The 2024 Yosemite trip is closed to any more signups as of Jan. 27, 2024.
The Outdoor Club started signups for the 2024 trip to Yosemite in December 2023, and we already have people signed up who have been on the trip before and who are experienced enough to lead the major hike, and others signed up who can teach people to ice skate. Some of these people will be camping, some have hotel room type reservations.
Signups for the February 2024 Yosemite trip
have things you must do before you come to sign up.
You always need to bring a valid government-issued photo ID
to prove who you are and to prove how old you are
(which could be a drivers license or a clear photo on your cell phone of your passport)
and proof you are a De Anza student to be able to sign up for an event.
(For proof of enrollment you can show us, on your smart-enough phone, your enrollment – winter quarter – at the Portal.)
You can’t just show up for an off-campus event and expect to participate without having signed up in advance in person and having paid in advance, in part because the college has a release everyone who goes off campus must sign before they go off-campus.
The college release needs to be completed for each person for every off-campus event. It covers what should be done in a medical emergency, Rules of Conduct, and an acknowledgement that the college is not providing transportation. You sign, for example, “it is my responsibility to arrange for transportation to and from the activity.” It has to be signed by the student (or by the parent/guardian of a student under 18 years old), then the faculty or staff member leading the trip is responsible for getting it turned in to the administration before the trip.
You will need to write in your eight-digit De Anza College student identification number Campuswide ID (CWID),
(and we have found that some people coming to sign up for events do not remember their ID Number).
In the release you will give info about your health coverage and in the event of a medical emergency, who to notify.
(And we have found that some people coming to sign up for events do not know their type / brand of health insurance).
Take a look at a sample of the required-by-the-college release.
You can’t sign up on-line, by email or at this website, each student must appear in person to sign trip agreements/releases and show proof they are a currently enrolled student.
Your friend or even your spouse can’t sign the required paperwork.
Especially important to note if you are under 18 years old the college requires that a parent/guardian will need to sign all the documents along with you, in person and must be present on the event overnight with you.
There are no waitlists for club events.
Step One
If you carefully read the trip webpage
and the trip agreement.
before you come to sign up, it will go much faster and you will better be able to pass the trip pre-test.
(Most people who read the trip agreement and trip webpage before they come to sign up get perfect or near-perfect scores.)
Sample questions from the test.
Step Two
To sign up for the trip you
must show us your waterproof hooded rain jacket and pants.
because on previous trips the faculty advisor has had to dress people in plastic leaf bags.
Really.
We will not accept a rain poncho.
We will not accept thin, easily torn temporary rain gear like they sell at airports for emergencies.
Your snowboarding gear could be snow-proof, but not actually waterproof out in the rain.
Read more details about the right gear at snow or rain camp must-haves
Step Three
Deciding if your budget can afford a hotel room, cabin or a campsite is important.
Some club people got four campsites in a row in Upper Pines campground, for the 2024 trip weekend, that they are willing to share.
If you choose to camp, we would like to see your tent, and have you pitch it, to be sure it will be adequate. Some people have told us past years they had a great tent but brought one that was not and ended up sleeping in their car.
There are crucial things wrong with each of these tents.
If you do not recognize why they are bad tents (or why the tents were set up poorly)
please read Don’t buy a cheap tent.
If you don’t want to camp (if you just don’t want to camp, or do not have enough experience camping in the winter, or don’t have the right gear)
you can book
a heated-or-not wood floored canvas roofed/sided tent cabin,
wood walled cabin
or a hotel room with a bathroom
– see lots of details about these at
Things to do in advance of the Yosemite trip
And check out the page with advice about staying in a Curry Village wood floored, canvas sided/roofed tent cabin, in case weather comes in and you decide to move out of the campground or you are considering choosing a tent-cabin (heated or not) for the trip instead of camping.
Step Four
You must bring your money order payment when you come to sign up.
