[pct-l] Thru-hiking beginning in January

[Douglas Tow]

A serious hiker contemplating this start date would proceed methodically to
consider the three facts about a thru-hike:  You need to negotiate the
trail, you need to resupply, and you have to be alive all the way to Canada.

With a January start date, negotiating the trail over its distance in that
time is not feasible.  Think of it as skiing day after day after day in the
out-of-bounds zones near ski areas marked "Avalanche Area."  Unwise.  And,
how are you going to get over the dozens of cornices on the ridges?  Slog at
one-half mile per hour, burning 8000 calories in a day that only is light
for 10 hours?

You can't resupply reliably over lengthy sections of the trail.  You are not
going to walk from Sonora Pass to Bridgeport in March.  Without food and
fuel, you're not going anywhere.  That's not even counting the week you're
hunkered down in a (4-season) mountaineering tent during a blizzard.

Too many life perils before you are even halfway.  They will come.  To quote
Rick in Casablanca, "maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for
the rest of your life."  Your short life.