The Calendar
of
Record

WHY
This calendar is designed for the four-season backpacker. This calendar anticipates important dates in the Sierra Nevada, from the beginning of Winter expectations of decreasing temps and increasing rains evolving into the fierce storms and hopefully deep snowpacks of Winter. Our calendar tracks the backpackers's year through the Spring Thaw into fine Summer conditions.

That's what this calendar is about, about information for proper gear selection and expectations for safety.

We look for the dates when changing conditions determine the density of our gear must increase from Summer into Fall, and finally Winter thickness gives way through the rising temps of Spring to the date we can finally begin stripping down to the thin Gear of Summer.

The points we transition to Fall and into Winter gear has been pushing later into each year just as Spring has started earlier and earlier over the past few decades.
The end result is that Winter has radically shortened.

This changes the dates when our trails and resupply spots open up, and when we can begin our long treks down the Sierra Crestline. It affects when we plan, pack, and send our resupply packages.

These changes up the odds for PCT hikers to finish in one longer and still lengthening Summer season.

But, these changes also up the odds for backpackers to get "caught-out" by unexpected "early" or "late" season" storms that in earlier times (ten-twenty years ago) would have been called, "normal."

Thus these calendars track the difference between "classic" Sierra seasonal conditions and the current conditions on the ground over as many years as I can watch the fun.

We will warn of the power of Nature as it's so beautifully expressed through Sierra Winters, profound Spring Thaws, & fierce Summer thunderstorms, while taking note of both its failures to produce expected precipitation, and the inevitable surprises such a complex system delivers.

We focus all this information on understanding how each year's specific character affects the openings and closing dates of the Sierra for PCT hikers, and everyone else.

2014 Calendar      2015 Calendar

2016 Calendar       2017 Calendar

2018 Calendar

2019 Calendar Index

If you have any interesting information, observations, or dates of note that should be on the calendar, let me know, and if they are pertinent to backpackers they go up.

Hiker1@TahoetoWhitney.com

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