I'm proposing a grand loop tour, from Badger Pass to June Lake and then back west again to Yosemite Valley. This tour is for advanced skiers with previous long-tour experience. We'll be attempting to make each traverse in three days, with a one-day layover in June Lake. This tour will be fast and lite-weight, but that advantage will be balanced out by big mileage. Expect to be skiing 8-10 hours a day!
It will be possible to join us for only 1/2 of the tour (from Badger to June or June to Yosemite), but determining your transportation to or from June Lake will be entirely up to you.
Day One: Meet at Curry Village, Yosemite Valley, to do a gear check and deposit one car, then drive up to Badger Pass Ski Area for the first night.
Day Two: A dawn start introduces the schedule on this tour. We'll be putting in big days to get the mileage done.
Day Three: On the move some more.
Day Four: Hope to reach the June Mountain Ski Area late in the afternoon, where we'll be able to ski into June Lake. If you want to pamper yourself for the next few nights, book a room at the Double Eagle Resort. We'll meet at lunch time to re-distribute food and group gear for the return leg.
Day Five: Another crack of dawn start will see us climbing out of June Lake.
Day Six: We'll continue heading west, this time on a tour north of our eastern leg. The country will look completely different - this is not an out-and-back itinerary!
Day Seven: We'll hopefully be skiing all the way to the floor of Yosemite Valley, where we can use the car deposited on Day One to retrieve all the other cars left at Badger Pass Ski Area. I suggest that we plan on spending the night there at Curry Village in a heated cabin, where we can shower, have a celebratory dinner, and then leave in the morning.
A note about the photos. None of these photos are depictions of the actual tour conditions! Rather, they are photos from previous Sierra traverses that I've done over the past two years to give the reader an idea of the terrain we'll be traveling through.
