Yosemite. What’s Yosemite to me? It’s my temple. It’s where I explore myself when I’m there to explore the park. Wanting to catch snow in Yosemite has been my biggest dream in the last 6 months. Let me back up a little bit. My friends (Sandheep and Sanjeevi) and I went to Lake Tahoe last September expecting snow there. But, nature had it otherwise, it was hot and sunny. We saw warning boards all over the park that said “Icy”, “Watch out for snow plowing machines”, but literally no snow. It made me and my friends really upset and we started wondering how it would be to see these signs when it actually snowed. So, a couple of months later, in December, I decided to go to Yosemite, wanting catch the winter wonderland. We did see snow on the ground, a couple of frozen lakes, but it was still sunny. It seemed to me that the warning signs (that I alluded to earlier) were laughing at me. My dream of wanting to drive during a snow fall only got bigger. Sanjeevi and I had almost given up at that point having not seen snow in Tahoe and Yosemite. I was un-deterred.  I decided to go to Yosemite again in March. By this time, I learned that it doesn’t snow all winter (as stupid as that might sound). I started following Yosemite weather. When I say, “following”, that means…let me explain. I usually check my email and facebook the first thing immediately after I wake up. Over the last three months, I have been so addicted to Yosemite weather forecast that I started checking it as soon as I woke up and if you think that’s a lot, wait, I checked it every two hours over the past three months. Back to the March Yosemite trip.. This time I went with four other friends and I knew that there wasn’t any snow in the forecast. I was hoping for a miracle. Well, we had a fun time, but no snow. I was very upset at this time having been seeing these eluding warning signs, but no snow. I got back home and the first thing I checked Monday morning was, yes, you guessed it right. Yosemite weather. It was forecast to snow every single day that week and a severe snow storm warning. I was so excited. But, I wanted to wait it out for a couple of days to make sure the forecast were accurate. Two days later, it became three snow storms that week with severe snow fall and blizzard on Friday night and through the day Saturday. I couldn’t have been happier. I wanted to book a cabin as soon as possible, but wanted to ask my friends if they would come with me. This is tough because they had been there just the previous weekend. As much as I was excited, I was scared too. Because I’ve never, leave alone driving in snow, never seen snow before. Thoughts such as “What if I get stuck in a blizzard in the night alone?” came to my mind. And, I’m a person that doesn’t do anything alone. Not even buying coffee alone. My dear friend Krishna knows it well. It's probably because I was born with company. Back to the Yosemite trip, I went ahead and booked a cabin hoping at least one of my friends would accompany me. As days passed, I was ridiculed for going back to the same place two weeks in a row. Little did they know how heavenly of a place Yosemite is during a snow storm. By Friday, all my friends had backed out. I did not want to go alone, but I did not want to miss a snow storm in Yosemite either. I finally brought up the courage to embark on this journey alone. I was well prepared with winter clothing, food, snow tire chains, practiced putting them on, etc. I gave my car for an expensive service, started for Yosemite straight from work (in work clothes; this would prove tragic later).

I start driving to Yosemite, listening to my favorite house and tamil music. I was very happy and slightly upset at the same time thinking about, what if it doesn’t snow. I continued, I distracted myself from that thought. I finally got to the hills at about 10pm Friday. It was pouring. It was Florida type thunderstorm in the mountains. I was fortunate that there were at least ten other cars on the road.  Or, I would have almost cried. It was that scary, especially when the roads were winding. As I was just thinking, why would so many people drive up the mountains during a snow storm, one car by one started pulling off the road and getting to the nearest motel. That scared me a little bit, fifteen minutes later; I was in the deep mountains driving alone, not only in my car alone, but in the mountains alone too. There was no car to be seen for the next 30 miles. Just when the rain eased a little, the thought of snow fall at 10pm that I had seen in the weather forecast came to my mind and I was very upset that it was 11pm and it was still raining. Minutes later, nature decided to distract me with close to zero visibility. I was in fear. When I say fear, it was 4000 feet above sea level, 11pm, rain, close to zero visibility. Minutes later I reach the Park entrance which said “Open”, but there was no one at the booth. I stopped there for a few minutes to check the forecast. It said rain on Friday and snow on Saturday. I was about to cry. I said to myself, you have come all the way here; you have to make it up there. How bad can it be even if doesn’t snow. I made up my mind that it wouldn’t snow and started planning for other activities.

