[pct-l] Steven's Pass snow levels..........6.11.07

[Shauna]

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:02:47 -0700, "Brian Lewis" <brianle at nwlink.com> had
this to say:

>I found out the hard way that trying to assess higher altitude snow from
>"down below" just by looking at what seem to be pretty dry hills can be
>perilous.  I came back yesterday with tail between my legs from a failed
>attempt at a 100 & some mile shakedown hike after losing the trail too often
>and essentially bushwhacking over inconsistent snow and lots of downed logs
>and bushes and too many back-and-forth creek crossings ... this started
>around 3600', and the high point of my planned trip was about 6000'.
>
>The frustrating part was coming back down and looking again to confirm that
>the part of my planned route that I could see below was completely snow
>free.  This was all well south of Steven's Pass, maybe 15 miles as the crow
>flies SE of Snoqualmie Pass.
>
>Oh well, maybe in another couple of weeks ...  I sure hope the Sierras next
>year won't be like yesterday's experience!
>
>
>	Brian Lewis
>
>


Don't you just hate that?  I lost the trail on tiny little Mount Rose
(4,300 feet tall)  on the Olympic Peninsula last Saturday.  I only refound
the trail after I put my GPS in my pocket and followed my hunches.   Trail
maps are old but trails keep getting re-routed and as luck would have it I
lost the trail right were the actual trail and the trail on my GPS map
diverge so referring to my GPS when I had trouble finding the trail only
confused me.

I don't know what the snow level in the Cascades is but on Mount Rose this
weekend the snow level was at 3,800 feet.

I'm going up Mount Rose again today (3,400 feet elevation gain in 3 miles)
but at least this time I can follow my track log
http://mosswalks.blogspot.com  from Saturday if I get confused.   On Sunday
I'm going to go up Mount Constance that's 3,400 feet elevation gain in just
2 miles, wish me luck!  After that I hope to go to the top of Mount Jupiter
that's 14 miles RT with about 4,500 feet elevation gain.  I'm doing all of
this so I can be in shape to hike to Camp Muir with a group of friends on
the 30th of this month.  Camp Muir is 8 miles RT with 4,600 feet elevation
gain and tops out over 10,000 feet.  I've got to do something to prepare
myself for that thin air up there.  I live at sea level.

At the Kickoff there was a guy who is putting together a  GPS track log for
the entire PCT and he is going to give it away for free.. maybe future PCT
hikers can use his track log for guidance through the Serria's.  He had a
special memory device attached to his GPS that was supposed to be able to
hold his entire track log for the summer.

Take Care,
Shauna