Every year, there seems to be a series of questions via e-mail and forums about hiking the Colorado high country  in May and into early-mid June. Many of these questions are specifically hiking the Colorado Trail in May or June.

Northern Colorado (many areas where the CT/CDT goes through) is 130%+ snow pack this year as of May 1st:

However, it is one thing to see raw numbers and a graph, another thing to see a photo!

So here are some photos from May 15th.  Shown is my buddy Matt on a trail in the James Peak wilderness.    A good representation of what may be found at around 10k feet or so up near the Continental Divide in Colorado.

We headed back around 11:30 am as the snow was getting slushy. Makes for some relatively slow travel on skis. I can't imagine snowshoeing through this all day on a thru-hike.

Continue reading High Country in May at PMags.com.