I am planning on hiking the PCT in late May of 2010, and have (obsessively) began thinking. I know that hiking southward isn’t recommended because of the heat in California and the snow in Washington, which are also reasons for starting earlier. But would those factors become irrelevent with a start as late as mine? What are the pros/cons of that plan?
reversibleraincoat
If you want to start in Washington, plan on starting around July 1 unless you’ve got some solid winter mountaineering experience, or 2010 is a very low snow year. Late May in a normal snow year will have the North Cascades choked with snow. In a freakishly low snow year like in 2005, late May would be possible, but you would have to bring a lot of route finding and hard snow travel skills with you, and plan to average a lot fewer miles (like 10). So, you’d need to haul a lot more food as well.
However, late May would be a fine time to start in SoCal. The heat really isn’t that bad, the water will still be there, and by the time you get to the Sierra conditions should be pretty good. It will be rather toasty crossing the Mojave, but this really isn’t a big deal.
suge
Many thru-hikers, myself included, did a flip-flop hike in 2005 due to the high levels of snow in the Sierra and the abnormally low levels in Washington. I started walking south from Manning on June 4th, and despite the lower levels of snow than usual, still got bombarded with a freak blizzard storm, one of the most memorable experiences of my whole trip. Other than that, though, the walk through WA was quite enjoyable in June, but again, the conditions were much more mild than usual at that time of year. There are so many variables and changes in conditions on the PCT from one year to the next that it’s really a different trail every year! Once the year of your hike arrives you’ll be better informed on the conditions and thus better able to choose which stretch you would like to walk in which season. Happy hiking and planning!
Smack
Just to emphasize that 2005 was freakish, know that a drought emergency was declared (starting in Feb, I think) and ski resorts were open for only a handful of days. Even then, I was battling several feet of big, hard snow in the Alpine Lakes on Memorial Day along the PCT.
Suge