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Thru-hiking in a Big Snow Year: Hikers who have been there share their tips

This event is over but you can watch the recording below.

PCT , JMT, and CDT Thru-hikers share their safety, gear, and morale tips for hiking in big snow years

Renee “She-ra” Patrick has been hiking long-distance trails since her first backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail in 2002. She is a triple-crown hiker (Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and Continental Divide Trail) and started Long Distance Trail Consulting company to guide long-distance trail organizations and developers to improve the hiking experience and inspire action on behalf of the environment. When she isn’t thru-hiking she can be found packrafting, cross-country skiing, or just forest bathing. Big snow years hiked: PCT 2006, CDT 2015

Kate "Drop N Roll" is a mechanical engineer by day and a thru-hiker, alpine climber, ski and snowshoe tourer by weekend. Kate has thru-hiked 10,000 miles including the Pacific Crest Trail and Continental Divide Trail and routes including the Hayduke Trail, Oregon Desert Trail and Sierra High Route. She also has alpine ascents of numerous Cascade Volcanoes, including Mt. Hood and Rainier. Kate is formerly President of the ALDHA-West (American Long Distance Hiking Association - West) and board member. She regularly runs educational events and clinics, teaching new backpackers how to get outdoors safely. She considers her most significant achievement as being the 2-time gold medalist of the ALDHA-West Hiker Olympics.

Danielle “Giggles” O’Farrell (she/they) lives in Oakland (Ohlone land), where she teaches wilderness first aid classes with her company With The Wild Things. Her favorite local hikes take her up Mt. Tamalpais or Mt. Diablo and offer sweeping views of the Bay Area. Aside from hiking locally, Danielle began centering her life around long distance hiking after her Pacific Crest Trail hike in 2017 and has gone on to hike the Southern Sierra High Route to the Sierra High Route (’18), Lowest to Highest (‘18), Continental Divide Trail (’19), the Wind River High Route (’19) and the Tahoe Rim Trail (’22). While thru-hiking, they love skinny-dipping in alpine lakes, hiking uphill as quickly as possible, basking in the alpenglow, and searching for the best brownie sundaes in trail towns.

Moderated by: Liz “Snorkel” Thomas is Editor-in-Chief at Treeline Review and will moderate the event. Snorkel is a Triple Crowner who once held the women’s self-supported record on the Appalachian Trail. She’s also author of Long Trails: Mastering the Art of the Thru-hike, which won the National Outdoor Book for Best Instructional Book. Snorkel tries to avoid thru-hiking during high snow years, but once made the strange decision to join a friend for the San Juan mountains section of the CDT in 2016.