2 people and me are planning to start at campo on april 1. We are all fit, and it seems we will be moving quickly from the start. Do you feel this is to early to leave? Two of use are comfortable with snow, rom a previous JMT hike. We work toghter well as a group, and are good at navigation. What the general concensus?
pct2008
This may be a low snow year again, so you may be all right. Normally, April 1 is too early. There are mountain ranges south of the Sierras that are likely to have snow - they did when we hiked starting three weeks later. Navigation becomes more difficult with more snow. You may have to detour around some areas (i.e. Fuller Ridge, Sonora Pass). You will have more continuous snow - not just at the passes - which will likley slow you down. You will be out before the water caches - so don’t plan on using them.
Ginny
The national weather reports this morning are mentioning two to three feet of snow from the current storm that’s sweeping across CA (along with a lot of lowland rain, too.) If this kind of thing keeps up, this may prove to be one of those years when an early Sierras entry is chancier than average.
Strategic
If you are fit and motivated, then it will take about a month to reach Kennedy Meadows from Campo. That puts you into the Sierra pretty early. So, you should be hoping for a low snow year. If it turns out that it isn’t a low snow year (you’ll know by March-ish), then you’ll probably either want to delay your start, or plan on taking a lot of zero days along the way. If you want to try to force the Sierra, just make sure you know what you are doing and have the right gear.
Suge
If you are all fit and intend to move quickly, why not start May 1? You’d avoid most of the PCTKO crowd but wouldn’t arrive in the Sierras too soon.
Ginny
To add to what Ginny wrote: I started May 9 and was able to avoid the main herd completely. There were enough hikers at the start to make things interesting, but not so many. I started to catch the back end of the main pack around Big Bear. I reached Agua Dulce and was around the middle. However, they were so spread out and so many people had dropped out or were recovered from injuries that it wasn’t a problem. I was in the thick of things from Mojave to Kennedy Meadows. I left Kennedy Meadows on June 10 and was then in front of the main group.
So, if you’re looking to avoid the main group, it would be better to start later, instead of sooner, particularly if you think you’ll have a more rapid than normal pace.
Suge
the main issue with our timing is that two of us would like to be done by the end of august possibly a little earlier around the 20th. When did you all finish, -start?
pct2008
I’m in a similar boat, my friend and I are considering a start date around april 20th, and we need to be off the trail by september first at the latest.
Simonwm
In '05 I started on April 8th. "05 was a very heavy snow year - particularly in SoCal (San Jacinto had the deepest snow-pack ever recorded - for the first time the summit building was completely burried). There were very few of us on the Trail, and we generally had an awesome time. The Desert Divide/San Jacinto area was completely snowbound, so navigating was tricky, Tragically, John Donovon, a fellow thru-hiker, got lost up there and evetually died.
I ended up bypassing Fuller Ridge by hiking Black Mountain Road. I also Bypassed Baden Powell by hiking the Angeles Crest Highway. Other than these two areas, the PCT in SoCal was in great condition with plenty of water sources.
I headed north from Kennedy Meadows on May 31st. The only hiker ahead of me was Squeaky, who was balzing ahead to attempt the Triple Crown in one year. Generally speaking the Sierra was completely snow-bound above 10,500 feet. It was truely awesome. I kicked out @ Mt. Whitney and flipped to Canada so that I could finish the hike on the summit of Whitney (I had already thru-hiked in '97 as well & had had enough snow travel by that point).
If I were hiking this year, I would also start around April 1st. No crowds, relaxed pace, lots of water in the desert and cooler desert temps are just some of the advantages of starting ‘early.’ Its definitely a good idea, though, to have some experience using an ice-axe and some fairly good navigational skills. When your above tree-line, the navigating in snow is relatively easy with good visability. Navigating below tree-line in snow is tricky (like on the flanks of San Jacinto and also in the “Siberian Outpost” area of the high Sierra.
Perhaps the most dangerous challenge you might face is river fording. When your below treeline, it really pays off to walk up or down the brook or river until you find a blowdown that forms a natural bridge.
