[pct-l] date of arriving at Kennedy Meadows

[chwillet at indiana.edu (Christopher Willett)]

This depends heavily on how much snow is around.  This past year was, I 
believe, eventually considered a somewhat average snow year.  There were 
several late season storms that seemed to even things out.  I left Kennedy 
Meadows on June 10 and went over Forrester on June 14, where the snow
began. While unpleasant at times, the snow was manageable:  Passes were 
buried in snow usually for 2-6 miles on the south side, making navigation 
and postholing tough.  The north sides were buried for a longer distance, 
but navigation there was pretty easy, the postholing presenting the 
greater problem.  From KM to VVR took 8 days and a morning of hiking, 
including the walk up Whitney.  This involved three somewhat difficult 
days: The day over Forrester and Glen, over Pinchot and Mather, and 
the day over Muir.  Selden and Silver passes were easy.  Donahue was 
fairly well buried, but not too difficult (despite getting lost).  The 
first people into the Sierras this year left KM sometime around June 1 (I 
can't remember the exact date) and they had some harrowing stories to 
tell and needed snow shoes to get through parts.  Unfortunately, I 
don't think any of them read this list.  There were two really 
dangerous fords:  Bear Creek, about 10 miles before VVR, and 
Kerrick Canyon (about 1.5 days north of Tuolumne), but there were 
lots of other unpleasant ones.  Benson pass was covered, but not 
too bad and the Sonora pass area, while snowy, was not dangerous (just 
really snowy!).  Once clear of Sonora Pass (just over the 1000 mile mark, 
which I got to on 25th), snow begins to run out, although there were still 
some dangerous concentrations of snow up to Sierra City.  I didn't 
send my ice axe home until Chester.

I'd say that the group I was hiking with was moving faster than most, 
and averaging in the low 20s was tough at times from KM to TM. 
>From TM to South Lake Tahoe, and average day was in the 25 mile range. 
>From SLT north, 30+ mile days were reasonable.  How much you average is 
up to you.  Just make sure you are enjoying yourself as you go forth, 
and the rest will see to itself.

Suge

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004, Billy Anderson wrote:

> is May 25 to early of a date to arrive at this point on the pct..
> and what kind of milage can i expect through the next several hundred miles.
> 
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----------------------
Christopher Willett
Department of Mathematics
Indiana University
831 East Third Street
Bloomington, IN. 47405-7106
(812)-855-1883
chwillet@indiana.edu
mypage.iu.edu/~chwillet