High Sierra Topix

I love these reports, from rangers stationed all winter in Tuolumne Meadows:

https://www.nps.gov/yose/blogs/update-f ... 8-2021.htm

Me too. I check it once a week. Its very interesting reading, they write about snow conditions of course plus wildlife too. The snow conditions the rangers give you is actual data from the backcountry too.

Texan

I also really enjoy vicariously visiting the Yosemite backcountry every winter through Laura and Rob's reports. Laura was stationed at Roaring River last summer and I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and talk with her while letting her know how much I appreciate their winter reports.

I met both Rob and Laura in 2014. She was the Rock Creek ranger and he was the Crabtree Meadow ranger. @schmalz and I were heading from Sky Blue Lake over Crabtree pass. Just before the pass, we stopped for a bit of a break. Laura was in her uniform, flying up toward Crabtree Pass. She stopped to chat with us for a bit. Since it was her day off, she never asked us to produce a permit. She told us she was on her way to meet her husband, Rob at the top of Crabtree Pass to spend some time together. We told her of our itinerary and she thought it was a great route.

When we hit the pass, there was Laura and Rob sitting next to each other on a boulder. Rob must have been on a day off as well because he didn't ask us for a permit either. Laura introduced us to Rob, we chatted a bit, then we checked out both potential routes down the pass. Rob told us that the left (Western?) side of the pass is the usual route. It looked steep, but the use trail was easily manageable.

I made a point of remembering their names by associating them to Rob and Laura Petrie from the Dick Van Dyke show.