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Re: No High Sierra Camps for the 4th Straight Year

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avatar No High Sierra Camps for the 4th Straight Year
March 14, 2022 07:37PM
Aramark strikes again.

They have chosen to keep the High Sierra Camps closed for the fourth straight year!
This is from the Yosemite Hospitality website:

"Travel Alert:
Due to ongoing challenges from the pandemic, the National Park Service and Yosemite Hospitality have made the difficult decision to keep the High Sierra Camps closed for the 2022 season. As a result of the closure, guests with confirmed reservations will be notified of the cancelation via email and deposits will be refunded. The health and safety of Yosemite National Park visitors and employees is the park’s top priority and we thank you for your understanding.

We anticipate having the lottery for the High Sierra Camps 2023 season open on October 1, 2022."
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Not quite The Geezer, but getting there
Re: No High Sierra Camps for the 4th Straight Year
March 14, 2022 07:51PM
1. Were the HSCs closed in 2019 too?
2. What pandemic? It's 2022, not 2020.
I guess for Aramark, any excuse not to do something will do.
I have friends staying in the Ahwahnee next month, am curious for their report of their stay.
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FatFlatlander
Re: No High Sierra Camps for the 4th Straight Year
March 14, 2022 08:18PM
1. Were the HSCs closed in 2019 too?

Yes, I believe due to excessive snowpack the previous winter.


2. What pandemic? It's 2022, not 2020.

Yeah. Maybe they are worried about another variant/wave coming through between now and summer? Or maybe they felt they could not risk employees, even if vaccinated, potentially getting seriously ill if they contract COVID from one of the many visitors who would be coming through the High Sierra Camps. Even if they just got mildly ill, the possibility of having several staff at a camp sick at the same time and having to isolate may have been too difficult to work around.
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Not quite The Geezer, but getting there
Re: No High Sierra Camps for the 4th Straight Year
March 15, 2022 08:02AM
There was super heavy snowfall in 2016-2017 that destroyed some accommodations outside the park on the east side; perhaps that lead to a decision not to open the HSCs that summer? I don't remember (and I'm sure the info is on this site if we dig back into posts from 2017). But saying they're just going to give you a refund is not an encouraging sign.

I was willing to cut Aramark some slack initially. But they seem to be into doing the absolute minimum (e.g. not discontinuing the shuttle in the Tuolumne area) at every opportunity. IIRC they redid some of the eateries in the Valley; I'm guessing they ran a cost/benefit analysis and determined that those investments would be worthwhile. But that's it - it's like it's pure profit with them. At one point last year or the year before, with everything shut down, they threw a bunch of staff out of staff housing to save money. (Again, can dig through the archives here to check my memory.)

Unfortunately, Aramark's contract runs through like 2031, give or take a year.
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FatFlatlander
Re: No High Sierra Camps for the 4th Straight Year
March 14, 2022 09:06PM
At this point you have to wonder when, or even if, the High Sierra Camps will open again.

I think in 2019 they said that, in addition to the impacts of heavy snowfall during the winter of 2018-2019, they were keeping the camps closed in order to do some maintenance work on them. I would hope/assume they do some sort of check on the camp equipment even during summers when the camps are closed. If not, it will be all the more difficult to get them up and running again after an extended closure.

We had a reservation for a couple nights at one of the camps in 2019. Aramark has allowed us to roll that reservation over to the following year, and we have taken them up on that offer each of the last three years. Interestingly, the closure notification we received last week did not provide any option for rolling the reservation over, it just said that we would receive a refund. I haven't called to see if we could roll over the reservation until 2023, but in the past it was always explicitly given up front as an option when we were notified of the HSC closure.
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parklover
Re: No High Sierra Camps for the 4th Straight Year
March 15, 2022 08:57PM
Quote
FatFlatlander
At this point you have to wonder when, or even if, the High Sierra Camps will open again.

I think in 2019 they said that, in addition to the impacts of heavy snowfall during the winter of 2018-2019, they were keeping the camps closed in order to do some maintenance work on them. I would hope/assume they do some sort of check on the camp equipment even during summers when the camps are closed. If not, it will be all the more difficult to get them up and running again after an extended closure.

We had a reservation for a couple nights at one of the camps in 2019. Aramark has allowed us to roll that reservation over to the following year, and we have taken them up on that offer each of the last three years. Interestingly, the closure notification we received last week did not provide any option for rolling the reservation over, it just said that we would receive a refund. I haven't called to see if we could roll over the reservation until 2023, but in the past it was always explicitly given up front as an option when we were notified of the HSC closure.

That doesn't bode well for me trying to roll over my son's Badger season ski pass. Two years ago when they didn't open they rolled it over to last season and I had to fight to get them to roll it over to this season. The only times he could use it this season was during the December holidays and they were closed when he could go and the last week of this month but they are closing on March 20th. I need to call them this week and see if they will at least refund me the money. I really hate Aramark.
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balzaccom
Re: No High Sierra Camps for the 4th Straight Year
March 15, 2022 07:49AM
Hard to imagine what the conditions would have to be to get the open again...


Check our our website: http://www.backpackthesierra.com/
Or just read a good mystery novel set in the Sierra; https://www.amazon.com/Danger-Falling-Rocks-Paul-Wagner/dp/0984884963
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