SLAY: the Vid!

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."

-- T.S. Eliot

Here's the vid from our trip.


Tips:

• Carry a light load - this is not what you want to look like... I think with our skis, boots, bags, water... our bags were under 30 lbs.  This is the way to go.  Light, fast & free.  Makes everything much more enjoyable
• Don't eat 10 lbs of beef ribs the night before... if you are Alexis.
• If you are with Alexis, and he demolished 10 lbs of beef ribs, don't ski behind him for the rest of the tour.
• Pre-purchase your checked bag for your skis... and they may not charge ya for the oversize
• Stay at the Yosemite Bug Hostel on the way home... the spa would have done us wonders.  For our muscles & for making friends on the ride home.  The Amtrak didn't smell that great... but we certainily didn't help.
• Cache, Cache, Cache!  It's awesome... here are some cache ideas.  Also note that at TM, there is a garbage can & recycling... so no worries about packing out there.  
• Wine is good
• Beer is better
• http://unofficialnetworks.com/man-drinks-60-beers-pees-avalanche-bullsht-41008/
• Whisky is nice
• Chocolate
• Mac & Cheese? or Pasta with sauce
• Thai Cuisine night
• Curry paste, pre-cooked rice, canned coconut cream, canned straw mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tofu?.  
• Caramel Corn was amazing.  
• Beef Jerkey
• Plantain Chips
• Tea
• Oatmeal/Grits/cheese
• Salsa & Chips
• Hot Choch
• Cherish the logistics/train travel.  
• Stay two nights at TM hut, and go ski Ragged Peak, Unicorn Peak, Johnson Peak, go check out Cathedral Peak... 
• Think about the Yosemite Border Tour to Ostrander (in Moynier's book).

Regrets

• not staying at the TM hut for a few more days... 
• not jumping into the Merced... apetor stylee

And a final Thanx to:

• Brandon for hosting us in Mammoth, picking us up at the airport, and giving us a ride to the trailhead.
• Rob & Laura - the TM winter rangers for being awesomely zen. 
• Johnny & Paul for cache-ing the food and making this possible.

Fun Rating of 1.  

SLAY - part 4: ski, hike, swim, beer, bus, & train!

"I like this place and could willingly waste my time in it."

                          - William Shakespeare

After our tour up to Watkins we made our way back to our shelter.  And to our surprise we met 3 folks who came up from the valley to enjoy the snow.  One guy was on his way to the Tuolumne Meadows hut, while the other two were on snowshoes just up for a night.  We had a pleasant time chatting with them... there were German & French words spewing out, as most of us were not native to the state or the country.

The next morning, we woke up to 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground.  At one point in the middle of the night, there was an intense hail storm that must've woken everybody up.  The noise was quite deafening.  So after a quick solo lap on Watkins, we made brekky and started our slog down the zig zags on our way to a bus & a train.

Group shot with one of our bunk mates.  

Crossing the creek....

soon, we were hiking down, as the snow disappeared quickly.

There was a lot of "tree skiing"...

water droplets

Hiking down in the fog

Half Dome!

as the sun came out, the temperatures climbed drastically.  And Stefan turned into a superhero!

this is what happens when you hike with some Euros...

At the bottom, we found our bunkmates enjoying the Merced River.  And decided to wash off.

a perfect 10!

Merced River was refreshing and all... but next year... we're going for this... on Ostrander or Ellery... egh?

Basking in the sun... what more could you ask for.

Snack time

Looked like half dome was sublimating... very dramatic scenery... could've stayed there for much longer.

On the mirror lake trail

Looking back at Royal Arches, Washington Column (my first big wall), and Half Dome...

Yosemite Falls was going off!

We sat here and had a few beers while waiting for YARTs to come take us to Merced.  While waiting, there was a big rockfall, which sounded like thunder.  Pretty cool.  Check out the Yosemite Nature Notes on Rockfall: 

More brews...

Loading up the YARTs bus...

