Re: [pct-l] Lightweight Backpacking?

[reynolds@ilan.com]

BJ-
Sounds good EXCEPT I listened to Strider [Greg Hummel] describe whiteout
conditions going over Forrester Pass and I personally experienced such a storm
on Trail Crest in August to make me not believe the idea that the Sierra is so
beign. I also remember a huge storm droping a couple of feet on Donahue in July.
I remember because I hiked over in snow on July 4. I also read the accounts of
the early sierra traversers last year and personally talked to 3 guys that hiked
a portion of the Sierra in early August. I also talked to people that had huge
gashes in thier legs because of a misstep in a stream crossing last year. I also
faced an avalanch across the trail that, two weeks earlier, required serious
rope work and heard the story from a Ranger I know tell of how a very
experienced backpacker broke his collarbone on a collapsing snow bridge.

It is not as you, and others, say. The Sierra can be dangerous. Without a good
tent and decent boots you are taking a big risk early season.

The early traversers are wearing boots, and in some cases, crampons. In one case
skiis. Even so the accounts tell of silver dollar sized blisters -- wet feet
will do that you know. One account, of Jonathan Breem, talks about the advantage
that crampons gave him. He was able to walk on the snow crust while another
party had to wait until the snow softened.


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