Had a great time this last weekend getting a day of snowboarding in at Mammoth, but was not without some struggles that I thought I would share for those camping in the snow.
We headed up the 395 on Friday from so cal looking for some fresh snow. The plan was to spend the night in the Alabama Hills and finish the drive Saturday morning. We heard they may close the roads, so we decided to press on.
Right after Bishop there was a chp stop for chains. We put it in 4x4 and got in line. At the front of the line, we were told we still needed chains in our possession. After looking for chains that would fit the 285's and not cost an arm and a leg for almost 2 hours in and around Bishop, we had to settle paying $260 for cable chains at a gas station.
Was not happy about it. Had no problem paying for chains, as I should have them anyways, but at that price I would have liked to research which ones and get something that will last longer than these presumably will.
Back in line and thru the checkpoint we went. Had to visiually show 3 people the bag of chains. We then went to the Hill top hot springs to see what the fuss was about.
I knew it was a popular one, and seeing two other cars there in the middle of a snow storm was more than expected at 9 at night. Without a place to camp since the road was snowed in, we went searching for a place to sleep. We ended up down a road towards convict lake. The road wasn't plowed and we went until it came to a dead end. Figured no one would be coming down it for the rest of the night and setup shop.
Problem 2 arose when the espar would not ignite. Got under the van, found snow all over the intake hose and drained a bunch of water out of it. Still wouldn't ignite. Good thing we brought the mummy bags as a backup.
We heated the car up nice and good and prepared for a cold one. Decided to wake up at 3am and make sure we werent getting snowed in and turn on the engine to heat up the van. We woke up and decided we were good without the heater and slept until 545 or so.
This is what it looked like outside :