Which stops right at the Yosemite Bug Hostel, a great place to stay IMO.  Next time, I'd like to stay here afterwards to unwind in their spa after a fat meal from their amazing kitchen... maybe listen to a local band, then hit the sack.  

The disadvantages of being tall...

Looking back at the Sierras.

In Merced, I yelped for some restaurants.  And found a great Thai place about a mile away.  Had to run both ways, giving us 5 min of lee way.  I ordered enough for 6 folks...  turned out to be the perfect amount.  

The train's arrival.  Late as always.  

This was the end of spring break for many college students, so this thing was packed!

What you can't see in this pic is the poor Asian student sitting next to Alexis.  We did wash off in the Merced, but we were wearing the same clothes since Fri.  And I'm pretty sure we stank up the whole train... All in all a great trip with fantastic partners with amazing weather.  Can't wait to do it again next year.  

SLAY - part 3: Mt. Watkins!

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings"

                                                                                                      - John Muir

Our third day of the tour was an unknown.  I figured it'd be a pretty quick day, but having not studied the route closely, I hadn't realized that we had another 15+ mile day in front of us.  But after chatting with the Tuolumne Meadows Winter Rangers, Rob & Laura Pilewski, they assured us that it should be another easy day.  They also update the Tuolumne Meadows Conditions page weekly.  And since we went to bed pretty early, we woke up before sunrise and got off to another early start.  And it was a good thing we did, as the snow stayed nice and cold until around noon, when we started breaking through the crust.  But by then we were nearly at our destination for the night.

Unicorn & Cathedar Peak moonset.
Imagine having this as your backyard every morning... the TM winter rangers live in zen.  

Garbage cans!  Don't even have to pack out your trash... now that's some luxury hut livin'!

The biggest man with the smallest backpack.  Nice job packing!

the view for the first hour... 

Cruising across these meadows was a really peaceful experience... listening to the coyotes howl, birds chirping, and the grouse drumming.  

A look back at the Unicorn

Mariuolumne Dome, with Hobbit Book... my first climb in Yosemite... over 10 years ago.

Stefan with Fairview Dome behind him.  The regular route is a classic route that I did with Funk a few years back.  

Soon the sun came out... and was HOT.  We were hoping to ski across Tenaya Lake, but the sides were melted out.

Some evidence of slides

Tenaya Lake

more slides...

The view from Olmstead Pt.  In the middle you can see all the way to Conness, which Nick and I climbed last summer.  

and soon we got off the flat road and started going down...

literally... 

actually mainly just Stefan and Alexis... they were testing their Nordic ski set up

Soon we found our cache.... which was right next to this one.
Contents:  One handle (1.75 liters) of whiskey.  One mini bottle of Jager... and a bag of beef jerkey.
Amazing.  We were quite impressed.  But we were quite stoked that Johnny didn't leave us this cache.  

and left us some quality brews.  Which didn't freeze btw.  We were also expecting to find some Name Tag (as everything was from TJs).. and although we would've drank anything, these beers were far superior... check out the high praises of Name Tag Lager from the "Beer Man"

check out the elasticity of the snow on this tree... Alexis was betting 10$ that I couldn't cross it...

Soon the winds picked up, the sun went behind the clouds, and we went on another short tour.

and got caught in a hail storm... with some thunder.  The forecast was for some thundersnow...  which might have been the case in the upper elevations.  

Then we went back, got Stefan and toured up Mt. Watkins.  Where we were treated to quite the show.  I had been up here before, when Nick & I climbed up the South Face of Watkins... which took 3 days.  Nice to be back...

half dome, half lit

light on the leaning tower

Jumping for joy

Clouds Rest... I wonder which line Torlano skied down... "When Clouds Rest is loaded with snow you never know what it's going to do," he said. "I've seen avalanches come ripping off that face, hit Tenaya Canyon, explode and create a rainbow." - wow... I'd like to see that...

Stefan's staples...