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| Packing up the traveling circus. |
It has become obvious that our annual trip to the Ostrander Hut in Yosemite's backcountry is always an adventure. From
big snows to
rescue missions you really have no idea what you are getting yourself into. And this year was no different.
With one of the driest years in recorded history we knew there would be dirt and brambles covering our normally wintery ascent into the hut. And when we got there we were not positive there would be anything to safely ski. With the prospect of little skiing our group of 15 shrank to 7.
Kate, Evan, Bernard, Sara and myself skinned up and headed in Friday morning(ish). When we arrived at the hut we found out our party wasn't the only shrinking group. There were only 4 other people at the hut and our small group basically had the place to ourselves.
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| Howard, Kate and Sara spread out in our private hut. |
We came prepared not to ski, bringing booze and
a beginners yoga book from 1978. (Side-note, the always creative Bernard is teaching himself a new skill every month this year. February is yoga, and I'm hoping March will be harmonica or maybe Bavarian pretzel making.)
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| Evan and Bernard demo two different relaxation techniques. Brews or Bikram. |
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| Hot meat for brekky. |
After a few hours of stretching and drinking it was time to hit the hay. No alarms were set, unlike normal years when we set our alarms for a pre-dawn wakeup call to get out early and ski all day. We decided to sleep in and wake up naturally, drink coffee, eat brekky and chill.
Once the coffee was on and the the bacon was hot the second part of our party arrived, Kevin and Yu. They went to work on Friday, drove to the trailhead afterwork, and hit the trail early doors to get in by brunch on Saturday. Serious style points. Seriously, that is burly.
We all chatted with Howard about finding some powder stashes hidden amongst the rocks and ribs. He told us where the goods were hidden but he also told us what was better than the powder this season, the ice! That's right, Ostrander Lake was frozen over solid with a smooth clear layer of beautiful ice. Howard was doing more skating than skiing this year and told us it was the "best ice in decades." In a very Zen way he embraced the positive of the season and saw the beauty and uniqueness of this cold dry winter. There will be snow, but today there is ice. Namaste my friends.
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| Kate, Sara, Evan and the glowing light formally known as Bernard. |
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| Howard getting first tracks on Ostrander Lake. |
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| The man, the myth, the legend. |
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| Ostrander Skate Rental. |
Ostrander has a bunch of skates in the cellar and Howard pulled them out for us to use. It turned out he was right. The skating was amazing and we soon forgot about the skiing. We put in three sessions a day and even made it out for one full moon skate. Our ski trip had morphed into a backcountry skating trip!
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| Post-skate air-dry |
Between skate sessions we took a few ski breaks and actually found a bit or powder.
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| Quick ski? Sure, why not. |
It proved once again that Ostrander will always be an adventure. You just don't know what kind it will be.
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| Sara practices her triple lutz. |
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| Moonlight skating with the crew and a runaway clown. |
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| Booting up in the warming house. |
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| Friends in love. |
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| Howard and Bernard go out for one last skate before we leave. |
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| Get some boys! |
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| Evan and Kate. What's not to celebrate. |
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| Hutmaster, hutmaster apprentice. |
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| Sharpening up for more after we leave. |
6 ski days this season but who is counting. For more hot action. Check out
Yu's great blog post and
Bernard's SnowyPhotos site.
