Pacific Crest Trail: unusually low snow

A trail that usually forces hikers to negotiate snow axes, icy passes, and careful timing is heading into April with many of its mountain sections already melting out early. On April 7, Postholer’s Pacific Crest Trail report said snow on or near the trail was running at 60% of average for the date. (postholer.com) The Pacific Crest Trail runs about 2,650 miles from the Mexican border to the Canadian border through California, Oregon, and Washington. In a normal year, that route depends on mountain snow acting like a slow-release reservoir, holding winter water high up and feeding creeks and rivers through summer. (pcta.org, ecology.wa.gov) This year, much of the West got precipitation without getting enough snow. Washington said April 8 that October through February precipitation was 104% of normal, but too much of it fell as rain, leaving the state with about half of its usual snowpack. (ecology.wa.gov) California’s picture is even starker. The California Department of Water Resources said on April 1 that the statewide snowpack was just 18% of average for that date, and surveyors at Phillips Station found no measurable snow during the state’s signature April 1 survey. (water.ca.gov) The snow did not just come in low; it disappeared early. California water officials said the Sierra Nevada snowpack likely peaked on or near February 24, about a month before the usual April 1 benchmark, after a record-hot March and warm late-February storms sped up the melt. (water.ca.gov) That changes the hiking calendar. Backpacker reported on March 26 that snow-water equivalent in the southern Sierra was at 66% of median and dropping fast, so many northbound hikers reaching Kennedy Meadows in late May or early June may see less intimidating snow than they would in a big year. (backpacker.com) It also shifts the problem north. The same Backpacker report said the Klamath basin in northern California was at 6% of the 30-year median snow-water equivalent, while Oregon’s Willamette and Deschutes basins were at 13% and 17%, which means later sections of the trail could trade snow hazards for dry creeks, heat, and smoke. (backpacker.com) Washington has already moved from warning to emergency. The Washington Department of Ecology declared a statewide drought emergency on April 8, saying drought is triggered when water supply falls below 75% of normal and that low snowpack, low streamflows, and early melt-off are raising concerns for farms, fish, and wildfire risk. (ecology.wa.gov) National reporting is drawing the same line between bare mountains and fire season. NPR reported on April 8 that the West just had one of its worst winters for snowpack on record, and United States Forest Service researchers said this year’s snow drought leaves many forests and grasslands more vulnerable to disturbances, including wildfire. (boisestatepublicradio.org, research.fs.usda.gov) So the Pacific Crest Trail could open up faster for hikers while the landscape around it gets more fragile sooner. A low-snow year can make a high pass easier in May, but it can also mean lower water, hotter afternoons, earlier fire restrictions, and a summer that starts feeling dangerous weeks ahead of schedule. (postholer.com, ecology.wa.gov, water.ca.gov)