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[pct-l] Trail report North Cascades/Glacier Reroute



I just got back from Steven Pass through the southwestern half of the 
re-route, which I did with my husband, Tay.  There was still a lot of 
snow above 5000 feet on the north slopes and even farther down in the 
protected valleys (~4000 ft).  We were crossing large snowfields for 
part of day 2 and most of day 3 in white out conditions in driving 
snow.  Route finding would have been extremely difficult if it wasn't 
for someone else's tracks (a SOBOer by the looks of it?thank you 
angel!) that I followed.  It rained or snowed all four days and the 
temp ranged from 30-39 F the whole time.  It is definitely still winter 
in the north Cascades.

It took us 4 days to go 45 miles because of a late start the first day, 
all of the  post-holing up to knees and hips, poor visibility, and the 
fact that by the end of day 2 Tay was hobbled by horrible blisters (I 
have pictures but they are nasty!) caused by walking for days in wet 
socks and mountaineering boots in freezing temps.   I wore light hikers 
and wool socks with poly sock liners and only suffered two small 
blisters despite continuously wet feet.  We carried ice axes and 
crampons but did not need the crampons as the snow was soft.  It could 
be done without an axe for self belay (we used ours a lot!) but there 
are several places where a fall would be extremely dangerous especially 
if conditions were more icy, which they could become as the weather 
changes.

We managed to stay warm and dry for three days (we had winter gear) but 
by the forth day of constant precipitation things started to soak in. 
All my stuff is soaked and my feet are wrecked from 4 days in drenched 
frozen socks.  I am currently drying out in Seattle and rethinking my 
plan. The highest point I attained on this leg was 5700 feet and that 
is well below most of the trail from Manning to Rainy Pass so I am a 
little wary of hopping up there just yet.  I am considering continuing 
to head south and hopping up to Manning at the end when the snow is 
gone.  The thought of post holing for 4-6 days in potentially bad 
weather again is a little off-putting.  It is still winter in the 
northern mountains and I don't think that will change in the next week. 
  The forecast predicts more rain and snow for the next week and beyond. 
  However, I was really looking forward to meeting everyone and having 
some SOBO camaraderie.  We didn't see anyone else the whole time we 
were up there.  No locals crazy enough to hike in that weather.  On the 
drive in, I saw a pair of what had to be SOBOers (maybe the one?s 
Juniper was meeting?) because they were road walking in the pouring 
rain with full packs and an umbrella on Hwy 2 towards Stevens Pass from 
the east so I am guessing they walked around from Chelan or out from 
the impassable Napeequa River....how miserable!

The Indian Creek and White River trails are snow-free and much more 
over-grown (bushes up to my arm pits in many places and over my head in 
some ...I'm 5'5") than the original PCT but certainly easy to route 
find since they follow valleys.  There is a lot of water running down 
the trail right now and causing trail damage, so much so that Tay 
started jokingly calling it the ?Pacific Creek Trail?.  Oh?..below 4000 
ft the mosquitoes were swarming.

I don?t think Tay will ever go backpacking with me again unless I 
promise the weather will cooperate.  I, strangely enough, enjoyed 
myself?I must be cut out for this ?crazy stuff?.  :D

I hope this report helps out those making hard decisions about where to 
go right now.  I know others are reporting snow in Oregon as well.  It 
seems it just a hard year over-all and going SOBO isn't going to be as 
easy as many of us thought.  It is certainly shaping up to be an 
EXTREMELY wet and cold June in WA.  My advice would be to make sure you 
have good rain gear, a solid shelter, boots you can kick steps in, TOPO 
maps and a good axe if you come up to WA.  That said I think people 
with moderate-good mountaineering skills will do just fine.  Just be 
prepared to be wet.

Please be safe out there!

HYOH,
Mara

Mara Jeffress
mara@jeffress.net
http://jeffress.net/mara/1000miles.html
www.trailjournals.com/mara