Snow Free? SOBO thru-hike

[Swiz]

I'm planning a Sobo thru-hike this spring and wanted to know, what month/time of the spring season I would most likely find a snow free trail - also if anyone knows of any resources to track snowpack condtions. Thanks in advance

[rcorfman]

I don't know your reasons for wanting to go sobo in the spring instead of the fall, but I'd suggest rethinking that. There're good reasons why people go nobo in the spring and sobo in the fall.

[chumley]

The North Rim opens on May 15th. Sometimes the snow has melted before it opens, sometimes it hasn't. But it's nice to use that as a guide to when there will be services available.

Winter snowpack in Arizona is highly variable.

There are a handful of automated snow-depth stations in Arizona. You can find them at this website which will show you current snow-depth as well as a few other variables such as percent of normal (which can help you determine how things are going based on reports from previous years).

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/snow_map.html

[Swiz]

@chumley
thanks that helps