[pct-l] A ride from Seattle to Harts Pass?

[Eric Lee]

I wrote:
>
Harts Pass is still buried under several (maybe 8-ish?) feet of snow and
won't be accessible by car any time soon.
>

Someone wrote to me privately and said that the Forest Service told them
that Harts Pass has been plowed for heavy equipment access and will be open
to cars in about a week.  Well, I didn't know that Harts Pass road got
plowed in the spring so if they say it's going to be open then I guess it'll
be open, though you might want to check on that yourself.

This person also pointed out that the closest snotel site to Harts Pass is
showing 28 inches of snow.  But as for snow depth, the snotel sites are
notorious for underestimating the actual snow on the ground since they're
usually placed in places that tend to melt out first.  I looked at
yesterday's snow analysis overlay as described in HalfMile's instructions
(http://www.pctnews.com/2011/updated-pct-snow-information-for-627-233/) and
the snow depth overlay (not the water content overlay that is on by default)
shows somewhere between 5 and 8 feet of depth, and in my experience the
overlays also tend to underestimate the actual situation.  I didn't actually
drive up to Rainy Pass to eyeball the situation there but the snow depth
overlay matches with what I could see of the high peaks from my location at
Ross Lake.

So take all of my information with a grain of salt because I haven't
actually put boots on trail/snow up there.  As always, the only way to know
for sure is to go see for yourself.  :-)

Eric


-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net]
On Behalf Of Eric Lee
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2011 12:17 AM
To: 'James Dunn'; pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [pct-l] A ride from Seattle to Harts Pass?

James wrote:
>
Anyone available to give a ride to Harts Pass July 15-17?
>

Harts Pass is still buried under several (maybe 8-ish?) feet of snow and
won't be accessible by car any time soon.
>

  The closest you're going to get is Rainy Pass on Highway 20, which is
open.

Just checking - are you aware of how much snow is still in the North
Cascades?  I was just up there today dropping someone off and there's still
a ridiculous amount of snow above 4,500 to 5000 feet or so, depending on
location.  Basically everything from Rainy Pass to the border is still under
snow, and the terrain up there is not forgiving in those conditions (lots of
steep side traverses with high potential for fatal falls).  If you're aware
of that and are prepared for it, then great!

Probably your best bet if you want to get to the border with a minimum of
work for the start of a southbound thru-hike is to do what the guy I dropped
off today is doing.  He's going north on the Ross Lake East Bank trail then
will cut over to the PCT at or near the border and head south.

Even better would be starting at Old Station in northern California and
heading north, then flipping from the northern border back to Old Station
and heading south to finish.  If you're not philosophically committed to a
contiguous thru-hike that's probably the plan with the highest odds of
success based on what we know right now.

As for the ride, I'm not sure yet if I'll be available.  Follow up with me
privately if you still want it.

Eric


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