[pct-l] A plan for detouring around the Sierras

[Guthrie Nutter]

Donna - 

Thanks for this.  Wow - 7/4/11 opening at TM?  So should I assume that there will be no YARTS service to TM until then?  

I have a reservation to climb Half Dome on 7/1 and was hoping to do the JMT from TM to Yosemite just beforehands.  I can resupply at Merced given the YARTS is running.  Hence my earlier question.  

- G -

On May 23, 2011, at 7:02 AM, "Donna \"L-Rod\" Saufley" <dsaufley at sprynet.com> wrote:

> One of the more significant problems for the hikers this year are the opening dates of normal resupply depots.  Right now current forecasts show:
> 
> MUIR TRAIL RANCH        **UNKNOWN**
> VERMILLION VALLEY RESORT    2ND WEEK JUNE
> REDS MEADOW            JUNE 24
> TUOLUMNE MEADOW        JULY 4
> 
> These dates present something of a problem for the nobos here currently or in the past few weeks who planned to resupply at these locations.  Any updated forecasts for openings are much appreciated.
> 
> L-Rod
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: CHUCK CHELIN <steeleye at wildblue.net>
>> Sent: May 23, 2011 6:54 AM
>> To: sabra985 <sabra985 at gmail.com>
>> Cc: pct-l <pct-l at backcountry.net>
>> Subject: Re: [pct-l] A plan for detouring around the Sierras
>> 
>> Good morning, Evenstar,
>> 
>> Without knowing exactly why you consider  – or are willing to resort to –
>> skipping around the Sierras it’s hard to make observations, but I have to
>> guess the high reported Sierra snowpack is the reason.  Why else would
>> someone willingly bypass one of the more scenic sections of the PCT?
>> 
>> Historically, the extent of seasonal snowpack along the PCT is a mixed bag
>> as can be seen by examining the May charts from:
>> http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/cgibin/westsnow.pl
>> 
>> Note that years’99 and ’11 had high snowpack on substantially the entire
>> PCT.
>> 
>> Similarly, years ’01 and ’07 had low snowpack the entire way.
>> 
>> Years ’97 and ’08 were high in the Pacific NW and low in most of California.
>> These would have been good years for typical NoBo hikes because most of the
>> NW snowpack would have been mostly down by the time a hiker arrived.
>> 
>> Snowpack in ’98 and’05 was low in the Pacific NW and high in most of
>> California.  These years would have been candidates for skipping around the
>> Sierras if a hiker were snow-adverse, or for a SoBo hike.  See the Chris
>> Bailey article below for comments from a ’98 team that pushed through the
>> Sierras in spite of the snowpack.
>> 
>> This ’11 season will be a problem for snow-adverse hikers.  While most of N.
>> California, Oregon, and Washington are at lower elevation compared to the
>> Sierras, their being increasingly further north pushes the melt season back
>> on the calendar -- meaning that June in the north will look a lot like May
>> in the Sierras, etc.
>> 
>> This year in Oregon seems much like ’99 when I encountered significant
>> snowpack around Hood, Jefferson, and Three Sisters in late August.  For
>> example, on the average Hood gets about 400” of total seasonal snowfall, but
>> this year the total – so far – is 722”.
>> http://www.timberlinelodge.com/conditions/
>> 
>> <http://www.timberlinelodge.com/conditions/>
>> 
>> Steel-Eye
>> 
>> Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965
>> 
>> http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
>> 
>> http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09
>> 
>> ============================================================
>> 
>> *"Impassable" is a State of Mind*
>> 
>> By Chris Bailey* *
>> 
>> *1998 ranked among the three snowiest years on record in the High Sierra in
>> the last 25 years. In this article, thru-hikers Chris Bailey and Jenelle
>> Wilhelm share some of their experiences from the trail.*
>> 
>> It is no longer news that 1998 was a big snow year on the Pacific Crest
>> Trail. For many ALDHA-West members, it is no longer news that all that snow
>> had a disruptive effect on ‘98’s north-bound thru-hikers. The Gazette’s
>> editor has asked us to provide a little of the flavor of what it was like to
>> thru-hike in a big snow year.
>> 
>> First, some background. Jenelle and I set out from Campo on April 26, 1998
>> and finished our hike at Manning Park on September 22, 1998. We became the 4
>> th and 5th hikers to have made it straight through from Mexico. Four others
>> finished in late October, for a total of nine who left the Mexican border
>> and hiked straight through to the Canadian border in 1998. Josh Dhasalear,
>> Jason Lakey and Jonathan Breen finished ahead of us, and Jennifer Pittman,
>> Mark Dixon, Jim Horan, and Graham Johnson behind us.
