Forgot to mention fording shoes. I used a very lightweight pair of marathon shoes to ford the rivers. They had enough protection in case I wedged my feet inbetween rocks, but more importantly, I could ‘feel’ the bottom and know when I had a good foothold. When using the heavier boots for fording, it was hard to tell whether my footing was on the verge of slipping. I think they had less drag in the water too.
RC
Nemo,
I agree with Sqeaky-don’t take a bear cannister. It’s extra weight and won’t hold all your food anyway. Also, when Remy and I went through I was looking for signs of bear. There weren’t any! The first sign of bear I saw was some fresh scat near Wallace (?) creek where we camped between Glen and Pinchot. There is a metal bear box there so we used it. The next bear sign I saw was not until after the descent of the Golden Staircase after Mather. In other words, the bears weren’t up in the snow, only below 8,000 feet. Bears aren’t carrying their food with them like hikers…if there’s no food, they aren’t there. Utilize the provided storage and the rest of the time either hang your food or take your chances and use your ice axe! 
heather
I’ve got to disagree on the bear cannister issue. Being from Northern California I’ve had MANY SCARY ENCOUNTERS with hiker habituated bears. They’ve stolen my food properly hung, stolen my pack when I was ten feet away, and nuzzled around me when I was asleap. I had an experience very much the same as bearcan’t did last year (http://trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=108027) although my food was in a canister inside my pack. The Sierra bears can be crazy! I encourage everyone to carry a canister. Sure, they’re not likely to be going over Forester when you are but they surely are active in the lower elevations and northern parts of the Sierra.
JackH
JackH
I agree I live in the Sierras and know what people food oriented bears can be like. We have to keep our garbage can in a concrete block fenced area with a steal gate to keep the bears out during the summer months. The garden is protected by a 6’ chainlink fence, which needs constant repair. The reasons bear canisters are REQUIRED is because bears have learned how to live off of us. Not carrying a bear can just adds to the problem.
sierra88
Here are the current regulations for Sequoia & Kings Canyon Parks, copied directly off the NPS website:
Special Backcountry Restrictions
SEKI-approved bear-resistant food storage containers with the capacity to store all food are required from the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend through October 31 at the following locations:
* Rae Lakes Loop through Paradise Valley to Woods Creek crossing, through the Rae Lakes Basin and the 60 Lakes Basin into the Charlotte Lake area, and south along the Pacific Crest Trail to Forester Pass. Also included are the Bubbs Creek drainage and associated trails and cross-country areas from Kearsarge Lakes and Center Basin to Cedar Grove, and all other drainages feeding Bubbs Creek east of, and including East Creek. This also extends south to the Kings-Kern Divide.
* Dusy Basin which includes all camp areas from Bishop Pass to the junction with the John Muir Trail in LeConte Canyon and all cross-country areas in Dusy Basin and Palisades Basin.
* Rock Creek drainage west of Cottonwood and New Army Passes, south of Crabtree Pass, south of Goyot Pass, and north-northwest of the Sequoia National Park boundary and Siberian Pass, including Soldier Lake,Miter Basin, along Rock Creek, and Siberian Outpost. All trail corridors and cross-country routes within the area are included in the restriction.
These regulations apply to all groups. Through hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail and the John Muir Trail with a valid wilderness permit must use portable, park approved, bear-proof food storage containers or camp at sites with food storage lockers and use the lockers. Hanging food (e.g. counterbalancing) in restricted areas is prohibited until snow prevents access to food storage lockers.
freebird
According to the last paragraph of the Restrictions, PCT & JMT thru-hikers (with permits 
) are allowed to hike without bear canisters as long as they camp @ spots with bear lockers.
Here is an excellent website that details the locations of all bear lockers in the High Sierra:
http://www.climber.org/data/BearBoxes.html#intro
freebird
Some moghty interesting reading here. I’ve enjoyed this thread and all its digressions.
Jan LiteShoe
Any word on rainfall or snow pack in the So Cal area for this year? Trying to plan last minute gear needs and water source info. I’m leaving in 6 days!
NEMO
first, thanks for all the great information. i thru-hiked the pct in 2004, and as you probably know, snow was a complete non-issue. we had a gigantic melt in march and april, and we left KM around june 8 and had snow only on north sides of passes and on muir. simple stuff.
however, i’m planning to leave kings canyon in mid june on a month long 200 mile hike in the high sierra, much off trail and above timberline. i’d wait a while in this high snow year, but i can’t due to scheduling conflicts with my hiking partner. so any and ALL advice on snow is good for me.
i will have my cassin ghost and grivel air tech crampons, poles with snow baskets, and neoprene socks under vasque velocity shoes. the rest will be as lightweight, thru-hiker style as possible. we’ll have to see how the melt shapes up, but i am hoping that since so much of the snow was later in the year that it didn’t have the full wintertime to consolidate as an early snowfall would. perhaps.
squeaky, you liked the grivel crampons, even on a trail shoe (not boot)? i’ve heard good things, and you can beat the 1 pound weight.
a question i have is whether it would make sense to carry some lighter snowshoes… such as northern lites backcountry rescues (sub 4 pounds). i guess i could bring them for the first chunk, and send them home from a bishop resupply.
mainly, i just want y’all to keep the good advice coming and the vibe NOT that everything’s scary and dangerous and can’t be done, but instead that there are solutions and safe techniques to follow and the high sierra with some snow is a beautiful, wonderful place to be.
dave t.
pct 2004
Dave T
When will first sets of PCT hikers be hitting the Jacinto area ? Im not thu-hiking but I live in So-Cal and I regularly hike in the Jactino/Gorgonio area, I could post conditions back here after kickoff day.
Last year (which was heavy snow) I managed to get by with neoprene socks/crampons on top of trail runners. and trekking poles in most places.
Willie.
Willie
Willie - Right about now the first few thru-hikers should be traversing San Jacinto.
Last year, Smack & I reached Deer Springs Trail near Fuller Ridge on April 22. There were only two PCT thru-hikers ahead of us at that point - the “Swiss couple.”
According to a post on the PCT-l, the snowpack on San Jacinto is currently only a fraction of what it was last year at this time.
If you have any current info, please post it.
Dave T - sorry that nobody answered your question. I just got back from a 5 day hike into the interior of Kauai - close to the summit of Mt. Waialeale (wettest spot on Earth).
I don’t have any snowshoe experience, but it sounds like you have a good plan by starting with them and then deciding whether or not to mail them home from Bishop. It will really depend on how much new snow there is when you start. Consolidated snow is quite easy to walk on without snowshoes, except for the suncups.
On any given day, the snow would normally be easiest to walk on in the morning. Sometimes the hot afternoon temps, can make the snowfield walking a nightmare. In '97 I always tried to walk over the high passes in the morning when the snow was firmest, and then camp just below tree-line - setting up for the next high pass.
Since you will be off-trail and above treeline much of the time, you may need the snowshoes for the hot afternoons…
Have a great hike!
freebird
i am not sure about northern lites snowshoes. they are really light but i am not so sure they have crampons. you will need full crampons and crampons on the rails for grip with traversing.
you will get away with smaller shoes for snow pack. 25 inch should be fine. you will fly across snow pack on snow shoes.
grivel airtechs worked great witn trail runners.
:cheers
squeaky
squeaky.
thanks for the advice. a coupla questions:
did you use the antibot plates on your air techs?
where did you store them in/on your pack? any ideas to keep the semi-sharp points from damaging the pack or other stuff in the pack?
right on.
dave.
Dave T