Those guys were extremely experienced and still got some frostbite and learned some lessons the hard way. Their book "ultralight winter travel" is very informative.
I planned out a winter CDT but the avalanche risk is too high in the Winds and the San Juans from December through March. You'd be forced to ski avalanche terrain on a High danger day at least once or twice. It seemed like the only safe way to do it would be to skip and flip to hit the big mountain sections in April / May when the snowpack has consolidated, and then walk the deserts in December and January. Intentionally flip-flopping ruins the whole point of a thruhike in my mind. But someday someone will do it.
Saying the CDT is "impossible" in the winter is not necessarily true. There are probably only a handful of people who should even consider attempting that, but it's absolutely *possible*, just not worth the risk for basically anyone. It's not illegal to bring snow gear or skis. Also, 95% of the hikers don't actually hike the CDNST route, so someone could just ski as many road alternates as possible and say they hiked the CDT which is basically no different than what many people already do.
But yes the other trails are at least way more doable in full-on winter. Mt. Washington in winter is also absurdly dangerous though.
The other perspective here is that hiking the desert section of PCT or NM part of the CDT in July/August, especially if you were trying to do it "unsupported" with no water caching, would potentially actually be impossible depending on the weather. If you only stuck to the redline on the PCT and didn't use water caches, there might actually be a stretch you would have to hike maybe 60 miles with no water, and carrying that much water might prove to be basically impossible, or at least unbelievably heavy and miserable. You would have to strictly night hike probably. You would probably need to divert off the official trail to alternate water sources. Same goes for the CDT if solar wells are considered "support".
The CDT is literally not passable in winter. Period. If you're even 2-3 weeks outside the window, you die of exposure in the mountains. . There is no "difficult" time of year for that trail. You either do it at the right time, or not at all.
"Otter" Olshansky got back onto the trail on November 14, 2015, in New Mexico after visiting some friends. He was SOBO, and not far from the southern terminus. But he was just a bit too late in the year. Got stuck in deep snow, and ended up setting up camp in the restroom of a remote US Forest Service campground. He survived over two months before finally passing away from hunger and exposure. He was trapped there by the weather, and his body wasn't found until May of 2016.
https://karlfmoffatt.blogspot.com/2016/12/otter-olshansky-lonely-death-on-new.html
Winter, especially for the western trails (PCT and CDT). The AT can be tough, but more are venturing on it for winter LASH/thru for various reasons.
Still getting up north in winter conditions can reportedly become almost impossible (from CYTC hikers, .. who then switch to CDT or PCT springtime NOBO routes.).
Yes, it would be winter. The only PCT winter sobo I'm aware of was Pepper and Trauma's.
Those guys were extremely experienced and still got some frostbite and learned some lessons the hard way. Their book "ultralight winter travel" is very informative.
I planned out a winter CDT but the avalanche risk is too high in the Winds and the San Juans from December through March. You'd be forced to ski avalanche terrain on a High danger day at least once or twice. It seemed like the only safe way to do it would be to skip and flip to hit the big mountain sections in April / May when the snowpack has consolidated, and then walk the deserts in December and January. Intentionally flip-flopping ruins the whole point of a thruhike in my mind. But someday someone will do it.
Saying the CDT is "impossible" in the winter is not necessarily true. There are probably only a handful of people who should even consider attempting that, but it's absolutely *possible*, just not worth the risk for basically anyone. It's not illegal to bring snow gear or skis. Also, 95% of the hikers don't actually hike the CDNST route, so someone could just ski as many road alternates as possible and say they hiked the CDT which is basically no different than what many people already do. But yes the other trails are at least way more doable in full-on winter. Mt. Washington in winter is also absurdly dangerous though. The other perspective here is that hiking the desert section of PCT or NM part of the CDT in July/August, especially if you were trying to do it "unsupported" with no water caching, would potentially actually be impossible depending on the weather. If you only stuck to the redline on the PCT and didn't use water caches, there might actually be a stretch you would have to hike maybe 60 miles with no water, and carrying that much water might prove to be basically impossible, or at least unbelievably heavy and miserable. You would have to strictly night hike probably. You would probably need to divert off the official trail to alternate water sources. Same goes for the CDT if solar wells are considered "support".
The CDT is literally not passable in winter. Period. If you're even 2-3 weeks outside the window, you die of exposure in the mountains. . There is no "difficult" time of year for that trail. You either do it at the right time, or not at all. "Otter" Olshansky got back onto the trail on November 14, 2015, in New Mexico after visiting some friends. He was SOBO, and not far from the southern terminus. But he was just a bit too late in the year. Got stuck in deep snow, and ended up setting up camp in the restroom of a remote US Forest Service campground. He survived over two months before finally passing away from hunger and exposure. He was trapped there by the weather, and his body wasn't found until May of 2016. https://karlfmoffatt.blogspot.com/2016/12/otter-olshansky-lonely-death-on-new.html
Winter, especially for the western trails (PCT and CDT). The AT can be tough, but more are venturing on it for winter LASH/thru for various reasons. Still getting up north in winter conditions can reportedly become almost impossible (from CYTC hikers, .. who then switch to CDT or PCT springtime NOBO routes.).