Excerpts through June. Kearsarge to Sorora pass

[Jimr]

[balzaccom]

Amazing footage. It absolutely convinced me that I will never hike this trail in a single season. Both snow and water levels are way too much for me.

[Jimr]

the collapsing ice bridge actually made my heart stop for a second.

[Wandering Daisy]

I have been viewing the videos from "Restless Kiwi" too. She went through the Sierra a week or two ahead of these guys (and solo too) and the water crossings seemed significantly lower. She also made a huge effort to find a safe crossing, diverting miles sometimes.

Where does one find the actual dates on those videos?

I think most of us here will not hike the PCT in one season because we are too old and slow!

[Jimr]

I followed restless Kiwi through the same area. She's impressive. The vids were posted on June 8 and 19, so I can only assume the conditions were late May into mid-June. The high water in EP8 is what most impressed me. Play safe, plan smart. There's a hell of a lot of water coming down.

[Mike M.]

I watched both of the videos. Some really hairy stream crossings for sure. I came away feeling sorry for the guy -- the trek has become just a scary grind for him and despite his protests to the contrary, he's not enjoying himself. I wish he'd slow down and enjoy the moment. All that beauty but he has to make his miles.

Mike M.

[The Other Tom]

Where does one find the actual dates on those videos?

Unfortunately the actual dates are not available unless the person who makes the videos includes them in the description, or in the actual video. Sometimes they do, but most times not. Sometimes they will indicate a holiday, like mother's day or memorial day. Then you can count forward (or backward) to calculate the actual filming date. But you have to watch all their videos to catch that.
FWIW I also followed restless Kiwi and a few others. Amazing videos and they took risks I would not take.

[sekihiker]

I think most of us here will not hike the PCT in one season because we are too old and slow!

It's probably not a reasonable goal for those of us that are retired.

[c9h13no3]

I think most of us here will not hike the PCT in one season because we are too old and slow!

It's probably not a reasonable goal for people who have jobs, have spouses that don't go with them, want to see areas in peak season, don't like carrying tons of weight while they hike, ect. ect.

Fixt

[SSSdave]

Thanks Jim, watched both. Another thru hiker that offered few names to places they were passing through. Suspect many are unfamiliar with the range and may only look at their maps during nights and otherwise just follow boot tracks. Obviously they were among those moving through during the several May snow storms and that were followed by a couple weeks of afternoon thunderstorms. I sometimes caught glimpses of familiar peaks and places and noticed there were zones with long stretches without any videos. For instance after their Evolution Valley creek crossing, they cross the 3 bridges and the next one sees is crosses Bear Creek via the multi channel areas below where the trail crosses. Next was Silver Pass Creek where it crosses cliffs above the NF of Mono Creek.

Although he put a positive spin on it, it was obviously quite unpleasant at times. Wading ice cold water is very painful. His second video going through all the big creeks north of Tuolumne Meadows looked more painful. I liked that section across the bridge at 8k on the Tuolumne that required walking through dangerous strong flows beyond the normal end of the bridge. One fall there and one has little chance of surviving the cascades just below. During early summer when going down to Glen Aulin, the less dangerous route is crosscountry along the west side of the river from Pothole Dome.

In any case a monster accomplishment for their group to get through the range during this heavy snow year that included an unusually stormy May. Although he like some other PCT bloggers tend to praise the beauty during the snowy spring melt, I'd expect if they return some year mid August would like it a lot more.