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[pct-l] El Nino



>i've heard el nino pretty much wipes out the possibility of a through hike in
>98 due to snow.  true?

  How times change!!  I can't believe what I read here.  Is everyone planning a
thru-hike these days so tunnel-visioned?  Whatever happened to adventure and
spunk?  When I did my thru-hike (and others on this list as well) in 1975, it
was assumed that you had to go through the snow; the only other choice was
walking 395 through Owens Valley, which meant no choice in my view.  I was
there to do the trail: it came with no guarantees for an easy to walk path from
Mexico to Canada, one simply dealt with whatever the conditions were.  Now I
think Ray Jardine's book was a good thing and his schedules are very handy, but
I don't believe that they were ever meant to be literal, that in order for one
to do the trail, one would have to wait for the snow (however much or little)
to melt.  Hasn't anyone on this list ever heard of snowshoes or skis?  Sure, I
was afraid that I couldn't traverse the High Sierra in deep snow, but I also
well remember the excitement of buying a pair of snowshoes in Ridgecrest and
using them for the first time a few days later.  Battles are not won by people
who run at the first sign of adversity.  Though we did not need skis or
snowshoes after Mammoth Lakes, we did not leave the snow behind for good until
north of Sierra City.  I would not trade that experience for anything.
  Just once, I would like to hear someone say "El Nino!  What a great
oppurtunity to do the PCT!".  Not only will you have a worthy challenge, but
you will have the entire High Sierra to yourself (as we did; the only people we
met along the way were some mountaineers who had come over Bishop Pass for the
long Memorial Day weekend and a couple doing a high traverse on skis).  Can you
imagine John Muir cancelling one of his trips because conditions were not
perfect?  I dare say that we would have no John Muir Trail, Pacific Crest Trail
or Yosemite National Park today.

Alan
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