[pct-l] crampons

[Eric Lee (GAMES)]

Razor blade wrote:
>
Hi - am planning to thru-hike the PCT between March - July. was wondering whether or not i would need crampons or if an ice-axe will be sufficient because the weight added by the needed footwear for crampon use will be quite a lot? Thanks
>

Are you talking about starting at the beginning of March and going all the way to Canada by the end of July?  If so, you're going to have winter mountaineering conditions for much of the trail.  There are multiple mountain ranges in southern California that are challenging in the winter, and then I guess you'd have to hit the Sierra somewhere around the middle of April where everything from that point onward to Canada is still under snow.

I think, given that itinerary, you should be planning on having expertise in the use of skies, snowshoes, ice axes, crampons, and other winter gear.  You should have experience with winter camping.  You should think hard about your resupply strategy since a lot of the stores, resorts, and roads thru-hikers typically rely on will be closed, plus your daily mileage will likely be a lot slower than normal.

There have been other recent threads about conditions on the PCT in winter - you might look in the pct-l archives for more information.

Eric