[pct-l] Winter thruhike, electolyte balance, changes in food preferences and need

["Joanne Lennox" <goforth@cio.net>]

I am going to kick this out hoping it will not be seen as inflammatory, or
be seen as advocating stupid and risky behavior:  Has anybody done a
thruhike of the PCT in Winter, say somewhere from October to April?  I am
not much of a skier, I have a real healthy respect for avalanches,
nevertheless, I have seen ski tracks coming over a cornice and down the
North side of an an ice couloir on Mt. Abbot that stopped me in my tracks. 
It has become a subject of mid-night speculation about how it could be
done.  If one started from the North Cascades before deep snow
accumulated.................If one could alter the exact route in certain
places to avoid some avalanche chutes (after all, you're not going to be
able to find the trail for the most part anyway)...........

I know that food preferences are highly individual, and that everybody
responds differently to the crisis of sustained actively on a thruhike. I
am wondering if I should carry some kind of supplement to help to keep
electolytes in balance, and either take it on a daily basis if I am going
20 miles a day, or have it as a backup or emergency.   I was hoping to dry
much of what I was going to take ( a stupendous undertaking), and this has
relatively little salted and prepared food.  OTOH, if I end up putting a
bunch of prepared foods in at the end(Soups, prepared dinners, top ramens,
cup-of-whatever, cocoa, caschews, etc.) ,what happens to my electolytes? 
the Ultra people talk about feet swelling due to the increased activity.  I
know this isn't a marathon, but 20 miles per day is close, and it is
sustained day after day.  Salt pills anyone?

Also, It seems that most people up their caloric intake after a few weeks
on the trail.  One person mentioned going from 3000 calories per day to
5000.  This is lot.  What is a realistic burn rate to plan for.  What kind
of foods did thruhikers burn out on, what things did they began to crave? 
Personally, corn pasta just doesn"t make it for me.  It has a very short
shelf life, so that most of it tastes slightly rancid to me, and then it
turns to mush with the slightest bit of overcooking.  Am I missing
something...I know about the boil and turn off, al dente stuff.  By the
time I get any sause stirred in, it looks like yellow cream of wheat. 
Polenta is better but hard to cook.  I have been working on pearl barley,
which unlike rice, potatoes, and crackers, has a low glycemic index and
does not raise blood glucose so drastically.  Barley sushi anyone?

Peace 
Gofoth

G.M. Hopkins, Heaven-Haven:

		I have desired to go						
		   Where springs not fail,
              To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
	            And a few lilies blow.

	            And I have asked to be 
		    Where no storms come,
	  Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
		And out of the swing of the sea. 
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