[pct-l] Washington snow

[Eric Lee]

Diane wrote:
>
It seems conventional lore is to hurry so you out run the winter  
snows of Washington. But you don't want to be too early, either,  
because of leftover snow that hasn't melted yet. So what's the  
(tiny?) window when the coast is clear and the trail is snow-free  
enough for hiking?
>

In a normal year, most north-bound thru-hikers won't have to worry about
running into last year's snow in Washington.  The Washington PCT is usually
melted out by mid-July, with the exception of a few north ridge faces.  In a
heavy snow year, thru-hikers may very well have to struggle with snow in
Oregon (as happened last year) but Washington will still be pretty clear by
the time they get there, most likely.

(For reference, south-bound thrus traditionally start around June 15th in a
normal year and while they usually have to deal with a  lot of snow travel,
it's passable.)

The end of the hiking window when new snow comes is usually pretty final.
New snow is extremely difficult to make miles in, even with snowshoes,
because you don't walk on it so much as wade through it.  Plus, the fact
that there's new snow usually means there are winter storms that can be
extremely dangerous.  Sometimes a few thru-hikers sneak through the last
section on snowshoes but it's risky.

So, the bottom line is that the window for hiking Washington PCT (if you
don't want to deal with a lot of snow) is usually about mid-July to about
the end of September, plus or minus a couple of weeks on either end.

Eric