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Continued...
After giving Matt some basic pointers on snow climbing
(“dude, don’t rottweiler”), I led a
steep boot track up the chute. I topped out on the
summit plateau in the company of some unusually fat
marmots. The marmots and I enjoyed the views over the
domes and spires of Tuolumne Meadows while waiting for Matt to
come up and join us. A quick scamper up the easy but
exposed summit ridge found us sitting on top of
Yosemite National Park. From the summit we could pick
out every major peak in the park, as well as the
Ritter range to the south, the Sonora peaks and
Sweetwater range to the north, and the White Mountains
to the east. We flipped through the summit register
under a cloudless sky, congratulating ourselves for
getting out of the city and doing something memorable
with our weekend. Looking out over the entire
cirque, we
saw not a single soul. All of these incredible ski
lines and all of this snow and not a single person
here besides ourselves to enjoy it. Good for us, bad
for the rest of humanity.
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Above Tuolumne. From Conness, the views
are pretty astonishing over the Tuolumne Meadows area.
This vista looks directly up Lyell Canyon to Banner
Peak, Mount Ritter, Mount Lyell and Mount Maclure.
(photo: M.
Howard) |
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