>> 
>> During the winter, we had been following the snow reports from the Sierras
>> and had become increasingly concerned, Poring over the data via the
>> internet, we’d have conversations like, "what the hell is snow water
>> content," and "well, 180% doesn’t seem so bad: maybe it will melt."
>> Obviously, we were in denial. Adding to our paranoia was Ray Jardine’s
>> published advice that if the snowpack was exceeding 200% of normal (which it
>> was in most of the High Sierra during April), we’d be better off to postpone
>> our hike for a year, or failing that, "that you not start until late May,
>> that you prepare to hike many miles of snowpack in southern and central
>> California, and that beyond the High Sierra you press ahead with a will in
>> order to finish before the early-winter snowstorms hit the North Cascades."
>> However, we decided to stick with our departure date: we were too anxious to
>> wait until June and go southbound, plus the idea of hiking home (we live
>> near Stevens Pass) was very appealing. Again, we were in denial.
>> 
>> So we read again and again Ray’s advice, which was prefaced with a warning
>> to the effect (I cut those pages out and lost them somewhere) that hiking in
>> heavy snow years was really winter mountaineering and beyond the scope of
>> his book. We just didn’t see how bad it could be.
>> 
>> Our first tangible evidence came on our flight from Seattle to San Diego on
>> April 25th. Our flight path took us directly over the High Sierra. We could
>> clearly make out Mono Lake and we’re pretty sure we picked out Mt. Whitney.
>> That was where we were going to be hiking in a few short weeks? We took
>> turns with our noses pressed to the window saying things like, "damn,
>> there’s a lot of snow down there," and "yeah, but most of it will melt
>> during the six weeks it’ll take us to get there, right?" Our state of denial
>> rose to new heights.*
>> *
>> 
>> *The Journey Begins
>> *
>> 
>> **At 9:20 a.m. on April 26th we set out, excited, nervous, anxious, but
>> confident. There was no snow at Campo – how bad could it really be? In fact,
>> there wasn’t a single patch of snow in the Laguna Mountains, which gave us
>> hope. But there were register entries from a couple of weeks before
>> describing how some PCTers had arrived on snowshoes.
>> 
>> It wasn’t until we climbed over the shoulder of Combs Peak (map B3) that we
>> got our first really good look at the San Jacintos. Gulp! Damn, there was a
>> lot of snow there. Somehow we almost convinced ourselves that we were really
>> looking at San Gorgonio, which we’d skirt around anyhow. But no, that was
>> San Jacinto and we’d be there in about 2-3 days. Yeah, but we don’t go over
>> the top, we traverse around a couple thousand feet below. How bad could it
>> be? This is starting to sound familiar, huh?
>> 
>> Unseasonable storms ran us off the Desert Divide into Idyllwild prematurely
>> and after waiting for 3 snowy, rainy days in Idyllwild we made our way back
>> to our bail-off point and continued north. My (Chris) journal entries for
>> May 8 - 10:
>> 
>> *"Finally left Idyllwild today, getting a ride back to Cedar Springs Trail.
