first fall of the season. The sad part is that I was standing still, just eyeballing how to go down the 300 yards from Panorama Pt to the parking lot and I quickly found myself on the ground. It did not take long to get back up again.

Then skied the narrow trail, bounded by a cedar post fence almost down to the parking lot. I hit a patch of crusty snow and got concerned and fell--into a small patch of buck brush. Why there? Not much damage from the thorns, still a bit hurtful--why not crash a few feet further?

One of the great things about this ski trail is the accommodations--there is an open outhouse at the parking lot which we make use of. Then it is down the snow covered road. That is down around 900' of elevation drop over 2.6 miles. While not technically hard, I slow myself down instead of bombing down it like a skilled person would. Steven does a better imitation of a bomber. I will be sore tomorrow from doing a snow plow down the slope.

I do pretty good for myself on the way down, most of the time I was in control. But all in all, I had room to maneuver and it was on a road. Only fell one more time.

We get back to the car around 3:30 and head off to Foster Freeze in Fresno to enjoy a well deserved burger--and pick up Sherri who stayed home.

2012-01-25 Big Meadow

Snow! A minor miracle. This weekend it finally snowed after two months of dryness in Fresno. So the Fresno folks headed to the mountains to play. Big Meadow close to Kings Canyon NP was our destination.

We left after lunch and got there about 2:00pm. Bright, beautiful, sunshiney day. In the upper 50's. Steven and I went off up the road cross-country skiing. Sherri put on her snowshoes.

Snow was good. One person had already been on the road with his skis and we just followed his tracks. Met him when he was on his way out. The sky was clear, visibility was great. You could see Shell Mountain clear, and Alta Pk loomed in the background. Even Little Baldy was outstanding.

We skied until 3:25 when we turned back. The road in has a gradual uphill. It is a good first ski of the season. Even with that,I was huffing and puffing because of the elevation. Something to work on for the few days we have before David has a crack at me.