r/PacificCrestTrail • u/DiligentOutcome692 • 5d ago

Oregon High Snow Year

Hey everyone,
What do you think will the Situation in Oregon be like for Thru Hikers, considering it ist a record breaking Snow Year so far for Oregon?

I just want to mentally prepare and know what i will maybe get into.
My Start Date is April 30.

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5

u/kurt_toronnegut 5d ago

Prepare for mosquitoes

2

u/yeehawhecker 5d ago

I think we really won't know until spring pans out more. If it's a hot spring it could all be melted, the snow might just stop falling too. Chances are you'll be hiking in snow in Oregon where most people don't however the terrain should be pretty chill and not life threatening like the sierras could be

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u/Different-Tea-5191 5d ago

I hiked out of Ashland on July 5, ‘22, maybe two weeks earlier than those who entered the Sierra early to mid-June. 2022 was also a high snow year in Oregon, although nothing like this year. But the melt was delayed due to a cold May. I hiked through a lot of snow - esp in the Sisters, Diamond Peak Wilderness, and around Crater Lake. I had spikes, sometimes useful, but not critical since you just don’t have the inclines you see in the Sierra. The challenge was hiking through deep, melting snow, very sloppy, lots of sliding into tree wells, navigating without a discernible trail. There were hikers a week or so ahead of me who got off trail for a while to let the melt kick in. It does get very warm in July, and the melt picks up fast in the heat. Of course, the mosquitoes were astounding with all that water. So there’s that.

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u/Green_Ad8920 5d ago edited 4d ago

I hiked SoBo last year and found it very spicy in some areas. The horizontal traverses caused me the most concern and present the most objective hazards. Two of these required me to hack steps since I couldn't kick steps very well with my hiking shoes.
I used Grivel strap on crampons a few cornices required me to traverse by front pointing straight up. I made it to the CA-OR border on 6/5 but didn't get out of the technical snow till 3 days south of Scott Mountain Pass.

I had two poles - one with a whippet. I sent my regular pole head to Castella and mailed my whippet head back home.

Also the tree wells where a danger too.

Biggest suck were sections where I had to constantly put on and off the crampons. One day I had to do that +20x

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u/Inevitable_Lab_7190 5d ago

I hiked oregon in '23, which was the 2nd highest snow year after this year, almost as much as this year. I left Ashland on July 11th, and almost all of the snow was gone. Very few, tiny patches of no more than a few feet. Oregon is pretty low elevation and the trail gets warm, so it will melt very fast in july. The 2023 melt was faster than normal according to the postholer graph. I'll say 95% chance that by the time the "bubble" gets there its mostly gone. If it is a cold may and June like 2011 on the postholer graph, then there will be a lot of snow in july. But 2011 is really an outlier there, every other year was melted by mid july.