[pct-l] Cascade Locks-White Pass Hike morphs into SOBO question

[Greg Kesselring]

Here's something I sent out a couple weeks ago in response to a similar 
question...

The high country (near timberline and above) will likely be under snow 
this year till late July.  That's typical for WA, and the snowpack this 
year is close to normal, north of Stevens Pass, but above normal to 
much-above-normal south of Stevens Pass.

If you could wait till July 10 or so to start (and push your end date 
out about 10 days as well), I think you'd have a better shot enjoying 
the high country with less snow.  And, if you can wait till then to 
start, I'd recommend going starting in Canada and going southbound.  
Even though the part of the trail that's between Rainy Pass and the 
border is quite high, that part of the range is so wide that the Crest 
is more like the eastern slopes of the range--snow doesn't pile up as 
deep and there's more sunshine and warmer temps there than on the Crest 
further south.  So that area typically melts out 10 days to two weeks 
before the Crest in the vicinity of Glacier Peak and southward to 
Snoqualmie Pass.   Most years the section north of Rainy Pass is 
hikeable in early July, whereas the section from Glacier Peak to 
Snoqulamie Pass still has lots of snow till late July.

IMHO the section of trail between Rainy Pass and the Canadian border is 
one of the most beautiful sections.  It should be spectacular just 
coming out of snow-melt.

If we get a warm spring, it might be possible to start at the border 
around July 4 or so, but any earlier than that I think you'd be dealing 
with a lot of snow in the high country.

Greg


Jim Ostdick wrote:
> My plan for this year has been to complete my PCT section hike (started in
> 2001) by hiking from Cascade Locks to Manning Park. I'm a teacher and my
> "hiking window" is July 1 - August 10 at the latest. The wisdom of the list
> seems to be that this year hiking Cascade Locks-White Pass in July,
> especially the first part of July, would be a pretty dumb/dangerous idea for
> an older solo hiker. So I'm throwing out the question: would hiking south
> from Manning Park starting about July 1 be a more reasonable and safer
> option with this year's snow levels? Or just as risky? Finishing up at
> Cascade Locks seems sorta anti-climactic, but I could probably get over that
> faster than I could get over a broken neck. You guys are making the area
> north of Packwood Glacier sound pretty treacherous! All honest
> experience-based opinions are welcome, of course, but I am most interested
> in hearing from folks who have hiked WA under similar conditions. We can
> discuss it off-list if that's preferred.
>
> Palomino
> San Juan Bautista, CA
> palomino.pct at gmail.com
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