[pct-l] Washington Snow
CHARLES MILLER
chuck-miller at earthlink.net
Mon Jul 21 13:52:27 CDT 2008
I am from Houston, Texas. I plan to leave Cascade Locks Monday morning 8/3 going north. If all goes well I will get to Manning early to mid September. This will complete my PCT hike having started in 2002. I missed several years due to Sierra Fires.
I had planned to start med-July, but waited due to snow in Washington. I have monitored the snow using SNOTEL for the past few weeks, data shown below. I chose the 17 SNOTEL stations that seemed to me to be closest to the PCT. The Waypoints are from the More-Than-Mile CD. In the beginning all 17 stations had an average of 60 inches (WOW!), and last Friday only 1 station had snow left, 3 inches. The other 16 reported none.
>From my experience in the Sierras, I still expect there will be significant and steep snow fields to cross on the cold side of mountains at higher elevations, and on the cold side where there are trees.
I am debating on bringing my snow ax.
Any general advise on what to expect and how to prepare would be appreciated. Houston is a long way from snow country.
Tex
Chuck Miller
July 21, 2008
6/7
6/14
6/21
6/28
7/5
7/12
7/19
Location
Snow
Snow
Snow
Snow
Snow
Snow
Snow
WayPoint
Name
Lat
Lon
Elevation
Depth
Depth
Depth
Depth
Depth
Depth
Depth
U067
Surprise Lakes
46
5
121
45
4,250
86
79
61.7
45.3
10.4
0
0
U104
Potato Hill
46
20
121
30
4,500
41
32
12.8
0
0
0
0
U144-7
Pigtail Peak
46
37
121
23
5,900
103
96
77.7
61
34
16.3
0
U145
White Pass
46
38
121
22
4,500
22
14
0
0
0
0
0
V029
Cayuse Pass
46
52
121
31
5,240
105
96.6
78.9
60.9
31.6
8
0
V032
Morse Lake
46
54
121
28
5,400
69
56
38.2
22.1
0
0
0
V046
Corral Pass
47
1
121
27
6,000
75
67
54
40.6
21.3
5.5
0
V060
Sawmill Ridge
47
9
121
25
4,630
48
37
11.1
0
0
0
0
V082
Stampede Pass
47
16
121
20
3,860
66
54
41.6
17.8
0
0
0
V090
Tinkham Creek
47
19
121
28
3,070
68
61.5
47.4
32.3
9.1
0
0
V095
Olallie Meadows
47
22
121
26
3,700
108
99
85.7
71.6
39.3
21
0
W039
Fish Lake
47
32
121
4
3,371
4
0
0
0
0
0
0
W065
Stevens Pass
47
44
121
5
4,070
39
31
13.4
0
0
0
0
X007
Miners Ridge
48
12
120
57
6,200
72
72
48.7
33
6.7
0
0
X008
Lymon Lake
48
11
120
55
5,900
78
68
55.2
38.7
9.2
0
0
X046
Rainey Pass
48
31
120
44
4,780
37
28
14.7
0
0
0
0
X075
Harts Pass
48
43
120
39
6,500
45
32
30.4
9.9
3.1
3
3
Locations with snow remaining on the ground
17
16
15
11
9
5
1
Average snow depth this week for those locations
63
58
45
39
18
11
3
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