Ski Tour of Tioga Pass

Our camp in the High Sierra with Mt. Dana in the background.

Our camp in the High Sierra with Mt. Dana in the background.

For years I’ve dreamt of hiking/skiing up the Eastern entrance of Yosemite National Park when its road is gated shut in the winter to access one of my favorite sections of the High Sierra, the Twenty Lakes Basin area at the foot of Mt. Conness. This spring offered a golden opportunity as the dangers of the closed road had diminished greatly (avalanche and rockslides occur frequently in the middle of the winter) yet the amount of accumulated snow left in the high Sierra was massive and prevented the road from being opened. My close friend Iver Johnson joined me on the adventure. We headed out a couple days before the Memorial Day Weekend to make sure we would have the place to ourselves. It was an absolutely incredible trip. We experienced some of the most beautiful backcountry in conditions that few get to see it in. We were amazed at how our bodies recovered from stresses that we thought would take us days if not weeks to recover from. At times we were completely spent and our overladen packs seemed filled with concrete and at other times we were literally giddy with excitement and joy. When the trip ended both of us said we were unlikely to ever hike that road to the crest again while at the same time admitting that we would not have traded the experience for ANYTHING. Enjoy the photos and videos. I tried to fill in the details of our trip in the captions.

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The North Ridge of Mt. Conness

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Solo Under a Moonless Night’s Sky