Fellow current and upcoming CT thru-hikers:
I have made it to Leadville, but it has been a crazy, and sometimes even scary, journey getting here. Here’s my update so far.
The first few segments are no problem. In fact they were quite hot (mid 80’s to 90’s going through). The climb up Georgia Pass was ok all the way up, but the back side was a little dicey. I lost the trail a few times. This was 4 days ago though so it might be better now. The hike into Breckenridge was ok. The tenmile range out of breckenridge was insane so I opted to hike up the peak 9 road and then connect with the wheeler trail. This route still had several long snow field I had to hike across, but it was manageable. The snow was still sturdy enough by peak 9 to support my weight without postholing in. The hike to copper mountain was also fine. Where the trail got INSANCE was the hike up to Searle Pass (segment 8). Right before you reach Janet’s Hut, the trail is completely covered. I ahd to free hike up along a creek until i found the hut. This morning I free hiked across 3 miles of snow fields up and over searle pass and around Kokomo pass. It is pretty nasty up there. To make things worse, the snow is inconsistent. sometimes you can walk right across it, other times, you sink in up to your chest. I was a little worried. Thankfully, the next 5 segments are all under or around 11,000 so I should be ok. It has been very hot so it definitely is melting. THere are some places where you’ll see snow even as low as 9000 feet in the shade. It’s crazy.
-lakewood
lakewood