[pct-l] North Cascades Report

[Jim Keener ( J J )]

Greetings,

Jon Smith, who has hiked several sections of the PCT this year sent this information to me today:

"On July 23, 2011, I hiked to the top of Windy Joe in Manning Park from the PCT trailhead.  The summit is eleven feet shy of 6000', and part of the hike goes along the final 3 miles of the PCT before ascending Windy Joe.  There was no snow anywhere on the hike.  None, zippo, nada: not on north slopes, not in the woods, not on top, not in deep shady stream valleys.  Looking around at surrounding mountains, most of the actual peaks were snow-free, though north slopes below the peaks seemed to have snow cover starting at about 6200-6500'.  This past weekend (July 30-31), my wife and I did a little driving vacation through the North Cascades.  There was no snow at Rainy Pass (4800') except a few small nuisance drifts off the trail in very shady parts of the woods, no snow at Washington Pass 600' higher, where last winter they had 60' of snow, and then a couple of very large drifts (100' long, 12-15' deep, some of it perhaps piled by snowplow) on the very shady north slope on the way eastward down from Washington Pass.  We overheard a local say that Harts Pass (6300') was still "snowed in," i.e., not drivable, which is commensurate with what we'd seen in Manning Park.  However, the Harts Pass Snotel at 6500' today says no snow, so things may have melted since, and her info may have been a week or two old at that point.  We saw no snow at Stevens Pass (4000'), though obviously there were some snowfields above us.  Now, I am recovering from minor surgery July 25, so we didn't go more than a couple hundred yards down the trail in any direction from Rainy Pass, and passes are pretty much by definition among the low spots on the trail, but things ARE melting--we are finally getting summer here.  HYOH, and keep in mind that while Manning Park got a LOT of snow last winter, it was not as much as some places a little further south, but still: I'd be very surprised if the northbound pack, when they get here, finds it anything like what they went through in the Sierras.  Oh, but it is getting buggy out there."

Walk well,
Jim Keener ( J J )