Winter in Yosemite (pt. 1) — Jan., Feb., March 2025
True to my promise to myself, I managed to get out for a substantial hike about once a month this winter, including hikes to Dewey Point and Yosemite Point. This season has been relatively average for the Sierra in terms of snowpack, but like most other things out here, the snow comes in extremes. A month or two can go by without any significant snowfall followed by multiple storms dumping 5-6 ft of snow in one go.
Dewey Point
This was probably the toughest of the winter hikes I’ve done in Yosemite. Despite only being about 3500 ft of elevation gain, I hadn’t been very active for most of December and the conditions weren’t great. It hadn’t snowed in over a month and the north-facing slopes leading to Dewey Point had gone through several freeze-thaw cycles.
Between Stanford and Dewey Points, the snow was not firm enough for spikes yet not soft enough for snowshoes. When I would try barebooting over the snow, I would punch through ever so slightly – only 4-5 inches. The sudden jolt was hard on my knees. Snowshoes prevented this issue entirely but due to how firm the snow was, I might as well have been slamming the snowshoes down on concrete. This section of the trail really aggravated my knees and made the descent back to Tunnel View hell.
Stanford Point in the snow.
Upper Yosemite Falls/Yosemite Point
Another visit with relatively little snow. In going through the metadata for these photos, I realize I might have lied about hiking every month…this was the next hike I did after Dewey Point and was a whole two months later. I started hiking around 7:45 AM and made it to Yosemite Point by 11 AM with a stop at the upper falls viewpoint and numerous snack and water breaks. Not terrible considering how out of shape I was.
I met a Chinese guy at the top who was on vacation to the U.S. and also visiting some schools as a prospective physics Ph.D. student. He made it to the top in tennis shoes and with no food except a bottle of coke filled with water. He also showed me some North Korean Won he bought at the DMZ in South Korea. Fun.
I didn’t have any particular photography objectives on this hike since the lighting would be horrendous at the time of day I planned to be on the trail, but I did make a note to myself that a sunset from Yosemite Point might be nice.
Looking towards Half Dome from Yosemite Point.
Yosemite Valley
It has been a goal of mine to photography Yosemite Valley after a fresh snowfall since I moved to California. Part of that process has necessarily been learning how to read the forecasts and time a visit correctly. It doesn’t snow in the valley proper very often and when it does, the snow is usually gone by the end of the next day. On March 13-14, a heavy snowstorm hit the Sierra and blanketed the valley in several feet of snow.
I took off work on March 14 to head over to the park in the middle of the storm. Turns out that this is not a particularly optimal time to get the photos I wanted. Due to high winds, fresh snow on the trees blew off almost immediately. Storm clouds consumed El Capitan and the Three Brothers and didn’t clear all day. I had a great time walking around in the snow regardless and was not sad to have used PTO for this visit.
Yosemite during a snowstorm can be ethereal but fickle. The fresh snow on these trees blew off almost immediately and El Capitan only showed itself for a few minutes on this day.
The snow was forecasted to go through the night. Rather than getting a hotel outside the park like I should have, I drove back to the Bay Area and debated whether I wanted to drive back for sunrise the next day. My alarm went off and I snoozed it several times before giving up. This ended up being the entirely wrong decision since the valley was blanketed in snow overnight and winds died down to reveal a winter wonderland. I drove over in the late afternoon anyway to see if I could make any sunset shots work. By the time I got to the park, all of the snow on the trees had melted already.
I slowly headed up the switchbacks from Tunnel View towards Inspiration Point, a bit disheartened. I also didn’t bring snowshoes or hiking boots so the going was extremely slow due to the multiple feet of fresh snow on the trail. While waiting for sunset, I took a photo for a group of friends who were celebrating the engagement of two in their group and chatted with a family from Lathrop.
Sunset over Bridalveil Falls.
This visit ended up being my trial run for the next storm. Valuable lessons were learned and being the unfortunately very stubborn individual that I am, I wasn’t going to let 2025 get away from me without a fight.
To be continued…
