Kearsarge North Mountain via Kearsarge North Trail
Date of Hike: Saturday, December 13, 2008
Trail Conditions: Loose granular, frozen granular, crust, ice, wet trail
Special Equipment Required: Barebootable to col, Microspikes needed to get to tower (Stablicers probably wouldn't have been enough to grip above 3,100' or so)
Comments:
By the looks of the trail and the log book, I was perhaps the first person up there in almost a week.
Parking lot is *not* plowed - most people parked roadside.
Trail fortunately didn't get hit too hard by the ice storm. I was able to clear and/or cut up all of the blowdowns (decent amount nonetheless, but not nearly as bad as I expected).
Breakable crust (sink maybe an inch) most of the way (heavy trail usage as I type this, so it's turning into loose granular) with some bare wet areas and some ice covered sections (easy to get around down low).
Not much ice on the trees until above the col.
Bulletproof surface on the ledges just below the tower - Microspikes came in handy.
Due to the moisture, the door is a bit warped. After eating a sandwich, I discovered that I couldn't pull it open - had hop out of a window! Chipped the ice off the doorframe after, so hopefully no one else will have that same fate.
Snowpack ranges from 0" (bare spots washed out during storm), to 6-18" or so, the higher amounts near the summit.
Your name: rocket21
Your E-mail address: [email protected]
Date of Hike: Saturday, December 13, 2008
Trail Conditions: Loose granular, frozen granular, crust, ice, wet trail
Special Equipment Required: Barebootable to col, Microspikes needed to get to tower (Stablicers probably wouldn't have been enough to grip above 3,100' or so)
Comments:
By the looks of the trail and the log book, I was perhaps the first person up there in almost a week.
Parking lot is *not* plowed - most people parked roadside.
Trail fortunately didn't get hit too hard by the ice storm. I was able to clear and/or cut up all of the blowdowns (decent amount nonetheless, but not nearly as bad as I expected).
Breakable crust (sink maybe an inch) most of the way (heavy trail usage as I type this, so it's turning into loose granular) with some bare wet areas and some ice covered sections (easy to get around down low).
Not much ice on the trees until above the col.
Bulletproof surface on the ledges just below the tower - Microspikes came in handy.
Due to the moisture, the door is a bit warped. After eating a sandwich, I discovered that I couldn't pull it open - had hop out of a window! Chipped the ice off the doorframe after, so hopefully no one else will have that same fate.
Snowpack ranges from 0" (bare spots washed out during storm), to 6-18" or so, the higher amounts near the summit.
Your name: rocket21
Your E-mail address: [email protected]
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