Any suggestions on a start date (at the Mexico border) for an AZT thru hike to avoid deep snow? Thanks!
Herman
Start date for thru hike
system
#2
As of last week Mt Lemmon ski valley was reporting around 80 inches. That’s at 9000 feet on the north-facing side. Obviously the south-facing slopes won’t hold nearly as much, especially as March wears on, at least assuming the storm track subsides a bit and/or the storms start to dump less snow and more rain. But this is probably not the year to plan on avoiding snow so much as coming prepared to deal with it, especially as you get farther north along the trail.
I wouldn’t start in March, nor later than the 3rd week of April. Somewhere in between might offer a reasonable balance between snow travel & desert travel concerns, although the latter may be more related to heat than availability of water following this wet winter.
blisterfree
system
#3
Thanks Brett. This is good, specific information. Wasn’t sure how long I could wait to start. Heat is better for me than deep snow.
Herman
system
#4
Howdy Herman.
The Mt Lemmon snowpack stats are probably inflated a bit, due to snowmaking and/or propaganda purposes. Still, area snow pillows are showing a good 4-5 feet at the highest elevations right now, maybe more given the current storm (I’m starting to lose track of storms at this point).
It’s probably worth keeping in mind that the length of time, in miles and days, that an AZT thru-hiker is exposed to the snow zone across southern Arizona is fairly minimal, but at the same time not to be underestimated, especially as the freeze/thaw cycles will quickly turn it into a postholing nightmare. (We’ve seen some of that on the GET, haven’t we? 
The good news is that posthole-grade snowpack sometimes doesn’t require more floatation than a 20" snowshoe would provide.
After Mt Lemmon, probably no more snow of concern until the north rim of GC. Anyone’s guess what that’ll look like this year, and probably not worth fretting over when planning an itinerary right now.
Enjoy the AZT. It’s almost like a real, honest-to-gosh long distance trail at this point!
blisterfree
system
#5
Actually… anyone care to make a prediction on what if any snowpack thru-hikers would be expected to find this spring (late April - early May) just north of the Mogollon Rim and around the San Francisco Peaks?
blisterfree