Has anyone here attempted a SOBO starting after Labor Day?

[Marta]

I hiked a normal, leisurely pace of doing the Trail in 6 months, from July 3 - January 11, taking a week off over Christmas. Winter in the Southeast is much more about cold rain than about heavy snow. There are occasional heavy dumps of snow for which one might want snowshoes but freezing rain is much more common. MicroSpikes work well for that. It's usually possible to hop around and avoid the ice entirely, but that gets tedious after a while.

When I went over Max Patch it was 70 degrees. When I was going over Roan Mountain, it got down to zero. The snow was only about an inch deep, though. Starting through the Smokies not long before Christmas it was warm and sunny. Finishing it was raining so hard that the M&Ms in my deepest inner pocket got soaked and the colors ran. Don't think you'll only have true winter weather--you won't. But occasionally a few days of it will happen.

You'll be fine.

[DSettahr]

If you're the Dsettahr on the ADK forums and I'm recalling you correctly, you're very winter qualified. With your experience and a little luck in weather, I expect that you'll finish.

About all I can add to what you already know plus what's been said here is to try to carry as little weight as you safely can in Sept. so that you get south of the Whites and VT as quickly as you can. Speed at the beginning increases your odds of success. Don't forget, you can always have stuff mailed to you along the way. Some people mail themselves warmer clothes at the beginning of the higher peaks in the Whites and send them home later. If conditions turn nasty either in the north or south, be prepared to take a few days off till snowshoes/crampons/microspikes/warm sleeping bag, etc get mailed to you.

You'll enjoy TipiWalter's trip reports; he goes out into the Smokies 2 or 3 weeks at a stretch in all kinds of weather (with a HEAVY pack). Most thruhikers take a few zero days in town when conditions get bad down south then start up again when it warms.
You'll also enjoy the barefoot sister's book, http://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Siste.../dp/0811735303 Also, take a look at some trail journals of people that start out early NOBO to see what you might run into in the south, http://www.trailjournals.com/

Thanks. You're the second person so far in this thread that has recognized me from another forum. Apparently my reputation has preceded me.

I agree with the need to be flexible with regards to gear. I've got a good, willing support crew (my parents) that has offered to mail my resupplies as needed. I am hoping to invest in a lot of non-perishable food items in advance for resupplies, and also plan to sort gear and clothing (particularly cold weather gear) so that they can quickly and easily find any requested item and have it in the mail within a day or two.

[DSettahr]

Oh yeah, the link to the journal:
http://triplecrownoneyear.tripod.com/id22.htm

Thanks. I can see the content on that page, but much of the rest of the content (including where I assume your links for navigation are) are covered by advertisements for Tripod.

It sounds like you guys really lucked out with the weather in the Smokies. 60's in January?

[DSettahr]

I hiked a normal, leisurely pace of doing the Trail in 6 months, from July 3 - January 11, taking a week off over Christmas. Winter in the Southeast is much more about cold rain than about heavy snow. There are occasional heavy dumps of snow for which one might want snowshoes but freezing rain is much more common. MicroSpikes work well for that. It's usually possible to hop around and avoid the ice entirely, but that gets tedious after a while.

When I went over Max Patch it was 70 degrees. When I was going over Roan Mountain, it got down to zero. The snow was only about an inch deep, though. Starting through the Smokies not long before Christmas it was warm and sunny. Finishing it was raining so hard that the M&Ms in my deepest inner pocket got soaked and the colors ran. Don't think you'll only have true winter weather--you won't. But occasionally a few days of it will happen.

You'll be fine.

I agree- as I stated in an earlier post, I think that cold, rainy days ought to be a much greater concern than significant amounts of snowfall during my time frame. There is a chance that I might encounter deep snow. It is a certainty that I will encounter cold rain (and it won't just be once or twice).

[Venchka]

I agree- as I stated in an earlier post, I think that cold, rainy days ought to be a much greater concern than significant amounts of snowfall during my time frame. There is a chance that I might encounter deep snow. It is a certainty that I will encounter cold rain (and it won't just be once or twice).

Knowing and understanding that puts you light years ahead of the clueless & unprepared.

Rock & Roll! Have a great hike. Looking forward to your Trip Journal.

Wayne

[SteelCut]

I'm looking forward to following your adventures.

[rafe]

Cold rain is a certainty for any AT thru-hike. Well, as certain as you can be without a direct line to g*d.

Average weather conditions are not very meaningful. One needs to be prepared for extremes. Near 80F Tuesday afternoon, freezing rain on Wednesday night. Welcome to early April in Georgia.

Sounds like the OP knows his stuff. Read lots of journals, follow the threads. Thru-hiking is different from peakbagging. And different from what Tipi Walter does.

