[pct-l] It's a SOBO life, for us. Trip report.

[Darren Bagnall]

Sobo trip report. Manning to Dinsmores. 

Hello PCT-l. We four hikers just arrived at the Dinsmores. Three of us left Manning on June 25 with four others who we believe are now off the trail. The trail has been snow covered from about 4800 feet creating many miles of dangerous snow travel. Rock Pass was quite memorable as we scaled 70 -  80 degree snow slopes with ice axe and   Tennis shoes to summit a cornice covered ridge  What a joy to make it to the top!!!  
I would not recommend SOBO hikers start until the snow melts further unless you have mountaineering experience. To put it bluntly; we all experienced multiple moments of fearing for our lives  We spend more time kicking steps in the snow than we did hiking on actual trail in this section We experienced a few sections of trail washed out by avalanche, leaving a trail only a few inches wide on which to traverse over a several hundred foot drop. 

South of Stehekin the trail was snow bound over about 5000 feet. We experienced whiteout conditions as the fog rolled-in after which it took us over 4 hours to go a mile even with a GPS. At Milk Creek there is a detour that appeared to go a crossing but we never went that way to verify. There is no bridge or log at the milk creek / official pct crossing. The log is in place at the Suiattle river crossing. Nice log for scooting or walking for the adventurous. At milk creek we hiked trail 790 to the road 26 bailout. Due to the continued fog we felt it was too dangerous to continue over the snow bound passes. 

We are now at the Dinsmores trying to decide where to hike next. Most likely we will continue south. The trail is still snow bound but the weather is improving. More later......  Feel free to email me within the next day with any trail condition questions. I will post photos tomorrow. 

Darren "Steps"


Sent from the astral plane.