Walk-up Wilderness Permit Change for 2011

Found this on the wilderness conditions page:

Change to walk up Wilderness permits first-come, first-served procedure for 2011

When the Yosemite Valley Wilderness Center reopens for the season on April 29, 2011, next-day walk up wilderness
permits will be available the day before beginning at 11:00 am (not at opening time). Wilderness permit reservations
can be picked up same day or day in advance as well as same-day walk-up permits when the wilderness center opens.
This model is similar to the one currently in place by surrounding US Forest Service wilderness permit issuing stations.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2011 06:42AM by chick-on.

So it's the same for Big Oak Flat?

HI!!!

btw how do you and Bill deal with breathing in frigid air all night whilst up at Vernon etc. Are you a mummy bag sleeper? Do birds have enough body heat to make the air warm inside their little sacks?

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rroland
So it's the same for Big Oak Flat?

They're not saying. That's where I picked up my permit for a starting trailhead on Tioga Road, although that was reserved. A step like this might also be an excuse to open the wilderness center and permit offices later. I guess one could still try to get a FCFS permit for the same day, but that might get a little bit tricky. Of course it would be a good idea to open early for people picking up their reserved permits for the starting date and want to start off early in the morning.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/wildcond.htm

I hope people don't try to game the system. I remember being in a line for same-day half-price ticket sales once that started at noon, although the ticket window opened a few hours earlier. Someone jumped ahead before noon - ostensibly to ask about future dates or non-discounted tickets. This guy was holding up the line by asking questions several minutes past noon. People who had been waiting in line were about ready to tear him a new one when he started asking about the same-day half-price tickets for that night. I could imagine someone could try going to the wilderness office to ask questions just before the 11 AM time (jumping the line), and then hold off long enough for it to turn 11 and say, "Well - while I'm here can I get a permit?" without going to the back of the line.

It will be 11am at all the Wilderness Centers when they open. Probably the reason they only mention
Valley is b/c the Valley Wildnerness Center opens earlier in the year than any of the other ones
(HH is open year round though).
What they are trying to do is make it more convenient for people like me who want to get their butts
on the trail as early as possible today, not tomorrow.

They will make it as "fair" as possible... much in the same realm as you can't go flying into HH and
get a permit for Cathedral Lake earlier than when TM opens.

It's a good change.

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Quote
rroland
btw how do you and Bill deal with breathing in frigid air all night whilst up at Vernon etc. Are you a mummy bag sleeper? Do birds have enough body heat to make the air warm inside their little sacks?

I'm like a cat. Built in down comforter baby.
Billy E Boy tries to grab me and get his hands warm! I'm no hand warmer!

Billy sez:
Seriously, I'm not a huge fan of the mummy bag....but do have a -10 mummy.
Montbell has some sweet bags that are UL and mummy type but stretch really nice.
Super nice winter bag would be 0 Montbell UL Stretch hugger.
99% of the time you don't really need that much (the -10)... but plan on doing trans-sierra trek so
blew the cash. (take a look at winter conditions in TM... it CAN get cold)
(but it's not the norm) (have always hiked in same clothes as in spring) (so far)
At night.. In a tent, or snow channel, and in Bivy... much warmer than ambient air.
I'll take a pict. this weekend to give you an idea perhaps... but there's 1000 ways to do it.
At Vernon, no hat, no socks, ... it maybe got down to 15. That's it.
I think there's a huge psychological barrier keeping people from going in winter.
It's not THAT bad.

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It doesn't really get cold until you stop. When it is really cold the hardest thing is getting in your bag at 5PM and staying there until the sun comes up in the morning usually around 8AM. Fourteen hours of bag time is not unusual. And reheating yourself after a midnight ride.

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Old Dude

NPS site updated this too:
Links to all the USGS Maps... purty cool... esp. for those peeps out there looking for free maps.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/trails.htm

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Awesome!!