[pct-l] First Post

[Scott Williams]

As Pete notes above, in a high snow year the serious snow may begin as
early as the desert in the San Jacintos and continue through all the higher
southern mountains, long before coming to the High Sierra.  If you start
early in this El Nino year, which so far has the Sierra snow pack above
average (the skiing has been wonderful for the first time in 4 years) plan
to be flexible.  Either wait it out and let it melt out, or be OK with
jumping forward around some of the mountains and coming back to hike them
later.  March 7th is a very early start, even in a low snow year so plan
for real cold in the deserts.  The coldest sections we had in 2010 were in
the deserts and I was snowed on 3 times in the deserts.  The High Sierra
was over 4 weeks of living on snow most of the time.  It was the best part
of any hiking adventure any of us had ever had, but also the hardest hiking
we'd ever done.

On the CDT in 2012, we started very early for that hike, April 11th, and
killed time by hiking slowly across NM, getting off to come to the PCT Kick
Off, and generally waited for the snow in the San Juans to melt out.  We
hit it just right and by starting early were ahead of the monsoons.
However, several people 1 to 2 weeks ahead of us had to bail out and
backtrack due to heavy storms still pounding those mountains.  So if you
start early, plan to be flexible.  But realize, that March 7th is really,
really early if it's a normal to high snow year.

Shroomer

On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 5:06 AM, Pete Sandel <spete672 at aol.com> wrote:

> My fiancé and I are leaving March 7 with similar plans to to go slow and
> easy . We are doing a 5 day enroute snow course starting past Kennedy
> Meadows with Ned Tibbits. You can get info on his site at mountain
> education. I think it looks as though we will get so now and ice as well
> through SoCal so just winging it with crampons and whippet if needed. Lots
> of good info on Facebook ...The Pacific Crest Trail Class of 2016 and the
> PCT Class of 2016,!regarding your question . PCTA permits are,open now
> as,well,so you might want to get that done.
>
>
> Pete Sandel
> YNF Consulting , LLC
> Cell- 432.413.9384
>
> > On Feb 1, 2016, at 10:32 AM, Gordon <gwmori at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Additional comment below
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> >> On Jan 31, 2016, at 6:59 PM, Gordon Mori <gwmori at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> I have been reading the PCT books which I understand were written
> several years ago.  They seem to suggest the popular starting time for a
> hike-thru S to N to be in late April or early May.  Although we have had
> quite a bit of precipitation this winter,  with the draught over the past
> few years I wondered if it possible to start earlier say in March?  I am 57
> years old and was hoping to take a more leisurely 5-6 months for the trek
> and wanted to avoid going into the fall.  Is this a bad idea to try to
> start earlier? It seems the problem is the snow in the Sierras. Can one
> backpack in the snow with the proper gear and training?
> >>
> >> Regards
> >>
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