[pct-l] jmt in june

[dude@xxxxxxxxxxx (dude)]

--
Nic - I am not really too certain what the snow levels are like this
year in the high sierra, however, they were recently hit with a semi-
late season storm that dumped tons of snow up there.  Late season
large storms are not at all uncommon in the sierra nevada.  I have
snow skied at Squaw Valley with 100% of the park open on July 4th
(the PCT may even go through Squaw Valley, I forget).

I am sure that a JMT hike is *possible* on June 9th, but it doesnt
sound like fun to me.  My totally uneducated guess is that there will
be TONS of snow all over the place on June 9th.  This snow report
indicates that this is a fairly typical year:
ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/snow/update/ca.txt  most of the
stations are reporting near 100% of normal.

When you say "I assume the peaks have a bunch but is there a lot on
the trail at lower elevations?", you have to understand that the
majority of the JMT is around 10,000ft. Therefore, the "trail at
lower elevations" is still about 9,000-10,000 ft.  In fact, besides
yosemite valley, the trail only dips below 8,000 ft three times, and
each of those is immediately followed by climbs over 11,000-12,000
passes.  Here is an elevation profile to help you get the picture:
http://www.pcta.org/images/elevation_big.gif

I have heard/read about people doing JMT hikes in june and seen pics
with lots of snow all over the place, so if you are into that type of
hiking in snow, where the trail and signs/markers are under 20+ feet
of snow for miles on end, where the passes have so much snow that
your "hike" is more like mountaineering, where the stream runoff is
deep and fast, and the standing water in the meadows makes the
mosquitoes as thick as the smog in L.A., then I would say that you
will have a great time.  However, if you are looking forward to a
nice summer-time hike where the trail is easy to find, you won't need
to know mountaineering skills, and you won't have to carry more deet
than water, then you may want to reconsider the date (or is that date
is set in stone, perhaps reconsider the destination).

I am not trying to scare you off, but I am trying to paint a
realistic picture of what it *could* be like on the JMT on June 9th.
I did the JMT the last two weeks of august in 1998 (200% of normal
snow), and there were still sections of the trail that were under 20
ft of snow.  We all had to use our ice axes too.  We even got snowed
on one night!

In any event, good luck!

peace,
dude







> I was planning on leaving to hike the john muir trail around the
> 9th of June and I was wondering about how much snow is usually on
> the trail at this time. I assume the peaks have a bunch but is
> there a lot on the trail at lower elevations? Does anyone have any
> guesses on how this year's snow melt will differ from other years
> and how passable the trail will be? Also would it make much of a
> difference whether I hiked N-->S or S-->N in encountering snow?
> Thanks a lot!
>
> Nic
>
>
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