Tuolumne Ski Tour- Trip Report
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2019 2:30 am
My ski partner and I raced into Yosemite Valley Wednesday Dec. the 11th, in hopes of reaching the Tuolumne Meadows ski hut before the bad weather forecast for Friday-Sat. came in. It didn't look like very bad weather, and we felt that the heavy snowfall from the former week would be nicely settled. We chose the easy route from the Valley: up Snow Creek Trail; along the "skier's route" to Olmstead Pt; and we skied the road from there. It's a 22 mile trip in if all goes well. There are 2 semi-serious avalanche zones, one of which can be skied around. We had great luck with the weather, as you will see below. It really pays to study the NOAA weather forecasts, and the avalanche advisories when choosing your travel dates. Ours were: 12/11 to 12/19- nine days of sliding on snow.
I choose to take along a sled, or "pulk" on many trips; works well as long as there are no outrageous long uphills. My latest sled design weighs just 5 lbs. We were skiing by the 7000' level.
Amazing forest of Snow Flat, composed here of giant red fir trees... and one big ponderosa left of center.
The skier's route: crosses the saddle north of Mt. Watkins. As you can see here, the east side of the saddle is avalanche terrain. The May Lake Trail option has none, and adds just a mile or so between Snow Flat, and Olmstead Pt.
Though these winter trips are less colorful, there are so many fascinating new forms, such as the snow-covered rocks seen here. Also: icicles, frozen creeks, lakes and waterfalls, snowy trees, animal tracks, ...
The weather began to pack in around Tenaya Lake, so we camped there in a light snowfall.
The pattern for the first 4 days was nice mornings, and snowy afternoons and nights. We had this nice sunrise Friday morning.
Tenaya Lake. I tried to get Frank to ski across it, but he chickened out.
Two inches of blowing snow on Friday made for this nice scenery; that's Lembert Dome.
The ski hut following the Sat. night snowfall of 5-6." We couldn't have been any happier to find the hut door open. We'd arrived before the winter rangers, and had the hut to ourselves for 5 nights.
We split wood, made kindling and wood shavings for fire-starter, and dug out trails around the hut. The great winter ranger duo of Rob and Laura Pilewski arrived late Sunday, and moved into their cabin for the season- it's half a mile up valley from the ski hut.
We toured all over the meadows on our first free day ski.
Unicorn and Cathedral Peaks.
I choose to take along a sled, or "pulk" on many trips; works well as long as there are no outrageous long uphills. My latest sled design weighs just 5 lbs. We were skiing by the 7000' level.
Amazing forest of Snow Flat, composed here of giant red fir trees... and one big ponderosa left of center.
The skier's route: crosses the saddle north of Mt. Watkins. As you can see here, the east side of the saddle is avalanche terrain. The May Lake Trail option has none, and adds just a mile or so between Snow Flat, and Olmstead Pt.
Though these winter trips are less colorful, there are so many fascinating new forms, such as the snow-covered rocks seen here. Also: icicles, frozen creeks, lakes and waterfalls, snowy trees, animal tracks, ...
The weather began to pack in around Tenaya Lake, so we camped there in a light snowfall.
The pattern for the first 4 days was nice mornings, and snowy afternoons and nights. We had this nice sunrise Friday morning.
Tenaya Lake. I tried to get Frank to ski across it, but he chickened out.
Two inches of blowing snow on Friday made for this nice scenery; that's Lembert Dome.
The ski hut following the Sat. night snowfall of 5-6." We couldn't have been any happier to find the hut door open. We'd arrived before the winter rangers, and had the hut to ourselves for 5 nights.
We split wood, made kindling and wood shavings for fire-starter, and dug out trails around the hut. The great winter ranger duo of Rob and Laura Pilewski arrived late Sunday, and moved into their cabin for the season- it's half a mile up valley from the ski hut.
We toured all over the meadows on our first free day ski.
Unicorn and Cathedral Peaks.