[pct-l] A thought on so called impassable snow

[Barry Teschlog]

In addition to markv's good point below about the huge difference a few days make, I'd add:

One person's "impassable" may be merely a welcome challenge for you - fodder for good story telling over beers sitting in Manning Park in September.

Go see for yourself.  Go judge for yourself.  This is especially so when you're hearing 'impassible' from a non-thru hiker.  Their standards of impassable are.....well, often times quite different from the typical thru hikers standard of 'impassable'.  Even within the thru hiker crowd, there's a full spectrum of standards on 'impassable'.  If you don't like what you see, certainly turn back, but decide for yourself.

Approaching Chicken Spring Lake a few days out of KM, we heard "endless snow - it's impassable" 2nd hand from fellow thrus.  Once we climbed over a 10' high drift just above the lake, we dropped onto dry trail.  The real snow didn't start until near Forrester many, many, many miles later.




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Date: Wed, 6 May 2009 08:35:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: mark v <allemande6 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [pct-l] a thought on IMPASSABLE snow, the Fuller Ridge
    question
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID: <411258.30622.qm at web53911.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii


It's possible that many of us seriously underestimate just how fast snow melts and conditions change.  I could rattle off a dozen examples, including this and last year's San Jacinto information, and non-PCT examples, but here's the one that really hit home for me:

Last year, the news from those in front of me entering the Sierra was that there was a ton of snow and route-finding was difficult.  I entered a week later, and had an ice axe.  I found there to be some snow and obscured trail, but not such a huge deal, and ditched the axe in Independence.  At the time, i assumed everyone had just been a wuss and was overstating the snow.  (This can happen, for sure.)  Then, at Red's Meadow, i had a planned exit for 8 days  from the trail.  When i came back, the snow was practically gone!  

Then, when seeing the class DVD this year at Kickoff, i saw pictures taken by those just 3-6 days behind me in the Sierra.  Pictures of exact spots where i took pictures, like Bighorn Plateau, the bowl and lakes below Forrester Pass.  In my pictures, it's covered with snow.  In theirs, there is practically NONE.  Just 3-6 days difference.  In Squatch's movie, there is a sequence of 2 guys going up one little snow patch below Mather Pass.  A week or 10 days before that was shot, i did the same route to the pass, but because the entire area was white, with no trail visible.

So, as this pertains to Fuller Ridge, it's possible that those early-birders encountered conditions that just simply won't be a big deal as the herd moves through now, 10 days later.  Supporting this, the group of friends i had to bail on that went across Apache Peak 10 days ago encountered less snow than was reported a week before they went up.

Snow melts.