ac_unit Snow
Using the NOAA calendar, a snow cycle begins October 1st and ends September 30th. Also, USFS trail closures due to fire typically expire on October 31st. So October is a time to mark the end of an annual hiking season.
Fall 2025
The first snow on late season 2025 hikers in Section L occurred October 12th when it snowed 8” in one day then stopped. That snow was almost melted away by Oct 18th when the real winter snowfall began and continued in earnest. Other sections also had a "false start" to winter snow. for Lyman Lake (Suiattle Pass) that was also on Oct 12th. For Stevens Pass it was Oct 26th.
Snowpack
2026 had an unusual distribution of snow over the winter; The snow pack was below average across the length of the PCT in WA except in Section L where it was above normal. The snowpack peaked on March 15th. That day it was in the 90th percentile at Harts Pass, exactly in the median at Lyman Lake (Suiattle Pass), and only in the 20th percentile at Stevens Pass. The snowpack was even thinner further south. Three times after the annual peak there were significant snowfalls that interrupted the melt by adding to the spring snowpack. The third and last spring snowfall ended May 17th.
Spring melt
The Harts Pass sensor was the last to zero out on June 13th. Persistent snowfields in Sections L and K were not 95% gone until after the July 4th weekend. Then hiking the PCT without spikes or axe was the norm (with the exception of Old Snowy Mtn).
block Flood and Slide Damage
December 10th brought the second heaviest rainfall in recent history causing widespread flooding and landslides. From November to March wave after wave of “atmospheric rivers” of Pacific moisture saturated the earth causing more floods and landslides. Some of the damage was immediately known, still more was yet to be discovered.
As we waited for the snow to melt more and more reports of severe road damage due to winter floods trickled in. The 2026 flooding was so bad that major highways suffered multiple points of damage including US-2 both east and west of Stevens Pass, Interstate-90 near Bellingham, and SR-20 (North Cascades Highway) was damaged in at least six places.
The Lion’s Den experienced flooding from December through March. (Kind volunteers helped repair some of the damage on June 9th).
Most of the Forest Service roads that give access to the PCT were closed due to flood damage when the hiking season began. The most severely damaged was Suiattle River Road which is a critical access point for Section K. Those FS road closures left only one way to access remote section K: Sauk River Trail.
Crews worked from both sides to clear SR20 of snow and they met each other at milepost 157 on April 16th. But on the way they discovered multiple rock slides and washouts that needed repair before the road could open. The WA DOT anticipated it would take until the end of June to repair it all, but they finished early and opened the highway the morning of Friday June 19th.
Harts Pass Road was also damaged and there was widespread concern that it would not open in time for southbound thru hikers to begin their ~2-3 day trek northbound to start from the Canada border as early as June 15th. A few of those hikers (like Jun15 starter Conrad K.) had to use the Robinson Creek Trail alternate route to reach the PCT at Castle Pass.
On June 21st Harts Pass Road repairs were complete and a very smooth new road was opened. The Lion’s Den took their first load of hikers to Harts Pass on June 23rd. Winter storms destroyed Stehekin's water treatment plant when Purple Creek flooded very close to the dock. That impacted many of the services hikers rely on as Stehekin is a key rest and resupply stop for them. The North Cascades Lodge at Stehekin announced on May 7th that it would not open to the public for any level of service in 2026.
The popular alternate route over Cloudy Pass to Holden was also impacted; Railroad Creek Road to Lucerne suffered 11 washouts and Holden Village was closed to visitors. The route was still possible for people willing to hike the entire way to Lake Chelan (In August this route was officially closed due to fire for a time).
Blowdowns
We received multiple confirmations that not only was Section K still littered with blowdowns from previous years, but a high-blowdown winter had impacted many sections of trail, even those cleared last year.
Trail Conditions
June 20th Jeremy B. posted the first trail report from Section L, still mostly snow covered and with many blowdowns between Castle Pass and the border, and still more around Holman Pass. He also confirmed the trail washout south of Methow Pass, first reported June 14th. He gave us the first report from Section K on July 1st. More to come...
Miraculously, no trail bridges were damaged in the winter storms.
local_fire_department Fire
The 2026 fire season began on July 14th when an afternoon lightning storm sparked multiple fires. Those included the Luna fire in North Cascades National Park west of Ross Lake, the Border 2 fire which would grow to engulf the Hozomeen ranger station and Canada border monument 72. The Three Queens fire which would grow to close the south end of Section J, and the Little Giant fire, which would spread eastward all the way to Lake Chelan and grow to more than 300 square miles. Two days later on July 17th the Ptarmigan fire was discovered 4.2 miles east of Hopkins Pass. This fire would later cause all of Section L to close. It was first seen as a single burning tree.
