This weekend we went to Yosemite. Maureen had wanted to try backcountry skiing for a while, so we decided to head out to the mountains once again. After a little bit of research, and because the weather forecast for Tahoe was rather bad we chose to go to Ostrander Lake in Yosemite (altitude 8550ft).
Marie-Catherine and Goeric left on Thursday night to get a head start, and Maureen and I were planning to meet them on Saturday afternoon in the mountains, silly enough to think our cell phones would be working up there. I had Friday off (Good Friday), so I went to Berkeley’s famous Marmot Mountain Works store to get gear for our expedition. The picture below shows our packing list:
- Randonnee ski package (K2 Shes Piste + Diamir Titanal + Garmont GSM boots)
-Telemark ski package (K2 Instinx + Scarpa T2 boots)
- Avalanche gear rented from Marmot and Alex Roetter, Inc.
- A pack full of heavy stuff (18lbs)
- A pack full of heavier stuff (32lbs)
- An all wheel drive 225-hp 6-speed manual Audi A4 quattro + 18 inch rims
Friday night, we slept in the beautiful town of Groveland, CA and got up early the next morning to drive to the park’s only ski resort (Badger Pass) where our trailhead was located. We started the 10.1 miles (16.5km) trail at 9h30AM. At 9h37AM, Maureen discovered what every generation of first-time randonee skiers have discovered before her: randonnee boots are not comfortable. The following hour or so was spent re-adjusting, re-tightening followed by re-loosening Maureen’s boots. To be completely fair, we did make some progress in between the boot-adjustment sessions, and we were hitting a swift (under these circumstances) pace of 2mph.
After ~5 miles on relatively flat and groomed terrain, the trail turns into single track and the serious climbing begins. The weather was perfect with absolutely no wind, and the fresh snow made for a beautiful scenery. Maureen’s feet were toughening up (or was she getting tired of complaining), and we (I?) started fully enjoying the wilderness (we did not meet a single skier all day) and the magnificent views of the valley.
We reached the Lake at 4h15PM, but Marie-Catherine and Goeric were nowhere to be found (but then again, they are always late… :). I started following tracks in the snow hoping to find their tent and stumbled onto the two of them napping in what would be our base camp for the weekend. We enjoyed the rest of the daylight setting up our tent and preparing a comfortable pit for dinner.
In the morning Goeric and myself left at 7AM for a quick downhill run in the morning snow. The snow conditions were rather poor (crust) but the setting made up for it (see Goeric’s pictures). A 60 feet drop into a beautiful, 30 deg slope (the tracks are visible exactly above Maureen in the background of the picture with the two girls). This was my third time on Telemark skis, which made the whole thing much more interesting.
We were back at the base at 9AM and ready to leave by 10AM. The first half of the trail (single track) had some great tree skiing, and then came the groomed part… a gruelsome, 2-hour hike on boring semi-flat terrain really tested our mental stamina. We reached the cars at 3PM. Maureen’s blisters had at that point developed in lovely 2-inch diameter pouches. In retrospect, a 7-hour climb on your first time backcountry skiing could have been considered as daring.
For more pictures, click here or here
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