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Re: [pct-l] October Snow in North Cascades

>   Don't know what you want to extrapolate from this, but: this October,
>I made two trips to the Sierra High Country (much closer to the equator
>;-) and was hit by violent multi-day storms both times. Spent 36 hours
>pinned down in the McGee Pass area kocking snow build-up off my tent to
>keep it from collapsing; during the same storm, a fellow died of exposure
>(he had a tent and was not alone) in the Humphries Basin _south_ of where
>I was.

The first one was October 8.  (Sticks in my mind 'cuz I was in the 
Ritter Range [near Reds Meadow] then.  *Heavy* snow, -10F *and* high 
winds.  All the many other times I'd been in the Sierra in early 
October the weather was perfect.  The risk of such weather in 
northern Washington is *many* times worse then, tho.)

BTW, thanks to El Nino I'm thinking about doing the JMT instead of 
the Sierra High Route starting August 23, only because I'd like to 
leave the ice axe at home, and with all the snow up there now I'm 
wondering if JMT passes but not SHR passes will be safe axe-less by 
then.  Any advice on this?  (Sorry, I know folks looking at hiking 
the Sierra this June would love this "problem".)

Happy trails,
Bill

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