This is where the snow began to get deeper and form a consistent cover over the trail. The trail flattened out and rolled along another mile to LYV where we would set up camp for the night. Passing the top of Nevada falls marked the end of the significant climbing for the day. How far had this guy really gone? And what time did he start in order to get to the ranger station at 9AM! We were now almost 4 miles in, at the top of Nevada Falls, and had not encountered any snow that would have warranted the use of our snowshoes. I was definitely glad to be wearing my boots rather than the tennis shoes worn by most of the day hikers we encountered.Īt this point we began wondering just how far the guy in the ranger station had made it before tuning around.
#Clouds rest summit series#
As we continued up, we came across a portion of the switchbacks that had turned into a series of mini water falls as the melting snow came rushing down into the valley. The switchbacks going up the side of Nevada Falls were very steep, but offered a great view of the valley disappearing below us. The trail was mostly snow-free with the exception of a few shaded switchbacks. We passed a several people along the trail, but there were significantly fewer people than my last time on this trail, when I was making the trip up Half Dome. The trail was steep, and we quickly climbed up out of the valley past Vernal and Nevada Falls. This added about a mile, making the trip to LYV a little over 5 miles with about 2,200 ft of gain. Permit in hand, we were on the trail! Since it was winter, a portion of the Mist trail was closed, diverting us to the John Muir Trail. With this new info we got our permits for the loop with the idea that we would make a final decision on our climb up to Little Yosemite Valley (LYV). As we were talking with the rangers, a guy came in saying he had just come from near the top of Nevada Falls where he encountered foot-deep snow worthy of snowshoes. They were expecting 3-5 inches above 6,000ft on Sunday and another 3-5 Sunday night with the snow line dropping to 4,000ft. While the avalanche danger had decreased significantly, more weather was approaching quickly. We arrived at the ranger station shortly after 9AM to get our wilderness permit and get some info on trail conditions and weather from the rangers. Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley (Friday, March 23) The idea was to do a loop starting at Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley, head to Tenaya Lake (crossing Clouds Rest, 9,931 ft), then loop back to the valley via Snow Creek. Because of this, we decided on a few route variations in case the conditions didn’t improve by the start of our trip. The recent storm had dropped a significant amount of snow in a short period of time, and because of the mild winter, this created unusually dangerous avalanche conditions. This of course meant it was time to hit the trails for some snowshoeing!
But a storm finally brought about 4 feet to Yosemite’s high country. Judgement Calls on Clouds RestSnow has been surprisingly absent from this years winter.
#Clouds rest summit full#
Clouds Rest Blog PostThe full story of my trip, with pictures, can be found on my blog.
0 kommentar(er)
