[pct-l] snow conditions south of the Sierras?

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

I have been enjoying the snow pages, and following what is happening
Washington to California, especially as there is more reporting since Jan.
started.  Blackcap basin in the Dinkey Wilderness is one of my favorite
entrance alleys to the High Sierras.  I can dial up the station and see how
much it snowed today or how much it melted from yesterday.  Such a deal
!!!!!!  I can not tell you how much effort I used to go thru with the
Forest Service or Park Service to get anybody at all to tell me where the
snow line was and what the snowpack was like.  

And now thru Steve Fox I've found the Northwest Weather and Avalanche
Center, and then the WSDOT Cameras on the Passes.  WOW!  I knew they were
out there I just couldn"t find them.  Thanks Fox!

At any rate, I can't seem to find anyplace to find out how much snow there
is south of the Sierras - High Divide, Mt. San Jacinto, The San Grigorios ,
around Big Bear, and the San gabriels.  It seems that these southern places
can have quite a different winter season than the Sierras.  These really
will determine my start date.  I figured I could do a small flip-flop if
the Sierras aren"t consolidated when I get there and go north of Belden for
a while( and that would also mean less snow for my favorite parts of the
Sierras if came back south a little later). If I start Campo on April first
as planned, conceivably I could be near Kennedy Meadows on about l5 May, a
bit early!  I've considered skipping Kennedy Meadows to Belden, going to
Canada from Belden, and then returning to the Sierras at the end in the
fall when the weather is likely to be better than in Washington, and ending
with my favorite part -the High Sierras, with fall colors, no mosquities
and very few people.  I love the thought of ending in the High Sierras; I
absolutely hate the thought of a flip-flop. Is it a siren song that calls
me to want to make one straight line South to North? Can I shake myself
from these perfectionist, purist tendencies? Should I? Maybe once I would
cross the Canadian Border, going south would be anticlimatic? What was the
experience of those this year that flip-flopped? From the accounts that I
have read, Manning appears to be very anticlimatic.  How about finishing
with a climb of Whitney, or much better yet the North arete of Mt Russell !
 Zhowee !!

Peace 
Goforth
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