[pct-l] Snow

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good afternoon,

If by saying you’ll begin at the Cal/Or border you mean right at the timber
access road that passes about ¼ mile north of the PCT Border Tree, you might
have a problem.  This is a heavy snowpack year in most of the Siskiyou Mts.

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/support/water/westwide/snowpack/wy2011/snow1105.gifand
there is a high probability that road won’t be open in time – or maybe
it won’t be opened at all this year.  You should contact the local USFS
office for a road status report.

If you start at that border road, or even further south at Seiad Valley, the
trail from the border most of the way to I-5 at Siskiyou Summit is around
6000-6900 feet elevation passing just below Mt. Ashland which is 7400 ft.  It
helps that most of the trail in that area in on the southern aspect of the
ridge and subsequently should have less snowpack.  There’s a real-time
web-cam at Mt. Ashland
http://mtashland.com/SectionIndex.asp?SectionID=14that shows the snow
along the road to the ski area.
I don’t know how long into the summer they keep the video posted.

If, instead, you begin your hike at Siskiyou Summit the trail will average
around 5000 ft. elevation for about a week.

Regardless, you will likely encounter significant snowpack cover.  In one
heavy snow year I encountered snowpack on the C. Oregon PCT in late August.

Enjoy your hike,

Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09



On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 7:41 PM, <robwid at comcast.net> wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: robwid at comcast.net
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Sent: Tuesday, June 7, 2011 7:10:26 PM
> Subject: Snow
>
>
> My wife and I are planning to hike the Oregon section of the PCT beginning
> this July 15th at the Ore/Calif boarder. With the heavy snow this year would
> anyone like to speculate about the trail conditions as we begin our hike.
> Will the trail still be under snow?
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