>> Jenelle and I spent last night at the State Park Hiker/Biker site in the
>> rain, thunder and hail.  The weather still didn't look great but we were
>> really itching to get hiking after three nights in town.  Jason and Johanna
>> also squeezed into the van for the ride back.  All day as we continued north
>> along the Desert Divide, we remained in the clouds.  We would occasionally
>> catch glimpses down toward Palm Springs.  North of Apache Peak we hit our
>> first steep snow and broke out the ice axes.  They were definitely required
>> as one slip would have sent us sliding over rocks, cliffs in some cases, and
>> into trees."*
>> 
>> *"The majority of the trail today was snow-free but the snowy stretches were
>> tricky. We camped with Kojac and Jason and Johanna near the head of Andreas
>> Canyon. Our stove sprang a leak in the hose (after only eight days of use)
>> and turned into a fireball. So much for hot food and melting snow for
>> water."*
>> 
>> *May 9, 1998*
>> 
>> *"We spent all day today in the snow. Just after leaving our campsite this
>> morning, we were in deep snow after one treacherous traverse on solid ice
>> (refrozen over night). Tracks went everywhere, but we didn't trust any of
>> them because one set were Brian's, who was lost, and another set was Brian
>> and Martina's, who were lost and another was Lynn and Mike's, who were lost,
>> and another set belonged to a ranger, who was lost. We eventually made our
>> way to the vicinity of Deer Springs, but we didn't know exactly where we
>> were. We ended up camping on top of 10 feet of snow (with no stove). It was
>> a long, hellish day during which we would find the trail only about 10
>> percent of the time and hiked hard all day to cover fewer than ten miles."*
>> 
>> *May 10, 1998*
>> 
>> *"After waiting for the sun to soften the snow enough to get decent
>> footing,  we made our way across a really sketchy side-hill traverse before
>> finally finding the trail again just below the crest of Fuller Ridge. We
>> were so happy to be on it again, but it soon disappeared under 15 feet of
>> snow on the east side of the ridge. We picked up Brian and Brian and
>> Martina's tracks and followed them to Black Mountain Road below Fuller Ridge
>> campsite. Finally out of the snow, we found a great campsite and made a
>> small fire so we could have a hot meal for the first time in three days."*
>> 
>> We continued to have poor weather on and off, all the way to Kennedy
>> Meadows, including an 18-inch snowstorm in the San Bernardino mountains near
>> Mission Creek Trail Camp on May 13th and several other days of really lousy
>> weather. All, I’m told, remnants of the El Nino cycle, which didn’t really
>> release its grip on Southern California until mid-June.
>> 
>> *The High Sierra*
>> 
>> We arrived at Kennedy Meadows on June 10th and spent four nights there
>> waiting for the weather to improve. By this time, we had decided we were
>> going to make a foray into the Sierra to see what it was like. The vast
>> majority of other thru-hikers had decided by now to skip to somewhere in
>> northern California or flip-flop to Canada and the hand-wringing, nervous
>> speculation, and endless debates about how to proceed had consumed a lot of
>> energy over the past couple of weeks. It had grown to be a nauseating topic.
>> 
>> The weather pattern had settled down on the 13th, and on the 14th, with our
>> new hiking partner, Randy (a section hiker who had started at Tehachapi
>> Pass), we headed up the trail. We were carrying six days worth of food and
>> our plan was to go at least as far as Trail Pass and then depending on how
>> we were doing, we’d continue to at least Cottonwood Pass and, best case,
>> continue to Crabtree Meadows and head over Trail Crest to resupply (and
>> decide whether to proceed) in Lone Pine via Whitney Portal. Within the first
>> half-day, we met two nay-sayers who said we didn’t stand a chance.
>> 
>> We knew of two hikers who had left Kennedy Meadows heading north ahead of
>> us. One said he was only going as far as Olancha Pass, where he would head
>> for Highway 395 and begin his flip-flop. The other hiker, we knew, was an
>> experienced nordic skier and had skis with him. He was a very strong hiker
>> and we felt certain he was out there ahead of us, which was (somewhat
>> irrationally) a comforting feeling. He was about a week ahead of us at this
>> point. We learned about two weeks later that he had only traveled about two
>> days (to Trail Pass or Cottonwood Pass, I think) before he wisely decided
>> that traveling solo was not a good idea. He later told us he didn’t think
>> anyone would come along to travel with, so he decided to flip-flop.
>> 
>> Before setting out from Kennedy Meadows, we had contacted a backcountry
>> ranger at the Lone Pine ranger station. He informed us that while there was
>> 100% coverage in the high country, the snow was "bomber," i.e., in good
>> condition for travel. This (and the avalanche danger) was our major concern.
>> We knew we would struggle (post-hole) badly if the snow was unconsolidated.
>> The ranger’s information turned out to be quite accurate. While the PCTA
>> (and many, many others) were telling hikers that the Sierras were still
>> impassable, we found the hiking strenuous and slow, but quite doable. Here
>> is an excerpt from my (Chris) journals describing the conditions from
>> Kennedy Meadows to Kearsarge Pass:
>> 
>> *"We encountered out first patchy snow at around 9,000 feet, on June 14th,
>> the day we left Kennedy Meadows. The next morning, traversing around Olancha
>> Peak, we walked on patchy to mostly continuous snow for a few hours (at
>> 9-10,000 feet) and had more of the same north of Ash Meadow that afternoon.
