Hi Nathanael,<div><br></div><div>My wife and I hiked half the CDT northbound in 2009. We carried light crampons and light ice axes through the San Juans in the middle of June. It was a relatively low snow year. We road walked around the southern San Juans (from Cumbres Pass/Chama to Wolf Creek Pass/Pagosa Springs), because it was snowy and we didn't have our gear yet. We did not need our ice axes or crampons in the San Juans, but they were comforting early on, especially side-sloping early in the morning. (Some side-sloping can be avoided by walking the ridge line.) </div>
<div><br></div><div>The San Juans were amazing, one of the highlights of our trip. The Creede cutoff misses the best parts in my opinion.<br><br></div><div>Like Iceaxe, I am insanely jealous. Have a great hike.</div><div>
<br></div><div>-Reason (and Cruiser)</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 8:14 AM, nathanael lintner <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nglintner@gmail.com">nglintner@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Hi Everyone,<br><br>Question for people who have hiked the CDT northbound: Do you think it would be worth carrying snowshoes north of Charma, NM? Our tenative schedule for this summer has us leaving Charma on June 16th and we are considering whether to send ourselves snowshoes, crampons and/or iceaxes. We know that there will be lots of snow but what we would like to know from previous NOBO hikers, was the snow generally the soft type that you posthole in or was it generally hard snow that you can stay on top of? Approximately what percentage of the trail would you say was snowcovered? Did you carry snowshoes? Did you wish you did? How about iceaxes; were there lots of steep traverses where it would be good to have one? We would really like to do the whole San Juan loop and not the Creede cutoff.<br>
<font color="#888888">
<br clear="all">Nathanael Lintner<br><br><br><br><br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Todd DeLuca<br><a href="http://todddeluca.com" target="_blank">http://todddeluca.com</a><br>27 Clinton St #2<br>Cambridge MA 02139<div><br></div>
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