[pct-l] Re: Snow shoes in early season

[reynolds@iLAN.com (Reynolds, WT)]

Interesting!

I have those plastic MSR shoes with 12" extensions. Do you think that they
would work in spring snow to avoid post holing? 

I read Jonathan Breem's account of crossing the sierra in very heavy snow.
He said that he hiked early and late with crampons while other, non-crampon
equipped, thruhikers had to wait until the snow softened and had to stop
when the snow hardened. In your experience would that work better.

note: A 5 ounce gps may be indicated if this is truely a heavy snow year

Tom

-----Original Message-----
From: david paulson [mailto:d111@jps.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 10:24 AM
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] Re: Snow shoes in early season


Hi list:

  I'm not convinced snow shoes are the answer to traversing the Sierra
in early season. In '95 (a "very" heavy snow year) I left Kennedy Meadows
June 18th I believe, travelling alone, carrying snow shoes, 16 days of
food!! and thinking I was the only one who would make it through the
mountains. Boy, did I have a lot to learn, including:

1. I did not have enough confidence in my route finding abilities to
navigate through more than 200 miles of snow covered, unfamiliar mountains.

2. I entered the Sierra way too soon for that particular year. (I carried
an ice axe out of Campo, and needed it before reaching Idylwild. That was
the first clue :))

3. I love to snow shoe in the winter, but the shoes were "not" worth their
weight in the spring. They went on my feet for good at Trail Pass, and
carried me as far as Glen Pass (where I gave up, turned around and bailed
out to the west down Woods Creek).
 
 Spring snow conditions were such that the shoes really did not help. Early
and late in the day, the snow was hard enough to travel using any kind of
footwear, and in the middle of the day, it was so soft that I either
postholed or slipped. The cleats on the bottom of the snow shoes would
simply clog up on the soft stuff (but were a life-saver on icy snow).
Sun cups are also easier to travel across without wearing snow shoes.
Jardine, in his book, describes well the "type" of spring snow found in the
Sierra, and also advises against carrying snow shoes.

4. I was not interested in risking my life to thru-hike the PCT. Bailing out
that year, saving my money and returning in '97 to hike the whole trail was
absolutely the right move for me.

If anyone has had a positive experience using snow shoes in spring, I'd love
to hear about it!

Dave(WalkOn)





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