[pct-l] So Cal snow. Was:winter snow cover

[brick@fastpack.com (Brick Robbins)]

At 10:20 AM 3/15/01 , Steve Courtway wrote:
> >San Gorgonio appears to
> >have a heavy snow cover.
>
>midwinter, who woulda thunk it ?

Remember that the PCT avoids the high country around San Gorgonio.

Generally the snow "problems" are on San Jacinto, and Fuller Ridge is the 
"worst." Many folks prefer to bypass this section by road walking from 
Idyllwild to the trail junction at Black Mountain road.

However, Joe Sobinovsky (of the PCTA) and I did a high snow year traverse 
of Fuller Ridge on a section hike a couple of years back. We had pretty 
continuous snow from Strawberry Junction trail amp to Black mountain road 
(guidebook maps B9 & B10), and still did 28 miles that day (We stopped well 
after dark near the Middletons, unwilling to go pound on doors looking for 
them after dark.)

We both had ice axes and snow travel experience from previous thru-hikes in 
the Sierra, so your mileage may vary...... I used running shoes. The 
hardest part was negotiating the thorn brush that was sticking out of the 
snow along the crest of the ridge.

-Brick