[pct-l] Irate

["William M. Stenzel" <manjovin@jps.net>]

Okay, Monte, you pissed me off. I crossed Forester Pass in very early June 1999. I will send you a photo of the 20 foot tall cornice at the top. Stepping out over that 2500 foot drop to kick steps over the top was one of the most frightening experiences of my life.
Now then, I did it in running shoes, and the problem was NOT hard snow but soft, slushy snow. I kicked a step and sunk into my thigh. Kicked another step and sunk into my thigh again. I put away my ice axe and just plunged my arms into the snow and bearhugged big sections of slush as I pulled myself up and over. You'd wanna get some popcorn and watch? Not nice....and I never got blisters kicking steps with running shoes.
    The Problem: following a stupid itinerary with regards to the snowpack.

Ahem...

so the snowpack here at Donner pass is pretty minimal now that it rained for three days (The Yuba river, on the other hand, is maxed out.) It seems that there isn't much snow at all below 5000 ft., if you can believe it. So I'm wondering if there would be some passable sections of the Northern California PCT right now. Anyone know for sure?

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