JMT – Fall hike – Microspikes?

Disclaimer: I have zero snow travel experience.

I don’t think microspikes do anything on unconsolidated snow.

Yeah, microspikes aren’t going to help you on fresh snow.   The only think that would help you travel faster in a major snowfall is snowshoes.   But before considering snowshoes, really the first sensible things to carry are extra food and adequate non-minimal shelter & clothing so that you can hunker down and survive a storm and the subsequent days of slower slog to get out.

The degree of risk depends on your finish date, not your start date.   If you’re planning to do it in a week, the risk is small.    If you’re going slowly over three weeks into early Oct, without seeing a weather forecast for the entire time, it starts to becomes significant.

It’s less risky going northbound – easier and more frequent escape routes in the northern section.

If you haven’t read Jorgen’s report on his thru hike of the JMT in October you should.

Report

The NOBO suggestion makes a ton of sense to me. I’m pretty sure that mid-September permits should be fairly easy to snag.

Fluffy snow on the JMT will only stay fluffy for a couple of hours or maybe a half day in any part of September. After that, everyone who proceeded you will have turned it into packed snow; some freeze/thaw cycles will turn some portion of that into ice. It’ll still be a trail though, not sloped drifts pushing you out into nothing.

Thank you all. Very helpful.