May-June 2011
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Note: A printer-friendly version of the Foggy View is available in pdf here.
Online Contents: Activities Calendar | Weekly Activities | Monthly Activities | Group Meetings
IN THIS ISSUE...
This May 2011 issue of the Foggy View will not be mailed with the Southern Sierran (or otherwise). It is available online at the PV-South Bay website.
Inspiration Point New Year's Eve 2010.
We continue to take sign ups from readers opting in for electronic delivery of Sierra Club newsletters. To OPT IN, simply send an email with your name, address and member ID number to: pvsb@angeles.sierraclub.org. We'll notify the Los Angeles Chapter's Southern Sierran Editorial Board and work with them to convert those opt-in-members to electronic delivery of the Southern Sierran as well.
We have had some changes to the PV-South Bay Group Executive Committee, recently. Phil Wheeler resigned from the ExCom and Eva Cicoria was elected to fill the vacancy. Al Sattler was elected to chair our group. Barry Bonnickson resigned as secretary of the group, but remains on the ExCom.
In this issue... Keith and Beth Martin share their experience taking a group on a Sierra Club winter outing to Yosemite Valley.
A printer-friendly version of each part of the Foggy View and the Activities Calendar is available in pdf. Click for the Foggy View in brief, for the articles, or for the Activities Calendar.
Greetings from the New PVSB ExCom Chair, Al Sattler
I was recently elected Chair of the Executive Committee for the Palos Verdes-South Bay Regional Group.
We will need all of you to help make the Sierra Club function optimally in our area, to help "explore, enjoy, and protect" our little corner of this planet.
We continually need new people to help lead outings, whether evening conditioning hikes, nature walks, weekend bus trips or backpacks.
We need somebody to help with publicity for our area, making sure that local newspapers are informed about our quarterly program meetings and other activities.
We need people to help represent the Sierra Club, handing out literature and getting new members at public events like Earth Day celebrations, Whale of a Day, and environmental fairs. No experience needed. We will train you!
There are several active conservation projects in our area and the potential for more, if people are ready to take on the new projects.
Contact any one of us about getting involved.
Yosemite-Wawona Ski-Snowshoe Trip Sierra Club Outing Martin Luther King Weekend
By Keith and Beth Martin, Leaders
Many of us have visited Yosemite in the summer and are familiar with the Park’s many delights clothed in bright sunshine and summer warmth. Fewer have taken in the park when winter snows and hand-numbing cold are the expected experience. Yet if one plans for the obvious discomforts, experiencing the magic of the heart of the Sierra Nevada in winter offers its own delights.
Lori and Elisa at Dewey Point.
Fifteen Sierra Club members joined together over the Martin Luther King weekend to enjoy the frostier side of Yosemite. Arriving Friday afternoon, we stayed at a cabin at the Redwoods in Yosemite, a privately held portion of land adjacent to the Wawona Hotel about five miles from the south entrance to the park. The next three days participants hiked, cross-country skied with Beth and me or snow-shoed with Kent Schwitkis and Sherry Ross.
Yosemite Valley from Dewey Point.
Saturday we all got an early start and carpooled up to Badger Pass. Located five miles up the Glacier Point Road from the Chinquapin Junction, Badger Pass Ski area offers lift skiing, track skiing, marked backcountry trails and miles of wilderness. Several of our participants first outfitted themselves with backcountry skies or snowshoes at the cross-country rental store. We then departed for an eight-mile round trip journey out to Dewey Point, overlooking Yosemite Valley and providing breathtaking views of the Yosemite high country. The weather was clear and unseasonably warm. We even saw bees unsuccessfully searching shrubs and plants for blooms. The trail was well marked and the snow compacted by many winter pilgrims.
Tempo Dome
Sunday found some of the group snowshoeing with Kent and Sherry. Others took cross-country and skate-skiing lessons at Badger Pass. Beth and I took a select group on a backcountry ski adventure. We rode the lifts at Badger to the top of the runs. Then we skied to the top of Tempo Dome, down the north side, across to Westfall Meadows, north to the old Badger Pass Road and then back to Badger Pass. We skied on untrodden snow, coming across only two other people during most of this adventure.
Both nights we all returned to the cabin and together cooked up meals using fresh and healthy ingredients. No one went away hungry.
Monday a few left early. The rest of us hiked on compact snow in the Mariposa Grove, beholding the Grizzly Giant and the California Tree surrounded by a skirt of winter snow—a magnificent end to our visit before carpooling home.
Westfall Meadows (left). A successful meal preparation (right).
At Mariposa Grove: Eva Eilenberg, Keith Martin, Lori Woodruff, Shadman Habibi, Sharon Moore, Sherry Ross, Kent Schwitkis, Tom Horner, Beth Martin