Section H
On July 22nd the Skyo fire started less than 3 miles SW of Packwood. On August 5th Packwood was again threatened by the Backbone fire on the west side of the Ohanapecosh River near where highway 12 intersects with highway 123. Both fires were aggressively and successfully contained without impact to hiking logistics.
Section J
When a fire gets big enough, its given its own dedicated firefighting team and the USFS creates a Facebook page dedicated to that one fire. The Three Queens fire got its own page on July 25th ten days after it was detected. At that point it was a small fire on a peak between Hibox Lake and the north tip of Kachess Lake but close to homes and parks. The only impact to the PCT was the closure of a rarely used access trail along Mineral Creek to Park Lakes. On Aug 7th high winds began spreading the Three Queens fire eastward (away from the PCT). Homes on Lake Kachess were evacuated the following day. The fire had jumped to the east side of the lake by the 9th.
On Aug 9th the Okanogan-Wenatchee NF issued a widespread closure of all trails east of the PCT. The PCT itself was the border of the closure area from Ridge Lake to Lemah Creek. This seemed like an unnecessarily broad order since the fire had not moved toward the PCT at all. The PCTA posted this closure as an alert on their closure page. Many people perceived that alert as a closure of the PCT and caused confusion and misinformation on social media (another reason to simply link to the source and not offer commentary on it).
But that section was, in fact, closed on Aug 11th by the Mt Baker-Snoqualmie NF. The PCTA posted a detour using Snow Lake and the Middle Fork Snoqualmie River. They also posted a planned closure of Snow Lake Trail from Sep 14 to Sep 25th.
The worst case scenario occurred on August 19th when fire broke out directly on the PCT. The King fire re-burned an area left by the 2009 Lemah fire. It spanned from the shore of Spectacle Lake NE to Pete Lake and up to Escondido Ridge.
The Gamma Creek fire was detected on August 23rd. It closed the main road used to access the middle of Section J at Cathedral Pass and Deception Pass near Hyas Lake.
Section K
Fire first impacted Section K mid August when the Miners and Sisi fires both started on the 14th. The Miners fire was detected on the north slope above the Suiattle Bridge, and the Sisi fire south of the Stehekin River and east of Agnes Gorge. The next day the PCT was closed from Mica Lake to Suiattle Pass and a week later from Suiattle Pass to High Bridge. Either of these closures effectively closed Section K north of the Sauk River, the only viable exit. While the portion from High Bridge to State Route 20 was technically open, there was no route to Stehekin from the PCT because the upper third of the Stehekin Valley Road was also closed. Hikers seeking routes between Stehekin and SR20 used Rainbow Lake or McAlester Pass - both beautiful alternates.
Section L
More to come...
Fall Weather
August was a beautiful month for hiking. The last T-shirt day of hiking was Aug 26th. Then temperatures dropped faster than usual. It dipped below 40F for the first time on August 28th. The 29th and 30th were oddly cold days that got down to 34F and never got above 43F. The following two days (8/31 & 9/1) enjoyed a high of 60F.
A chilly September
Then temperatures crept down again and hit freezing for the first time at 7:00AM Sept 3rd, and again on the 4th leaving thick morning frost. Temperatures stayed between 35F and 47F until Sept 6th when daytime temperatures were again in the 50's, which is more normal for September. Night time dips to 35F are also typical, as on Sept 11th.
Sept 13th had an unusual heavy snowstorm in a few very localized spots above 6,000 feet where it remained below freezing even as Pacific moisture brought up to an inch of rain. The lowest temperature aligned with peak precipitation at about 8:00 AM Sunday. Rain that Sunday and Monday helped suppress wildfires.
After 9/13 temperatures stayed low and oddly flat between 37F and 49F. To date snow and frost have not survived past mid day except in those very small areas that saw deep snow on 9/13.
What's typical?
Focusing on Section L here, the 50 year average for when the first inch of Snow accumulates is October 25th. Every year has gotten snow by November 2nd. 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2020 all saw early October snow that melted away within a week or two, then the real winter snows came later. The earliest snowfall that did not melt away, but continued to deepen was Oct 12th, 2021 and Oct 14th, 2017