Ten minutes later, it looks like it’s snowing, but it feels like rain. I wasn’t sure if it was snow. Turns out it wasn’t. A few minutes later, it finally starts snowing. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I could feel the tears in my eyes due to joy. I was so happy to see snow fall eventually. Little did I know those joyful tears were going to become real tears due to fear and frustration. As I keep driving, I notice a good deposit of snow on road and start wondering if the conditions aren’t too bad for me to use a snow chain. As I continue driving, I see a make shift sign (that I hadn’t seen on my prior trips) that said “Wildlife for the next 1 mile, watch out”. I got slightly excited. It’s snowing, what if saw a deer cross the road, it will be an icing on the cake, I told  myself. One minute later, my car started swerving and I braked, the brakes stopped working, the car skidded off the road, I was so fortunate that I was on the hill side of the road and not on the valley side which was a 5000 feet drop! Still, there was a drop for 2 feet on the hill side too. I was prepared for it. I tried as much as I could and I knew it was going to drop there. Somehow, luckily it stopped after a half a foot fall. I tried taking the car off, it kept skidding so bad. That’s when it occurred to my mind that I had seen a “Use snow chains sign”. I was stuck in a blizzard at 11:30 in the night and 100 feet off the wildlife warning sign. I stopped the car without trying to move it any further. I got down, relaxed, and thought about the situation. I knew I had to put the snow chains on. As I start putting them on (it’s really difficult), I hear growling sounds. It suddenly struck me that I had just seen Wildlife warnings. Every time I turn to see if there is a bear, the chains were completely covered by snow and the tires too. Did I mention I was in work clothes? And I had no gloves. Finally I somehow got the courage to disregard the wildlife sounds and concentrate on putting the chains on. It proved to be very demanding and I almost gave up. I was sitting on 1 foot of snow with khaki pants and work shoes and the blizzard had already covered my car with half a foot of snow. I was on the verge of giving up and sleeping in my car when I heard a very loud growl. Just then, a source of light (literally and figuratively), another car stopped to put the chains on. That offered me some confidence and much needed light. I said hi to them and finished off one tire (snow chains go on two tires). I start to put them on the second tire, but soon, it becomes very daunting because the chain keeps freezing and about half a foot of snow gets accumulated underneath the car that needs to be cleaned every 1 minute. Suddenly my hands feel like they are on fire. I attributed it to being out in a blizzard sans gloves. I then noticed that the snow underneath was completely red. I start thinking about all the reasons as to why it could be red.  It dint occur to me that my fingers (3 or 4 of them) were bleeding profusely. The snow in front of me was completely red and my hands were burning. I was 90% done with the chains. I was about to give up. That’s when the kind lady from the other car saw me bleeding and offered me help. She did the rest 10% and I was so thankful to her. I drove off and drove the next 30 miles at 20mph. It was still skidding at times even with the chains on, so had to be really careful. I kept distracting myself by listening to good music(very loud). A few minutes later the beauty of the snowfall was so amazing that I completely forgot about the almost accident and the torture that I had gone through.  About a few miles from my cabin, it suddenly starts raining instead of snowing. I was so upset that I went through all this and it’s not snowing near the cabin. About half a mile to the cabin it starts snowing again, I was so happy. I pull into the cabin parking lot and it’s still snowing. I check in to the cabin and come out only to see a couple of amazing photos to be taken and do the same. I get to the cabin and feel an intense urge to write about this experience and do so. I’m about to sleep now after a moment out in the snow and the whole experience was completely worth it!