[pct-l] Planning and start dates

Fri Jul 24 13:14:28 CDT 2009

Starting earlier than mid-May, while increasing your chances for encounters 
with snow, enables a longer schedule and shorter daily mileages with the 
goal of reaching Canada before the snow flies in earnest, enough to stop 
your trip short.

All of this is based on weather and precipitation averages. The year a hiker 
attempts to complete a thru hike the snow pack may be heavy or light. This 
is one of the chances you take when deciding to do the trail and beginning 
your planning a year in advance. You deal with what you get. Just be 
prepared for what may lie ahead, snow and creek crossing issues, should 
things be bad. If you do find a lot of snow to deal with, some of the skills 
learned through "mountaineering" can literally save your life, at least 
prevent injury. Yes, we all prefer a dry trail to have a comfortable hike 
and make the miles.

However, if leaving late enough to make certain of dry trail throughout 
means that you have a narrower window of completion (to when Canadian snows 
can stop your trip), thus impelling you to hike faster or longer days to 
make the distance, then that is your choice. Who knows, maybe you can't take 
the time for a longer trip or you like the challenge of long, fast days. 
HYOH.

We are simply showing that if you leave earlier than the accepted optimal 
date, you might be able to reduce your daily mileages and have an easier 
trip. It's highly likely that you're going to run into snow no matter when 
you leave, so you'll have a little more to deal with each day in the high 
country. If you get a late winter season storm, or find snow in SoCal as 
well, since you decided to leave early, you are prepared for it with the 
right gear and experience.

It is in the best interest of the PCT thru-hiking community to be informed 
of the realities of the trail. Who starts such an expedition without finding 
out what the obstacles and hardships will be? A thru hike is backpacking to 
the max! If you wish to have a safe and fun journey, you'll want to know 
what it takes to do it, what food and gear is available, and what you need 
to learn how to do to pull it off.

For me, I wanted to go slower than hikers do today, so I started "early." I 
could take the time. I postponed starting college until January. I graduated 
High School early (in December). By doing these things, I opened up the 
entire time period to stay on the trail. It was important for me to have the 
time in my schedule for leisurely morning starts, exploratory hikes to 
lateral lakes during the day, and sunset dinners in camp in my sleeping bag, 
hot tea in hand, thanking God for every minute of this thru hike experience. 
I knew that I might hit snow, so I took a Sierra Club winter outing course, 
did weekend trips of my own around Donner Summit during the winter preceding 
my start, and geared up for inclement weather. Of course my pack was heavy 
at first; I couldn't even pick it up by myself. I started with low daily 
miles and grew stronger as I went. By the time I reached Weldon and the Kern 
Plateau, the weight of my pack didn't matter. Taking on snowshoes and ice 
axe was no big deal. That was how I wanted to hike the trail. My "style" of 
hiking was my choice.

For everyone contemplating planning a thru hike sometime in their future, 
take all the advice given and apply it to your needs and desires for your 
"style." First, do a lot of hiking to find out what your "style" is, how you 
want to do your own hike, what you want to get out of each and every day. 
Only you can decide what your priorities are.

You can be fairly certain that the Canadian snows will begin sometime after 
September. They have stopped quite a few hikers in their tracks. Many, being 
frustrated that they are so close, try to regain the trail and push north 
only to find the cold and wet too much. The rough terrain of northern 
Washington is no place to be slogging through snow. As I said in a post 
yesterday, pick your "last-ditch" end date, decide how many miles per day is 
right for your style, and backtrack to your start date. Be realistic about 
expected weather and snow and creek conditions. If you don't know what 
"realistic" is, start reading the Trail Journals of the realistic 
experiences of those who have gone before. How you'll deal with what they 
encountered is your choice. When thoroughly informed, you are armed with the 
knowledge upon which to make your own decisions for what you want for your 
trail experience. Don't romanticize the trail. Don't go into it blindly. 
Read up. Talk to those who have done it. Speak up with your questions on 
this Forum.

Mtnned
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Postholer" <public at postholer.com>
To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 10:11 AM
Subject: [pct-l] KM Date, Ray Day, snow hiking

> Thru-hiking is not about mountaineering. Most thru-hikers are not trained
> for that nor do they need to be.
>
> Hiking big miles on early season snow is exhausting, time consuming,
> requires more gear, food and good route finding skills.
>
> The concept of "Ray Day" or June 15th is not arbitrary. Based on an 
> AVERAGE
> snow year, departing KM on the 15th implies a hiker will have to deal with
> MINIMAL or TOLERABLE streches of snow travel, ie, traveling across 6 miles
> of snowy Muir Pass as opposed to an exhausting, winter wonderland, all day
> route finding excursion.
>
> Further, the earlier you start you increase the probability of dealing 
> with
> late winter weather. Starting in March or early April pretty much 
> garuntees
> you'll deal with snow in the SoCal mountains as well as the Sierra, not to
> mention colder temps, more rain and snow.
>
> Why are earlier start dates being promoted? Most folks are not prepared 
> for
> this. Is this really in the best interest of the PCT thru-hiking 
> community?
>
> -postholer
>
> ------------------------------------
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