[pct-l] Snow in San Jacinto

[CHUCK CHELIN]

Good morning, Richard,

No one can answer that for you; you’ll just have to gather the best
information available and decide for yourself based upon your own
experience, expertise, and appetite for “adventure”.



The knee-jerk reaction will probably be, “Snow – therefore traction aids and
an ice axe are required”, however think for a moment about what those items
are for.  They are primarily to avoid – or deal with – a slip and slide on
hard snowpack, i.e. snow that’s been in place most of the season and is well
coalesced into a hard surface upon which one can (usually) walk.  If most of
the surface is relatively soft new snow, the traction with shoes will be OK
and the additional 3/8” engagement of MicroSpikes won’t matter much.



If there’s a layer of fresh snow is atop hard snowpack walking is going to
be slicker that snot and, again, the additional 3/8” engagement of
MicroSpikes won’t matter much here either as longer spikes are required.  In
those circumstances I use instep crampons with spikes over an inch long to
bite through the soft stuff and into the hard snowpack.



Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09


On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 7:18 AM, Richard Border <rborder at wesleyan.edu>wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> I'll be hiking into the San Jacinto in two weeks.  Am I gonna need
> microspikes/ice axe?
>
> Thanks
> Richard
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