I’m thinking of starting the AT in winter. What U think?
I don’t like crowds and like to go slow. Don’t like 20 mile days and don’t want to be racing the calander to New England. Or be sharing shelters with 400 others who started the same time as me.
It’ll be cold but how cold? Will the trail be passable in winter?
Bude
How early are you thinking of leaving? We left Jan. 31, 2000. Unfortunately, this was the year of the infamous Atlanta ice storm. The trail was completely covered in ice!
We were not very prepared for this… We needed crampons, which is quite unusual for Georgia, I’m told.
Anyway, I do not regret at all leaving when we did. We missed most “crowds,” although you always get a lot of weekenders and Boy Scouts when the weather gets nice… And we weren’t the only thru-hikers. Esp. b/c we hike slow, we were passed by a lot of the early-starters/fast hikers. Maybe you want a different trail if you are really seeking isolation.
In terms of “cold,” we were almost always warm when hiking. And I only recall a few days when it was too cold to stop for breaks. No matter when you leave you’ll probably get a snowstorm anyway.
I liked it b/c we avoided hot days for as long as possible. You do run the risk of making it to New England in time for the miserable black fly season. They are nasty! So, that’s something to consider as well.
Kimber “Linus”
Kimber “Linus”
Hiking in Winter is going to be a different and most likely a more difficult experience. Though Linus probably has more insight, hiking in the winter requires heavier gear, more food, and a much slower pace. Heavier gear includes heavy warm clothes, coats, warmer sleeping bags, snow shoes, crampons perhaps. More food: the average thruhiker burns 6000 cal per day in the summer. In the winter you can easily double that figure. Pace: eventhough you don’t want to hike 20 mile days, a 10 mile day is going to feel like a 20.
If your main concerns are people and racing to New England before winter hits, why don’t you jst hike in a different direction. We hiked SOBO last year and had a weeks at a time when our little group of four had shelters to ourselves. Of course we passed everyone going the other way, but that was mostly in Vermont when most of the masses had been weeded out. We were forced out of only one shelter and only because it was on a weekend. If you really want to avoid people, start somewhere in the middle. Go North, then come back and hike the other way.
If you’re up for the challenge, hike in the Winter.
Grimace
Grimace
You can get PLENTY of solitude going sobo. In fact, “Search” had a name for it: the sobo void.
Speaking of sobo’s, there were about 60 of us out there last summer. Shelters got plenty of use in New England, what with recreational hikers and nobos finishing up.
I hiked in solitude from Harpers Ferry to Springer (except for encounters with section hikers, etc). Days went by without seeing another hiker on the trail.
You might want to polish your distance hiking skills before jumping to the top level of difficulty.
Linguini
Don’t forget that most if not all hiker services will be closed including roads and shuttles through the passes. Might take a little more logistics than the average hike. Bruce up at 'Hikers in Gorham told us about a women who thru hiked north in the winter including the Whites. She had worldly mountaineering experience, went solo and did have a lot of trouble with broken gear, ice etc. Kind of like a horizontal Everest? Sounds fun though. Wish we had snow shoes in the Smokys.
Bushwhack
Bude go for it. It is an awsome experence. We did use four point campons and yaktrax three times, mostly around Newfound Gap. Yaktrax work great but you do need a strap across the toe area of you boot to keep them on. The right gear is the key to stay warm. We carried the thrid layer but never used them because as soon as we made camp we jumped into our sleeping bags-(cooked,eat,etc). You will stay warm walking but do try to stay dry. If we should thru hike again we would start in Jan. Plan your food drops carefully because a number of places will be closed. Good luck. comer & jean
Comer & Jean 5/20/02
I agree with most of what everyone has said so far. I like comer and jean feel that an early start is an awesome experience, but like everything, there are trade-offs. You don’t get to meet as many hikers when in the front, I started in part for the solitude which I got in spades, but coming from trail days this past weekend, I do feel that one of the gems of a thru-hike is the people you meet… On the flip-side however, you will meet others who start early and they’ll be very cool. Additionally, you’ll get more views, and I personally prefer hiking in cooler weather as it’s more comfortable (that is when your going not when you’re stopped) I could get away without carrying water in the cooler months as I sweated less. And my pack was not too heavy. The most important peice of gear to invest in if you decinde on an early hike is certainly the sleeping bag! Get a WARM one and you’ll be fine. After hiking, I recommend a high-quality down bag. Worth it! If you hike slow enough, you can avoid the black flies and have hikers catch up to you in the second half when you’ll most likely be getting a little less fond of all the solitude. I don’t recommend hiking into maine in June. About having less services available, B&B are right, but it kept me from spending money in the Shenandoahs and the Whites with the winter caretaker system was a unique experience. One I wouldnt trade. Bottomline: go for it if you want, you’ll have fun.
Sweeper
B+B
Come to think of it, the Southern views were mostly closed in by leaves in the summer…
Linguini
To respond to a few of the other comments:
There are fewer services open. But this forces you to stay out in the woods, which I think speeded up our adjustment to our great new life. You end up going into town a lot less in Georgia/N.C./Tennesee… which I would think makes it more like the southbounder experience – they are immediately hit w/ the 100-mile Wilderness. Also, we did not have any trouble resupplying. It just had to be carefully planned. We resupplied at Neels Gap, then Helen, Georgia, and then Franklin, N.C., if I am recalling correctly.
Clothing: What I carried in winter is exactly what I carried and needed in the Whites in July. If you pick your clothes carefully you’ll have enough layers for warmth without too much weight. Yes, your pack is heavier than a summer pack, but I still don’t think that 10-mile days felt like 20-milers (although maybe I should reread my journal. I miss the trail so much that I do not really remember anything “bad” about it! 
I’d agree that the sleeping bag is VERY important. We had 0 degree down bags and got in them as soon as we hit camp. I was never cold at night.
Lastly, I do not know when you are leaving or whether you are going north or south. But leaving when we did, Jan. 31, and headed north definitely did not require serious mountaineering experience. I can tell you that we don’t have it! And the only time I think our experience was truly “unsafe” was not having crampons leaving from Springer. We were very lucky in the Smokies and had great weather, but that’s another place on an early hike that you might need crampons/snowshoes, or something.
The other great thing about an early start is that you do not have to worry about making it to Whites or Katahdin before the bad weather hits.
Linus
Linus