Starting a thru-hike

[smj24821]

Hey everyone. It's been very difficult to find info about start dates for thru-hikers. My girlfriend and I have off from work in February and March of 2016 and were thinking of hiking the AZT. We were planning to start in the south and go northbound. Is it feasible to start at the southern terminus on February 1st and not get crushed by snow and cold temps in the mountains? If not, what are the best times to start?

[Sredfield]

"Best" start time is said to be St Patrick's day, i.e.,mid-March, adjusted a week or so either way depending on the trend in the year. In 2010 I started then, took a month off mid-way due to an injury, and finished in early June. Weather could not have been more perfect but for the 3 hours of rain in Saguaro NP. 2010 was a wet year, there was 4-5 feet of snow at Manning Camp, and early starters were bailing out south of Flagstaff because of 2 feet of snow on the level.

Unsolicited advice worth absolutely nothing--given the predictions of an el Nino year, later may be better than earlier for 2016.

[Farwalker]

April is good, this year we had over 70 starters
between March and April but April had the most rainfall. For the first time in 25 years we had swimming holes south of Parker lake and in the Santa Rita's. No telling what 2016 will be like.