(You can come to one of the signups meetings and get questions answered and/or take the pretest and show us your waterproof rain gear, but you can’t sign up unless you have your trip payment with you.)
see: how to get a money order to pay for an Outdoor Club trip
Step Five
The sign ups dates / places for the 2024 Yosemite National park weekend trip will be:
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We had signups (Fall Quarter)
Dec. 2 and 9, 2023.
(Winter quarter)
The best times to sign up are on the three Friday afternoons because we will be in a De Anza Classroom and can use the computer to take a look at trip webpages as needed and/or go to the Portal for people to show us proof of their enrollment. We also (see below) will have a table at the Thursday Club Day (if it is not cancelled due to rain) and at the pool on Saturdays at noon until Saturday, January 27, 2024.
Friday afternoons, 4:20 p.m.
Jan. 12, 19 and 26, 2024
at classroom S56.
We will stay around for a half hour or even an hour, or if no one comes, we might leave sooner.
You can come and get questions answered. . . or . . . IF YOU ARE completely ready to sign up, you could bring your waterproof rain gear, photo I.D. and money order and come to the classroom at 3:30 p.m. to have enough time for the paperwork. There will be a first aid class in session, so you will have to wait a few moments to let us find someone to help you.
To find S56, go to:
https://www.deanza.edu/maps-and-tours/
Look for the S5 building. S56 is in the bottom left hand corner of the S5 building.
Or look at the map with room numbers of buildings at:
https://www.deanza.edu/maps-and-tours/s_quad.html
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We will have a booth on Club Day on Thursday, Jan. 25 (unless Club Day is cancelled by rain).
Club Day is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the Outdoor Club intends to be there at least that entire time, ( likely even as early at 9 a.m.) but coming to sign up the last hour will not give you enough time to take the test and do all the paperwork to sign up for the Yosemite trip.
Club Day is held in the Sunken Garden. To find the Sunken Garden notice on the mini-map below where it is in relation to the biggest fountain on campus in the Main Quad:
You can also find the Main Quad and Sunken Garden in about the upper left – center of the campus map at:
https://www.deanza.edu/maps-and-tours/documents/DAC-campus-map-2023-0404.pdf
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and again, please note that we will have signups
the day after Club Day, Friday afternoon, 3:30 p.m. Jan. 26, 2024
at classroom S56. (see map above)
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Saturdays, Jan. 13 and 20, 2024, noon to maybe as late as 2 p.m.
(but if you are not just coming to get questions answered and want to sign up,
arriving after 1 p.m. could make it difficult to get all your paperwork completed.)
AND last chance to sign up for the Yosemite National Park trip, will be at the pre-trip meeting, Saturday, January 27, 2024 noon to maybe as late as 2 p.m. – but if you arrive after 1 p.m. you will not have enough time to get all the paperwork done.)
This is usually a time people can finally arrange or rearrange carpools or caravans, or make arrangements to share overnight accommodations / campsites.
Look for us at the east end of the swimming pool. There might be pool activities happening, so you will need to come down to the pool deck and tell people you are there for Outdoor Club signups.
If you intend to camp you can bring your tent, pitch it, and have us take a look at it if you want to.
IF IT IS ABSOLUTELY POURING RAIN, we will likely relocate to the roofed level above the east end of the pool.
The De Anza College Olympic-sized swimming pool and diving well are just about in the center of the campus. Look for the light blue square and rectangle on campus maps https://www.deanza.edu/maps-and-tours/
as seen in this section of the map:
The photo below is taken from the direction of the Stelling Parking Garage looking towards the main entrance to the pool complex.
If you find that these two big double doors are locked, you might find an open entrance by turning right and going around that end of the pool complex to another entrance at the side, to about where it says PE5 on the map above.
People who wait until the last minute to sign up are sometimes left out.
People on this trip can hike to the top of Yosemite Falls
and/or take a short walk to this view of Yosemite falls
(photo below taken in February from the far left hand portion of the lower Yosemite Falls walkways/trails.)
