[pct-l] South bounders – Washington Snow Conditions

[Barry Teschlog]

For those of you planning on a SOBO trip this year, you may wish to check out the linked Snotel site.  
 
http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/
 
Pick the state of Washington, the hover over the dots on the map to be able to select the individual sensor sites.  When you pick a site, it’ll bring up a page on that site.  I suggest in the “Current Water Year” part, pick the “Daily Graph” for the Snow Water Equivalent to get a quick snapshot of the history of this year.  You can then pick from the drop down menu below the graph to have it pull up the 2005 plot (the last really good SOBO year), then using your browsers back and forward button, compare the two graphs easily.
 
Suggested sites, from north to south:


Harts Pass
Rainy Pass
Miners Ridge (In the Glacier Peak area)
Stevens Pass
Olallie Meadows (Just south of Snoqualmie Pass – the trail passes very close to this sensor).
Stampede Pass
Morse Lake (Just north of Highway 410)
White Pass
Potato Hill
 
If you wish to see exactly where these sites are, the Snotel site has the latitude and longitude which can be easily plotted on Google Maps.
 
Some of the above sites are not used in Postholers plot.  The additional sites will give you a better idea of what you may encounter with respect to snow conditions in Washington.  Harts Pass is on the trail between Rainy Pass and Canada; it’s also at a higher elevation than Rainy Pass.  Olallie Meadows is another data point for the Snoqualmie Pass area, being a few trail miles south of Snoqualmie, while Stampede Pass is about 20 trail miles south.  Morse Lake is close to the trail between Snoqualmie and White Pass, further south than Stampede Pass.  
 
As can be seen when you investigate the data, some parts of Washington where the PCT is routed are now at or above average snow for the year.  Others are still substantially below average, but generally there is more substantially more snow than 2005.  
 
Also note that the section between Harts Pass and Rainy Pass is not scheduled to be cleared of the winter blow down until the week of July 5 to July 10.
 
Of course, it could turn out to be a warm, dry spring, with rapid melt, etc, insert the usual disclaimers here.  YMMV, HYOH, 2 cents, yadda, yadda, yadda....