The Glacier Point Road in YNP opened for the season

[John Kasaian]

I just read about it.:cool:

[Robert Langham]

How about Tioga?

[karl french]

Soon.

[Drew Wiley]

Memorial Day is the official target day for these high passes. Doesn't mean they will be safe yet. I remember on year when the Park brass got pushy about the date and got their snowplow driver killed in an avalanche. My hometown pass was Kaiser, quite a bit steeper and narrower than the Tioga Road. On a typical year the cut at the summit would have twenty-foot deep walls of snow on either side. The runoff would re-freeze on the road at night, and if you didn't understand that fact, and appropriately time it, you could be in for quite a thrill ride. John K. knows the routine. Same thing happened during ski season way down at the bottom of the hill approaching the ski resort. Remember when the Highway Patrolman took off after both a Porsche and jacked-up 4WD speeding around a shady corner in the morning. All three went sailing off the road. At least they were in timber there, and not along a cliff. Either let somebody else warm the ice that way ahead of you, or let the sun do it for a few hours first. Freshly-plowed passes can be distinctly slippery.

[Jmarmck]

But you gotta love em.

[Drew Wiley]

I'm more likely to pick a weekend one side or the other from Memorial Day. But it sure would be nice to get a bit of altitude workout pre-mosquito season. Virigina
Lks road is also tends to be open early, and that little chain of lakes is a nice day hike early on. On most years there is a nice tongue of snow left where you can
glissade almost the whole way down, shortcutting most of the trail, with an ice axe. Still cogitating. But my Norma will be ready.

[Jim Andrada]

The image of a Porsche sliding off the icy road brought back memories. About 50 years ago I had a Porsche 356 and our club used to sponsor a long Winter weekend of ice racing on a frozen lake. AM practice, then lunch then racing. During lunch the sun came out and heading down the straight at close to 100 and trying to make a turn on what was now water on top of ice was - well, let's say it was more exciting than it had been when the ice was all rough and dry for the morning practice. Felt like I was in a blender. Fortunately there was nothing to hit except soft snow. I acquired a deep respect for ice. In addition to a lot of bruises. Car was fine, nothing that a body shop couldn't fix in a few days. I know Tioga etc - I can happily wait a couple of weeks for it to clear.

[Drew Wiley]

I was thumbing through one of my old geology books last nite in relation to certain fossil formations in the Inyo Range. But then, in another chapter there was an
aerial shot taken over Glacier Point facing upcanyon, right into my target area for this summer's backpack, way in the background. You can't see any of the upper
canyons from the Point itself, just the distant peaks. But no human sculptor can compete with a glacier!