We had an interesting discussion a year ago on the challenges faced in a heavy snow year or an early start. Here’s the link:
http://www.trailforums.com/index2.cfm?action=detail&PostNum=6837&Thread=1&roomID=11&entryID=53104
Happy Trails!
freebird
I started May 9 and finished August 21, for a total of 105 days. Two people finished in front of me, Wall and Will (both of who started either with or after me), and one (Sharon, started the same day) finished with me. Many people who started at ADZ finished about 10 days later.
So, you can start later and still finish in August. I didn’t have an especially fast pace. But, I didn’t take a lot of zero days and I tended to hike when it was cool and wild life was out, namely in the early morning and in the early afternoon. However, I will say that I never thought that I would actually finish until I got to Ashland and still have more than a month left before I had to come home. Before then, I had just been planning on hiking to the Columbia.
Suge
The PCT isn’t real a trail you can finish early like the AT. Really not realistic, unless (a) you’re real fast like Suge (he is the minority) or (b) you get a real low snow year and start early. Even last year (which was record low) the fastest folks and leaders of the pack weren’t hitting Canada until Labor day and this was with no snow to slow in the Sierra.
If you have a deadline, why not do a long section hike?
A-Train
If you start a couple of weeks later, you should still be able to finish by September 1, if you are fast hikers and don’t take much time off. My husband and I were not in a hurry, at all, and we did the trail in 5 months 5 days, despite the fact that I hiked on a sprained ankle for the first week or so and then my husband had a broken toe from the descent of Fuller Ridge that never did heal right. We were deliberately going slow, partly from pain and partly because we didn’t want to hit the Sierras too soon and then we decided we wanted to go to the Aldha-West Gathering at the end of September. We averaged 19 mpd - and could have gone much faster without a lot of effort, but we didn’t want to finish too soon. As it was, we finished a week sooner than planned.
If you find that you are not comfortable with the pace necessary to finish the trail in four months, then you can always just go as far as you go and come back next year.
One thing about starting too soon - if you are wallowing in a lot of snow, your daily mileage will go down. So you’ll end up with the same cumulative mileage as if you’d started later, but with a lot more effort.
Ginny
I started at the KO last year, April 27th and hit Canada on September 20th (however I wasn’t a purist on the PCT). This included about 30 zeros, including 4 in Portland. I guess doing some simple math I “could have” finished in late august withot the zero’s, but who wants to do that.
I didn’t mean to sound negative in the last post. If you think you can, you should go for it. I’d probably do the same with the possibility of a whole thru-hike. However, just want to be realistic. Much snow and you could really have to push it later on to make your deadline. The PCT often gets the reputation of being “easy” however i felt more beat up physically than on the AT. Maybe it was walking longer days with less rest. Some of the zeros, especially in the desert were mental zero’s. These were things I didn’t need on the AT. I rarely took days off on the AT.
A-Train
where are you from? Do you really understand Sierra snow? If you have never experienced early snow fall in high country you might be in for a rude awakening. It can snow a few feet in a bad storm. Do you have a tent that can hold this kind weight(most hikers on this site have never even been in a tent like this, much less own one.) there are so many technical details with this kind of environment you must really know your game. Did your JMT friend hike in winter when snow drifts can exceed 10ft in a single storm, or the end of summer when you can’t find a snow patch to save a life? The difference is like hiking the AT or summiting Everest. You best know the difference or you too can pass away like two others did (on seperate occasions) in excessive snow pack in SoCal when freebird (or myself) hiked in '05.
hellkat
Also… Do you snowshoe? do you ski or snowboard (helps build an understanding of Avalanche territory) Do you know what it’s like to posthole all day? do you realize KM may not be open if you move fast. You will not be able to access whitney portal without mountaineering gear, And I don’t mean an ice ax and crampons, I mean full set-up. If you know the PCT you may be able to reroute, but if it’s your first time… be sure your JMT partner and you know what to expect.
hellkat
I am planning on starting April10/11 is this to late? Does anyone know how far in shape backpakers can make it (mileage wise/day) right off the get go? thanks
Blackfoot Hippie Bear
if this snow keeps up-it looks like i am going to push my early march start date to a late march/april 1st date-but it could be worst. but looking at the data from the last big storm for the sierras-it really an issue of safety for me. if it stay as is w/o snow i may still be game for a 3/1 start date-but fat chance on that. april 1 here i come 8)
boviine