Great Divide Northbound Questions

[NevadaGravity]

So,
Riding the Great Divide New Mexico to Canada, when would you start?
Starting in New Mexico and riding to Alaska has been a dream of mine and it is going to happen this year.
Now I do not feel the need to stick to the trail just to complete my journey and I would like to start March 1st, if it is possible to ride the trail starting the 1st and not get stuck behind snow I would. Is it? when do the passes generally clear up?Also any advice on re routing to clear the snow would be helpful if not possible to use the trail.

Thanks NEVG

[mathieu]

I wouldn't start before half of May. In the north of New Mexico the route goes over 10,000 ft (Polvedera Mesa), over 11,000 ft (Brazos Ridge) and almost to 12,000 ft in southern Colorado (Indiana Pass). You can bypass each on pavement, but it would rob a lot of the route's main beauties. Also many passes in Montana and British Columbia don't clear before mid-June.

From reading many blogs and my own experience, I sketched a chart showing the time windows for going S-to-N and N-to-S in http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=Sh&page_id=310078&v=4z . Of course this is not rocket science.