So with Christmas and New Years Day both on Tuesdays this year, that opened the possibility of 4 day weekends to do some winter backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas. A storm went through on Christmas Eve, so that weekend was not going to happen. But the next weekend looked very clear, but cold and getting colder as Monday approached.

I debated with going to the Tahoe area to do a trek around Mt Rose or the Desolation Wilderness. But Yosemite called out to me and I had to go. The north rim was not very snow covered due to all the south facing exposure, but the area around Badger Pass was all above 7,000 feet and had a decent amount of snow. The Glacier Point Road was also being groomed to make skiing or snowshoeing down it easier.

I had done Badger Pass to Glacier Point and back a couple winters back, so thought I’d try to get to Ostrander Lake. There are three ways to get there from Badger Pass in the winter, with the middle path being a little easier. So I planned to go out that way and return on one of the other trails which should be easier in that direction since the harder parts would be downhill coming back. I even left open the possibility fo going down to Sentinel Dome and Glacier Point again if I returned via Horizon Ridge. With the government shutdown Ostrander Hut would not be open, but I could use my winter tent to camp anywhere I ended up.

So with my new snowshoes, I set out from Badger Pass along the old Glacier Point Road and headed towards Ghost Forest for my first night’s camp. Northing forbidding about that destination, right? 🙂

The first part was groomed, so I made good time to Bridalveil Campground. It was closed, but could have been used as a campsite if I had run out of steam. Still feeling good, I pressed on. Since a lot of day skiers use Bridalveil Campground as a turn around point to do a loop from Badger Pass and back, there was a good deal of traffic until this point and some form of tracks to follow. The trail after the campground was not as well traveled and the faint ski tracks I followed looked like they were covered by the snowstorm that came through the week earlier. So the trail less traveled was true in this case.

There was one major stream crossing that I had to look for a safe place to cross. Finally I found a spot that looked like it had thick enough ice to cross as well as a small mound in the middle. Testing the edges and the middle with my ski poles, it looked safe. So three quick steps and I was over. Then I noticed a set of ski tracks on the other side that came up to that spot and then turned around. Someone didn’t like that spot I had just crossed. 🙂

I ended up making it 6.5 miles that day, which was pretty good in snowshoes and carrying a 40 pound backpack. I found a great spot to camp with a view of a prominent peak in the distance. I believed (and later confirmed) that it was the ridge that rose above Ostrander Lake, so I could feel the goal was close. Still was 4 miles away, with one of the biggest elevation climbs ahead of me.

As I set up my tent, my equipment problems began. Some were minor, such as: Forgetting my air pillow (I could just make do with my drysak and some clothes), finding a good bare patch of dirt to use, but having a little problem pounding the stakes into the frozen ground, finding I had ripped my waterproof pant shells with the spikes on my snowshoes (safety pins to the rescue), or a water filter that froze (I had half expected this would happen, but wanted to test it to know for sure).

But those paled in comparison to finding that my feet were wet. Left foot wasn’t that bad, but my right was noticeably wet and wrinkled. My waterproof snow boots weren’t that waterproof apparently. These same boots had worked well for 4 previous winter backpacking treks.

I dried my feet off, put on dry socks, and settled in for the night after seeing some nice sunset colors across the ridge I was heading towards.

While the day was fairly mild as far as temperature went the night was well below freezing, so I had a lot of ice forming on my tent walls from my breathing. But I managed to get a decent amount of sleep that night and woke up to a nice sunrise over the ridge.

I also discovered that I had a visitor overnight. I had thought I heard some rustling a few times outside, but never saw anything when I poked my head out of the tent. In the morning I found a trail of large paw prints in the snow leading straight towards my tent. Bear or mountain lion by the size of the paw prints. So if the bears were hibernating like they should be, that means it was likely a big kitty cat. 🙂 Didn’t have anything outside the tent for it to eat or damage, so no harm done. I just wish my winter tent had windows so I could see things like this before they attack. 🙂

Then I had a choice. I could go up to Ostrander Lake and leave my tent and heavier gear behind, but that would mean being unable to return via one of the other trails. I could take all my gear up to Horizon ridge and leave it there while I visited the lake (that would only be about 2 miles to climb with all my gear).

But my boots were still damp and while I could keep my feet dry by using a couple of ziplock bags between my socks and boots (never say I wasn’t prepared for emergencies), the damp boots weren’t insulating very well and it wasn’t until 9am that my feet felt warm enough to start hiking. The last thing you want to do when backpacking in the winter is take a chance with cold feet (frostbite is a real possibility), so with my equipment not cooperating I decided I couldn’t chance continuing.

8 miles round trip to Ostrander Lake and another 6.5 miles back to Badger Pass was too far to chance with snow boots that might not keep my feet protected. Ironically, if the Ostrander Ski Hut was open and I could somehow have gotten reservations, I could have chanced a 4 mile hike if I had a warm hut to shelter in. Even trying to get to the Glacier Point Hut (which was open since it was run by the Yosemite concessionaire and not the NPS), would have been a gamble since it was farther from where I was and until I got in cell range I couldn’t be sure there was room for me.

So I retraced my own tracks from the day before and made my way back to badger Pass, although I did go up to the groomed Glacier Point Road for the last half which was a little easier.

A little disappointing to shorten my trip, but it was a nice overnight hike otherwise. I did find out that the weather was colder than the forecasted temperature that night and Monday was even going to be colder than I originally thought, so I might have lucked out.

I haven’t sworn off winter backpacking, but will need to either waterproof my snow boots further or get a better pair of snow boots.

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