[pct-l] April Snow!

[Ned Tibbits]

More weather coming in for April...which is beginning to look like another 
wet, snowy month in the sierra!

Thru hikers, plan accordingly!

Mountain Education will be reporting back from Forester Pass around April 
23rd to tell everyone how the snowpack is doing, where snowline is 
currently, and what the trail conditions are like from Cottonwood north!

Additional info from Mr. Dittli:  Despite the recent warming trends down in 
the flatlands of CA and NV on either side of the Sierra, nighttime 
temperatures in the high sierra are remaining "way below freezing," snow 
bridges are still intact, the creeks are low, the pack is consolidating 
without avalanches or wet sluffs, and cornices are not melting or falling.

What does this mean?

The Thaw has not begun and snow travel is very safe, convenient, and good 
right now! Although warm storms are coming in with higher-than-winter snow 
elevations, there will be new accumulations above 9,000 that can slow 
snow-hikers. Remember, when its snowing faster than an inch/hour or the 
storm has dumped more than a foot of pow on an old freeze-thaw surface, 
beware of new avalanches, camp in a safe spot, and sit still an extra day 
after the storm to let the new stuff settle and bond for safer snow travel!

Realize, all of you NoBo 2016 thrus, that the depth of the pack when you get 
there doesn't matter, you walk on top of it anyway, so don't get sucked into 
the Kennedy Meadows snow-fears. Expect to be dealing with steep snow, plan 
accordingly, and keep going (to include nearly doubling your food and 
cutting your daily speed on snow to 1mph and total miles to 8-15).

Mountain Education's Snow Advanced Course for PCT Thru-hikers Only 
(SAC-PTO), offered to keep safe those who want to enter the sierra while 
there is still snow there, will be running on:
April 17-21
May 5-9
May 11-15
May 17-21
June 5-9
June 17-21
June 29-July 3

There will be no more NoBo SAC-PTO steep snow skills training courses after 
that despite the fact that snowline will probably be around 11,200 the first 
week in July, meaning you will still have long stretches of snow-hiking on 
either sides of each high pass above that altitude. Plan accordingly based 
on our reports back after each SAC trip.


Ned Tibbits, Director
Mountain Education, Inc.
www.mountaineducation.org
ned at mountaineducation.org


Mission:
"To minimize wilderness accidents, injury, and illness in order to maximize 
wilderness enjoyment, safety, and personal growth, all through experiential 
education and risk awareness training."
-----Original Message----- 
From: Barry Teschlog
Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2016 9:24 AM
To: PCT L.
Subject: [pct-l] April 1 Snow

I'm surprised that there are no posts yet.....then again, I'm not.
What a snoozer on the Sierra snow pack.  No matter the source - Postholer's 
new plots, Snotel sensors, or the old school snow pack charts or where ever 
it's looking incredibly in the central band of "average", give or take.
Move along....nothing to see here.

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