[pct-l] RE: long distance foot problems and EARLY '03

[john@frozenpoodle.com (John Brennan)]

Just getting up to speed on the list, thus the delay.

Hiking the PCT early depends on the year.  When we left this year, snow
levels were below normal and an early June arrival date at Kennedy Meadows
looked fine.  While we were on the trail, the Sierra got enough snow to put
it above average.  I left KM on June 4 not knowing how much extra snow was
up there.

As far as I know, we all made it, but there was a lot of snow when I went
through.  It was the type of snow you just have to hike on:  crampons would
not have helped.  I didn't miss my ice axe, but I was either walking on
others' footprints or glissading.  If I'd been the first one through, which
you might be if you get started early, an ice axe might be better than
trekking poles for extra contact with snow. Snowshoes would have been
helpful for about three miles, and therefore not worth the extra weight.
Snowshoes would have been good for such a short period because most of the
snow we covered was too steep for snowshoes (or at least my level of
expertise with them).  We avoided situation that would require crampons by
timing our approaches to potentially icy areas so we were there when they
had been softened by air and sun.

During the steep and deep snow, we were going about a mile an hour and
burning lots of extra calories.  Plan you schedule and food accordingly. I
had trail runners and trekking poles, as did those around me, and making it
through was entirely possible.

Two weeks can make a huge difference in the amount of snow on the ground in
the High Sierra during the late spring.

Hope this info helps.
Btw, I'd do my trek through the Sierra again with the same amount of snow
(especially with the experience I got this year...).

John B./Cupcake
http://www.cupcakewalk.com
--
>SECOND!  I am planning at hike for '03 and have time from April 1st - Aug
16th
>free.  I really want to leave at the beginning of april, and I have a fair
>amount of snow experience, but does anyone out there have a good sense of
what
>it will be like to hit the sierra's a couple of weeks early?  Is anyone
else
>leaving this early?

>Thanks,
>Lynn