[pct-l] Snowshoes for Sierras

[Eric Lee]

Julie wrote:
>
I have been reading a lot of journals and posts that by late morning the
snow is soft and everyone is postholing.  Is taking snowshoes a good idea?
I am the command center for a thru hiker who is going to get to Kennedy's
Meadow in a week and want to make sure he has the best gear.  Appreciate any
thoughts. 		 	   >

Keep in mind that conditions up there will be changing very rapidly right
now.  There may be no point for your thru to prepare for reported conditions
that will be more than two weeks out of date by the time he gets to the
interesting parts.  For example, see all the journals of early hikers who
struggled with Fuller Ridge and all of the later hikers who said, "What,
that's it?  That was easy!"

Consensus over the years seems to be that while postholing sucks, carrying
an extra 4-ish pounds for 200 miles sucks worse.  The later in the season,
the less payoff you get from the snowshoes while the penalty remains the
same.  I keep thinking that snowshoes might be a good idea myself, but the
vast majority don't take them and of those that do, it seems that a majority
end up saying, "Meh, wasn't worth it."  I'd be curious to know if *anyone*
in this year's class carried snowshoes through the Sierra.  Anyone know?

Right now, judging from reports, it looks like the biggest challenge out
there isn't snow travel but rather river crossings.  People are getting
stopped cold by uncrossable rivers.  That hazard too may change in a week .
. . or not.  The only reasonable thing to do is to tell you thru to try it
himself and see what it's like at that time.

Eric