I am trying to find an average travel time from the badger pass ski area to Ostrander hut, on snowshoes. Actually trying to figure out how much time it will take to get from the hut, back to BP ski area.
Turns out one of my small group didn't make it clear that on our last day he needs to be back in SF to go to a job by about 3 p.m. and I am trying to figure what time we'll have to get up, to hike out, to then drive out, to be back in SF by about 3 p.m., which sucks.
Or should I just ask him to stay home? I know there are a few variables, but assuming he (we) can all do a fairly fast pace . . . how long.

THANKS

Assuming the roads are dry and there's no traffic you'd need ~4 hours to make the drive back.
(Chain control out of Yosemite could add to this considerably.

The Ostrander hut is 10+ miles from Badger Pass.

Time from the hut to BP will vary greatly (Depending on your abilities, your weight/equipment, the snow conditions, whether the road is groomed, and whether someone has broken the remainder of the trail)
Snowshoeing on a hard crust can be nearly as fast as hiking. Shoeshoing while postholing is exhausting and slow.
Many folks use all available winter daylight for that route.

So you'll need to be back at Badger by 10-10:30 to reasonably expect to be in SF by 3. (And this assumes that he doesn't need to shave/shower before heading to work)
This would almost definitely require a pre-dawn start- and probably a substantially pre-dawn start.

IMHO, I'd have him stay home.

Fedak, thanks for the info––just what I need to convince the jury that I'm right. I'm also planning on having my first AT experience with a pack on and something tells me, I ain't gonna be too happy. cheers!

about 4-5 hours

Thanks all . . . made it. Spent the first day, about three hours getting up to the second bathroom ( what a goal, eh?) on the road to Glacier point––the road was basically a sheet of ice and my inexperience found that it was easier to shuffle along without the skins . . . like one foot in front of the other.

My friends both elected to dump their rented AT set-ups in favor of walking and snowshoeing, but I just had to test myself with a pack on and less than perfect conditions––no powder, no slush, just ice and an ancient pair of Scarpa's.

So we made about four miles the first day (having started at about 1 p.m. and finished at 4:30) and next day, skied, skinned (me, anyway) if you could call it that, six miles up to the Glacier point lodge. We saw no one the entire day (a thursday) . . . skied back for dinner, booze, a blazing dead wood fire and . . . got up friday, skied out by 1030, drove back to SF as fast as possible so one of us could go to work, while I elected to sit in a tub and drink the aches away.

http://picasaweb.google.com/10823179362 ... eat=email#

Isn't that the Glacier Point lodge (not the Ostrander Hut)?

Fedak,
Yeah, didn't make our change in plans clear . . . we decided we'd be happy enough just hitting glacier point––at least my legs were happy. All good in the end.