[pct-l] 2011 Thru-hiker Photo Essay from the Sierras (Big Snow Year)

[Sam Ward]

Hey Alan,

Sorry for the late response, I think the email got filtered out by gmail.
That is an awesome photo of Mather and looks exactly like the one we have,
just a lot bigger pack! This one may be my favorite of the set, just going
straight up the Forrester chute:
http://www.trailjournals.com/photos.cfm?id=206015

Really awesome looking at those and how 40 years later it looks exactly the
same. The Kennedy meadows lodge looks huge though.

We were there June 18, 2011. We had 90-percent coverage until about Tahoe
then 60-percent to Sierra City, after that we were consistently seeing dry
trail, to us that was "out of it" and made a huge difference in our
progress.

I always wondered if snowshoes would have been worth it, skis too although
we did a lot of glissading to make up time on the passes. Our packs were
pushed to their limits in the Sierras at 40-50lbs so we probably would need
something bigger to accommodate the extra snow gear. Going into it we had
no idea what we were getting into, in hindsight I would consider snowshoes
at least.

http://www.theperipherymag.com/essay-pacific-crest-trail

Sam Ward PCT 11 AT 08

On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 7:41 PM, Gail Van Velzer <vanvelzer at charter.net>
wrote:

> While it looks pretty solid, I don't think I'll be bringing my horses over
> the pass with this much snow.
> Golly
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alan & Linda Julliard" <atjulliard at yahoo.com>
> To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Sent: Monday, December 15, 2014 4:41 PM
> Subject: [pct-l] 2011 Thru-hiker Photo Essay from the Sierras (Big Snow
> Year)
>
>
> > Hi Sam!
> >
> > I followed your link and enjoyed the story and pictures which reminded me
> > of my hike.  Check out this photo of Mather Pass from the Funk Brothers
> > 1975 hike: http://www.trailjournals.com/photos.cfm?id=210716 which was
> > taken at almost the exact same place as your photo.  As you can see in
> the
> > graph you have of snow depths over the years at Mammoth Mountain, 1974-5
> > was nothing compared to 2011.  They were there 3 weeks before yet the
> > pictures are almost exactly the same.  I was a few days behind them and
> > probably followed their tracks over the pass.  Back then, all of us who
> > made it through had snowshoes or skis, though we only used them part of
> > the day after the snow softened.  I'm curious as to when you left the
> snow
> > behind for good.  I'll bet people (residents, not hikers) are hoping for
> > another year like 2011!
> >
> > Alan
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