Sooutbound lvng 6/19 too early?

imported
#1

Good folks:

My partner and i have finally figured out our work schedules and we can only do the trip this summer if we leave around 6/19. We’d ideally go southbound.

My questions to y’all are:

  1. Is that too early to go safely? I have (somewhat rusty) winter mountaineering and glacier travel skills, but i’m not looking to do a winter trip :slight_smile: and my partner doesn’t have the technical skills.

  2. Perhaps more to the point, what extra gear, if any, would we need to carry leaving 6/19, and what additional hazards would we need to worry about…

From what i can tell online, looks like the snowpack is below 50% of normal, so it seems like stream crossings wouldn’t be a huge problem (is that right?) So would the main concerns be storms? lingering low temps? Would we need to carry ice axes? crampons? winter-ish sleeping bags?

Sorry to be so clueless, really appreciate any wisdom y’all can offer.

thanks.

beans

beans

#2

As you already know, every year is different and the Sierras may still get snow. I’ll just share my experience. We hiked SOBO starting 6/6 in 2005 - a year with lots of late spring snow. We first ran into snow on Cathedral Pass, and at higher elevations afterwords. We didn’t have crampons or ice axes- nor did we need them. Hiking poles seemed to provide all the security and stability we needed.

Nights got cold - I had a 20 degree bag and was happy with that.

During the day temps were warm enough to hike in shorts - though the mosquitos were brutal!

Stream crossings are going to totally depend on the snow melt - Bear Creek was nasty for us. We discovered that putting our hands on each other’s shoulders and ‘crab walking’ was a much safer and stabler way to cross.

Have an amazing trip!

Tumblina

#3

The snow can cover the trail at higher elevations, but we found the Harrison maps were plenty helpful for finding the right direction. An altimeter was also handy as we could use our elevation to guage our location on the map.

Tumblina

#4

beans-

I started a thread on TF’s last year which covered most of the challenges of the High Sierra - many former thru-hikers shared their experiences. Search for “Sierra Snow Strategy”. So far there is very little snow-pack, so barring a late season storm, you’ll probably be fine starting in mid June. Mosquitoes may be your biggest challenge…

freebird

#5

freebird -

that thread is incredibly useful. thank you.

beans