Since trail conditions and weather this time of year can be uncertain, about 10 days before the trip I asked what I consider the best "local knowledge" source about conditions on the trail along the North Rim of the valley, asking “snowshoes and microspikes needed?”…to which he responded “free & clear”. This kind of surprised me as I was expecting snow, and he continued with “maybe a little north of Indian Rock” and “very very little snow to 8000 feet”.
So, feeling pretty good about things, but still wearing my high topped Solomon Gore-Tex boots, I set off with the Aussie and 4 others Saturday morning from the trailhead at the Foresta turnoff, with the hope of making the top of El Capitan that night for the sunset/moonrise, and continuing on the take the Yosemite Falls trail down and Sunday and be back in the Bay Area Sunday evening.
The hike started out well and we made good time to Cascade Creek. The stream crossings were a bit iffy but not too bad. Somebody had even strung a helpful guideline across Wildcat Creek
There was a very little bit of fresh snow from the previous days storm (we had seen an inch or two of fresh snow at Crane Flat as we drove though that morning). And as we left the Old Bog Oak Flat Road and continued up the trail towards Ribbon Meadow, the snow depth increased
And increased until it was clear that we were walking on probably a 3 feet base of snow.
But the snow was generally firm, with 3 or 4 inches of fresh spring snow on top, not really a problem, yet.
Things changed quickly as we approached Ribbon Meadow, which has good tree cover, lots of downed trees, and probably 4 feet on average of snow. Route finding was difficult, stream crossings tedious (but not dangerous),
and we were postholing constantly. We had to give up on getting to El Cap that day, deciding to stop at about 6PM at a little rise just east of Ribbon Meadow. The only consolation being that, despite the fact that we had no real view, we weren’t missing anything…fog and low clouds had guaranteed no views and a cold and damp night.
The next morning, after working through more difficult tree area, we finally emerged out into more open and pretty much snow free granite, having an easy hike above Ribbon Falls and El Cap, enjoying the views that stretched over this bumb thingy to the Sierra Crest
across the Valley to Dewey Point,
over to Sentinel Falls
and a different view of Nevada Falls
West of Eagle Peak we hit the ugly dense forest/heavy snow combination again and dealt with this all the way to almost Yosemite Creek. Fortunately we found recent footsteps in the snow, both coming and going, which were left by East Coast Eric, who we met shortly thereafter. Eric had been doing Eagle Peak. Eagle Creek Meadows:
Top of the Falls:
The trip down the Yosemite Falls trail was fun…rain, thunder, lightning, and hail. We made it safely down by about 4 and were on our way home.
All the pictures here.
Despite the unexpected and rather challenging conditions, we all had a great time, as always!
So, if you are heading up to the higher country, be prepared for snow!