>> The following day, we found the same snowpack composition as the day before
>> as we approached Trail Pass and Cottonwood Pass, with solid snow on north
>> and east exposures above 9,000 feet, especially in heavy timber. This
>> pattern continued all the way past Crabtree Meadows to just south of Bighorn
>> Plateau, where the snowpack became pervasive. In all this distance the snow
>> was of a uniform nature: consolidated enough to hike bare-booted, with only
>> occasional post-holing around "warming" objects like rocks and logs. We
>> encountered no sun-cupping yet either, until the north side of Forester Pass
>> in the Bubbs Creek drainage. One nice thing about this southern section was
>> that the southern and western exposures below 10,000’ were often melted out
>> almost completely, so many of our climbs were on bare switchbacks, while our
>> descents (since we’re headed north) were on snow. One disadvantage of
>> spring-like snow is that, especially in timber, the snow falls and drifts to
>> irregular depths, leaving us to climb and descend over miles of one to six
>> foot hummocks – an exhausting proposition."*
>> 
>> *"Forester Pass, our first major obstacle and the highest point on the PCT,
>> had worried us for a couple of days. When we first glimpsed it from a
>> distance, it made us cringe. We hadn’t seen any of the advice posted [on our
>> website’s guest book] about Forester and had forgotten about Jardine’s
>> recommendation of a possible alternate pass. When we got close enough to see
>> the six to eight foot cornice at the top, the steep couloir, the avalanche
>> debris, and the snow-plastered switchbacks blasted out of the steep rock
>> face, we decided we weren’t going to risk it, though we weren’t sure how to
>> proceed. As we ate lunch and stared at this problem, the pass just a short
>> distance to the east of Forester (and west of Junction Peak), started to
>> seem like an option, though we only had the topo map to indicate what the
>> north side might be like. The pass had a bare talus slope for the last 100
>> feet and no cornice and didn’t seem unbearably steep, so we decided to give
>> it a whirl. The snow was almost perfect for us to bare-boot up (our only
>> option as we don't have crampons with us and have found little real need for
>> them) protecting ourselves from a fall by self-belaying with our ice-axes.
>> The north side of the pass was steep, but soft and easy to descend."*
>> 
>> *"One word here about avalanches. The three of us decided the risks
>> associated with doing Forester and the rest of the passes in the afternoons
>> was reasonably low, based on the conditions we saw and how the snowpack felt
>> to us. There was evidence of recent slides, but mostly of snow coming off
>> very steep rock or pieces of cornices breaking off – both situations we
>> rarely had to traverse under. It also appeared that the majority of the
>> heavily loaded areas had already slid. We saw no evidence of snowfields such
>> as the ones we were regularly traversing triggering, even when they were hit
>> by slides from above. Finally, the slide depositions we saw were very
>> shallow and the one time we actually saw a slide, it was moving about four
>> m.p.h."*
>> 
>> *"The snow in the vicinity north of Forester was pretty rotten in the late
>> afternoon, the worst post-holing through this whole section. Otherwise, the
>> snow conditions the rest of the way to Red’s Meadow became slightly better
>> consolidated, vastly more sun-cupped (in meadows and open stands of timber)
>> and deeper north of Silver Pass (we found snow almost all the way down to
>> Red’s Meadow Resort)."*
>> 
>> On that first leg from Kennedy Meadows we managed to exceed our expectations
>> and were able to make it all the way to the Kearsarge Pass cut-off, where we
>> headed out to the Onion Valley trailhead to resupply in Lone Pine (where we
>> had sent our drift box). Unfortunately, the Onion Valley road had just
>> opened and had very little traffic on it. We ended up walking about 8 (of
>> 15) miles down the road before catching a ride the rest of the way into
>> Independence.