Heck you might even take a poke at the AT Game -- http://www.atthruhike.com/. Kinda silly, but could be instructive too. Many ways to "die."

One more reference source for you: "Hiking The Appalachian Trail", James Hare, Ed., Rodale Press 1975. 2000 pages of AT journals from long before the Internet. Real AT pioneers.

Jim Shattuck did an August sobo departure, arrived Springer the following May. His story starts on P. 593 with a harrowing scene of near-death in a blizzard on March 1 on Sinking Creek Mtn. in VA. (Not a very high or remarkable mountain.)

[Marta]

As with any other thru-hike, people focus on the physical and underestimate and brush off the mental and emotional challenges.

The two biggies for winter hiking, even on the AT in the South are solitude and an exaggerated perception of danger.

Every year there are people who post on WhiteBlaze that they're going to start their NOBO hikes on Jan. 1 because they want solitude. Even if being alone in the dark in the woods day after day doesn't freak them out, they realize that they just don't enjoy it. After not too many days they decide this is not a fun way to spend their time, and quit. The hike just wasn't what they expected. (Credit to Bill Bryson.) If you've never tried being alone for long stretches of time, you don't really know whether you'll like it or not. Some love it. Most decide they don't.

Extreme weather conditions also freak some people out. Heavy rain. High winds. Any snow at all. I've been around people on the AT who start to panic when their hands get numb from cold. Instead of calmly taking steps to warm up their hands, they freak out. (I particularly liked the guys in Kentucky who burned their clothes for warmth, wasn't that last winter?)

It doesn't sound as if you're going unarmed into either of these battles.

I found the Southern Highlands to be quite beautiful in the winter. (I lived in North Carolina for a dozen years before I moved to Montana.) The ice that crystalizes around the openings of rodent holes. The way you can judge temperature by the curl of rhododendron leaves. The lushness of moss and lichens in the Nantahala. The clear springs and streams and abundant water. There are some awesome places (Overmountain Shelter and Max Patch come to mind) to see meteors streaking across the sky.

I'm getting nostalgic here. Have a great hike!

[rafe]

What Marta said. Loneliness is a big deal for sobos. Night after night alone in the woods or in a shelter gets old.

[takethisbread]

I have attempted this in the past. I didn't make it. I will say that expect a ton of rain! I can't remember many good days and under those conditions maine through Vermont were and can be brutal. I decided at some point that I wanted to enjoy a thruhike and went back and did it at the popularly prescribed times. It was worth the wait


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[rafe]

Every year there are plenty of slow SOBOS who finish in winter conditions. You will just be overtaking them. Sounds like a great adventure to me. By the way, if there is a snowflake in the air the SNP is likely to be closed to car traffic -- but walking through is just fine. Good luck to you and tell us your story.

I suspect it's the majority of SOBOs who finish in winter, not just the slow ones. That's because they start in June and July, as opposed to NOBOs who a few months earlier. I hiked SOBO for several hundred miles in '07, apparently ahead of the pack. Two of them overtook me in early September in SNP. From Waybesboro to Catawba, I pretty much had the trail to myself.

I certainly don't mean to suggest that the trail will be covered in deep snow from Maine to Georgia. But it will be a tough slog. SOBO is hard core to begin with, and starting so late makes it that much more so. Cold rain, slush and ice can be worse than deep snow. Even the Barefoot Sisters put on shoes when ice became the prevalent condition.

[Another Kevin]

I have attempted this in the past. I didn't make it. I will say that expect a ton of rain! I can't remember many good days and under those conditions maine through Vermont were and can be brutal. I decided at some point that I wanted to enjoy a thruhike and went back and did it at the popularly prescribed times. It was worth the wait

I know that DSettahr's home ground is upstate NY. Vermont is very similar to the ADK's in a wet season. I'm sure that DSettahr is no stranger to prolonged cold rain and pools of quicksand on the trail, because I've hiked some of the places he has, at the same time of year (for instance, I attempted a SOBO thru of the Northville Placid Trail with a Columbus Day start). He's going in with his eyes open and some system for keeping his feet dry. He goes in some pretty goshdurned brutal conditions already..If he can, as he hopes, get clear of the above-treeline stuff before the heavy ice moves in, I'd figure his chances are pretty good.

Working in his favor is that nothing south of Vermont is anywhere near as technical as the Mahoosucs, the Whites, or the higher spots in the Greens. Or the ADK's for that matter. For my money, doing the 46 is technically a lot more difficult than doing the A-T, and doing them in winter is just an astonishing feat, and he's enough of a mountaineer to have done just that. A Winter 46'er is also perfectly capable of dealing with losing the trail in deep snow or poor visibility. Someone who can find his way into Allen, or the Seward Range, or the Santanonis and Couchsachraga in winter can surely find the A-T again after losing it.

I'll surely be interested in following his progress!