4 Days of Winter Camping

Hello again,

It's been another great week in California. Sunday morning, bright and early, Bekah, Tom, Kelli and I set out for four days of winter camping! We spent all of Sunday, cross country skiing towards Ostrander lake. Which was about a 15 kilometer trek thru Yosemite National Park. The terrain was very rugid. At different points the hills were to steep and icy for us, "beginners". It didn't help that we were carrying 50 pound packs. So all of us walked except Tom, who calls himself a "Guru" in skiing. We finally came to a valley with a wonderful view about 2 kilometers from Ostrander and decided that we should camp there because it was getting dark and we were exausted. That evening we dug out a flat sleeping area and kitchen. I learned how to use the outdoor stove and we boiled snow for water for the next day. After everything was finished being set up, we had supper under the stars. The following day we left most of our gear at our new campsite and headed out to Ostrander lake. Skiing got a little easier with very light day packs! We had lunch around the lake and then Tom taught us how to do complex teleturns on a really steep hill. After getting some more bruises we decided to return to camp.. Our last day in the snow we learned to use a compass and map and Tom taught us about avalanches conditions. We had beautiful sunny weather all four days. The evenings would get to about anywhere from 0 to -5 and during the day it was plus 7-15! Our last evening, Bekah and I decided to build a Quinzee. A Quinzee, for those who don't know, is basically a bunch of snow piled up and then dug out. It took us about 2 hours of moving, packing and hollowing snow to finish. We made it big enough for the two of us to sleep in. Bekah by accidently poked a hole thru the side, making a window. Which later she claimed, it would be "safer" because she could see outside. I was a little scared that the window would cause the snow to shift and collapse. But when morning came around, we were still alive. Finally, it was time to make the decent home. We ended up walking our ski's down two of the very big hills. By midafternoon we made it back to the Ski Pass. In the evening we decided to celebrate our safe travels with Tom's family and a few other people at El Sid's, a mexican restaurant. These last two days we've been completly switching gears. We unpacked all the winter gear on thursday. And today, we had a little debrief and now we're packing for Ecudor. There has been an unexpected flight switch. We were supposed to leave tomorrow but due to weather we aren't leaving until sunday morning. Well it's getting late, I should finish packing and enjoy one more day of beautiful sunshine in the state of California tomorrow. I hope to continue to blog when I am in Ecudor. Pictures are coming soon!