>> 
>> After a couple of days rest in Lone Pine, we decided to continue north along
>> the PCT rather than flip-flopping, which we had left open as an option. We
>> made an 8-day leg to Red’s Meadow, where we hitched out to Mammoth Lakes for
>> more rest and resupply. Continuing with my (Chris) journal entries for the
>> passes north of Kearsarge:
>> 
>> *"As for the rest of the passes: Glen Pass was steep on both sides, but we
>> took a line to the right, following some skiers' steps and topped out
>> through a band of rocks. It was a pretty easy pass, really, as it wasn’t
>> very exposed. The north side had some pretty rotten snow and a few cliffs to
>> descend around."*
>> 
>> *"Pinchot was quite easy as well. We took a line to the right making first
>> tracks. The back side was no problem."*
>> 
>> *"Mather Pass was terrifying. The whole pass was corniced, except for one
>> tiny spot above the pass on the left through the rocks. We traversed steeply
>> up the left side, partially exposed to cornices above, crawled through one
>> rock band, climbed steeply up very rotten snow to the next rock band and
>> continued on mixed rock and snow, following (roughly) a skier’s steps over
>> steep rock – quite a challenge! At one point while leading, I sank in to
>> rotten snow with both feet, up to my waist. I was very off-balance (tipping
>> backward on a very steep section) and couldn’t get a purchase on anything
>> with my ice axe (the snow was sno-cone consistency about one foot deep on
>> top of rock). My feet were stuck and I had to get Jenelle to dig them out
>> from behind."*
>> 
>> *"Muir, Selden and Silver Passes were very easy and straightforward. In all,
>> the snow has been hard work and has made route finding slow and tedious at
>> times. We saw the trail only briefly, except in the valley bottoms. Patience
>> is the key."*
>> 
>> *"We’ve heard there’ve been a few deaths in whitewater accidents from the
>> high run-off so maybe a few words about stream-crossings are in order. We’ve
>> actually had little difficulty with them. A little scouting for a good spot
>> or log goes a long way. The one that sounded the scariest from the guidebook
>> description, Silver Pass Lake Creek ("a hair-raising stream-crossing at the
>> head of a fatally high cascade") was mostly just noisy, but not difficult."*
>> 
>> The snowy trail continued in earnest after Red’s Meadow and the snow level
>> actually dropped the further north we went in the Sierras. While there was
>> little snow on the ground in Tuolumne Meadows, there was still plenty in the
>> Yosemite backcountry and all the way to Sonora Pass. Our worst river fords
>> came between Tuolumne Meadows and Falls Creek, where we had several very
>> deep (chest high) crossings. A couple of the guys ahead of and behind us
>> inadvertently swam on one or two of the crossings. Thankfully, we were able
>> to scout for logs on a few of these. A few times we bushwhacked on the
>> opposite banks from the trail for a long way, crossing miles upstream where
>> it was safer. By this time we had become comfortable with not having actual
>> tread to follow. We had very little tread for most of the High Sierra.
>> 
>> Our last long stretch of snow wasn’t until shortly before Belden (map M10)
>> at about 6800 feet, though we encountered drifts and snowfields on and off
>> all the way through the Marble Mountain Wilderness in northern California.
>> 
>> Despite all the mental stress and hard work, the Sierras in ’98 were
>> indescribably beautiful, vast and awe-inspiring. The physical hardships, the
>> exhaustion, and the frustrations of constant route-finding, were rewarded by
>> solitude, by views that few thru-hikers ever see, and by the reassuring
>> knowledge that we were still heading north to Canada. We wouldn’t have
>> traded the experience for anything, and would suggest that future
>> thru-hikers (with adequate skills) at least consider taking the PCT on its
>> own terms, even when the conditions are difficult. Not that there’s any
>> "right," "better," or "best" way to hike the trail, but there is perhaps a
>> little value in continuity and accepting the challenges of the trail as you
>> find them.
>> ======================================================
>> 
>> On Sun, May 22, 2011 at 10:45 PM, sabra985 <sabra985 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Due to a number of factors, I've decided to detour around the Sierras. I
>>> know this is sacrilegious to some, but there are factors both within and
>>> beyond my control that make this the most sensible option for my hike. The
>>> mountains will be there, and it means that I get to ENJOY the remaining
>>> 1500
>>> miles of my hike this year without stressing about being able to get home
>>> on
>>> time AND I get to come back next summer. How lucky am I?!?
>>> 
>>> For those who might be facing a similar scenario in their own hikes, here's
>>> some information that might be useful for travel planning:
>>> 
>>> 1) From Walker Pass, get to Bakersfield (it's rumored that if you hitch
>>> towards Lake Isabella, practically everyone is heading into Bakersfield
>>> anyway, since that's the next big city on 178)
>>> 2) Take Bakersfield Amtrak to Redding (the RABA stop). The train leaves
>>> 4x/day. www.amtrak.com
>>> 3) The Redding Area Bus Authority has two buses, Monday thru Friday, which
>>> run express out to Burney. www.rabaride.com
>>> 4) Hitch from Burney back to the trail.
>>> 
>>> Schedule-wise, it looks like it makes sense to plan to stay overnight
>>> somewhere in Bakersfield (and get cleaned up, haha). Be on the 7:15 am
>>> Amtrak, you arrive in Redding at 4 pm, then catch the 5:45 pm bus to Burney
>>> and maybe the guy (or gal) sitting next to you on the bus will give you a
>>> ride to the trail when you arrive in Burney at 7:10 p.m. Hope that helps!
>>> 
>>> ~Evenstar
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