The plan was to hike to Dewey Point in Yosemite. I drove up to David W. parents house on Sat. and arrived around 9:30 a.m. it had been raining all day. We headed out and before we got to the entrance of Yosemite David had to chain up, on the way up we decided to change our hike to Mariposa Grove, due to the fact that with all the clouds and it snowing we probably wouldn't have any kind of a view at Dewey Point. Once in the park we drove down to find, and fill out our permit, when we got there, no permits were to be found, so we left our info on a piece of paper and headed back towards the trail head, were we found the one and only parking spot available. After parking we geared up for the hike, I weighed both our packs, and they both came in at 23.5 lbs, not to bad. The temps were around 34* cloudy, with a mixture of snow and rain.

These pics are where David and I started our hike, the parking lot was full of day hikers, and just people in general up playing in the snow for the day.





This next pic is the road in the summer, but today it's our trail head.



This pic is the sign of our destination.



Along the way we seen a lot of day hikers and snowman builders, a lot of people asked "Are you guys going to camp over night?" our reply was always the same YEP! some thought we were crazy, and some thought it was cool, I thought it was GREAT! I love snow hiking/camping, and David is always a good hiking partner, thanks for sticking it out with me for this hike.

The next pics are were we set up camp, the hike was about 2.5-3 miles and we got there around 2:30-3:00 p.m. There were working bath rooms, and a gift shop that is only open in the summer. The gift shop turned out to be a life saver for David later that night, as you will see in the pics.





We both had Tarptents, I think David had a Contrail, he can chime in on this, I had the Moment, snow tested and proven in previous trips, we put a tarp over both of them so we didn't have to huddle in our tents to cook dinner, this worked great untill later that night when it really started to snow.







During the middle of the night I heard David get up and head towards the gift shop, this would prove to be a good decision on his part. All night long it snowed heavy and wet, and all we heard were tree limbs breaking, and trees falling under all the weight of the snow, that wasn't the only thing that fell, as you will see, or should I say wont see, in the next pic.



That's my Moment with part of the tarp collasped under all the snow, and David's tent was burried, you can't even tell where it was. That little opening to the lower part of the tent where the tarp meets, is what I crawled out of. I had to kick the snow away from the door to get out. During the night the snow was so heavy, and some much, it snapped my Titanium goat hiking pole in half, and burried David's tent.



The next few pics are where David spent the night on the covered porch of the gift shop, and were we packed up our stuff to head out.







The next few pics are on the way out, and David's car in the after math of the storm. The one pic of David snow shoeing doesn't due this pic justice, we were post holeing up to our knees almost all the way out, we took turns busting trail.











I'll let David add to the end of our adventure. I had a great time and alot of fun, David, I always enjoy hiking with you, can't wait till we can do a longer hike together. Sorry for double pic post I don't know why it happened and I don't want to mess this post up by trying to erase them, this was my 3rd attempt of trying to post this thred.

Edited by jumpbackjack on 01/04/2011 23:47:40 MST.

Jack, you are a snow magnet! I am glad you guys made it out ok. Did you stay in your moment all night? How did the Tundras work out for you?
I was sorry to miss out on this trip, now I am not so sure. Thanks for the pictures. Hope to hike with you two again before too long.

GIRL! You still up? The boots worked great! glad I bought them. YEP! I stayed in the Moment all night, it was real cozy, HA! HA!

Edited by jumpbackjack on 01/05/2011 00:09:22 MST.

Had a pretty serious case of poison oak,and the meds are keeping me up...alarm will sound off at 4. :(
Look forward to seeing you at Coe.

I'm not sure, but I think we must have had about 18 inches of snow that night, if so that beats my old record of spending the night in the snow, in my Moment, I love this tent!

Edited by jumpbackjack on 01/05/2011 00:15:35 MST.

Thanks for sharing the great trip and snow fotogs, they remind me of my recent ten day December trip when an arctic storm came down from O Canada to kick my butt at 5,300 feet in the NC/TN mountains. Fotogs below.

I didn't have a gift shop to bail to and anyway, I think during times like this it's important to go out every hour or two during the night and move snow off the tent. Sometimes you're in no position to bail and this is especially true during long trips with no car around(dropped off by a friend and picked up later at some designated evac point). When it gets really bad as you show, I find it good to "basecamp" in the spot for several days until the storm passes. Ergo, I spent 5 days in a blizzard back in December 2003 and holed up like a gopher.

Crazy amount of snow! Looks and sounds like you had a great time. I'll be bugging you for the full story at Coe.

that's awesome Jack! Did you have to get up and knock some snow off at least or did you just let it ride?

@ Walter That's some crazy amount of snow what a trip you had.
@ Dylan, yeah there's more to this trip to tell I just wanted to post up something quick.
@ Adan, I never got out of the tent, even though I could see it shrinking in on me, just kept tapping the snow of the tent walls,
Thanks for reading the post guys, should of been there it was fun.

Edited by jumpbackjack on 01/05/2011 08:15:26 MST.

after watching the storm reports that were rolling in, I knew you guys were going to get clobbered! Nice trip report!

Nice!

Those photos made it a no-brainer to pick up that BD Firstlight that showed up this morning on gear swap.

Jack,

Thanks for taking the pics and the trip report but most of all, thanks for the great company. I had a great time even though it didn't necessary go as planned. What Jack didn't mention was that parking lot wasn't plowed and it took us an hour of a half to get out. We spent a good hour trying to dig out way out with a single black diamond backing shovel. Fortunately my new best friend and personal savior whose name is Russel came by and volunteered his help. Russel was one of those guys by the side of the road who will install or remove your chains for a fee. He had his old four wheel drive chevy that was chained up. When he saw/heard that we attempting to dig our way out he offered to use his beast of a truck to create a path for us. He admitted that he wasn't sure if his truck would be able to make a full loop through the parking lot but he said that it was going to be fun for him to try. Russel punched the gas to gain momentum and was suddenly plowing through at least three feet of snow in the parking lot. When he was able to make it all the through and create a path out, I think I was more excited than I was on Christmas morning. After making 2 more passes with his truck we were finally ready to try and get the car out. It took another 40 minutes of futility with trying to get the chains to stay on and gain traction but we finally made it out of the parking lot. Russell will likely never see this but I would still like to note that he stand up guy and I offer my sincere thanks. He spent at least a hour helping us and refused to take any money other than the $15.00 part I needed to improve my chains.

I am still feeling thankful to have made it out of that parking lot. It was an adventure and a great trip. Jack, I am glad you were always so certain we would make it out because I will admit that I was sweating it.

Edited by Davidpcvsamoa on 01/05/2011 23:02:40 MST.

Jack, I always knew you were one crazy mutha! And this proves it! ;)