I inquired in the New England section about footwear before this trip.
It was an AMC trip. Sunday afforded nice warm weather. We were in microspikes from the start on the trail off the Kanc. As we were getting ready, one of the new Forestry officers stopped by and introduced himself. Very nice gent, very professional, I get the impression he really cares about his job and I liked the fact that officers are making a presence in the parking lots, since we all keep things in our vehicles we hope to see there when we get back.
The trail was in nice condition. There was snow, but not much of it.
The stream crossings had nice strong ice, the water levels weren't high, and all were easily crossed.
The trail up was in good condition with no blowdowns. Halfway up were switched to crampons, and I would suggest you do so as well. The ice was nice and plastic and held the crampons well. At the summit ridge, we kept our crampons on simply because we were too lazy to switch them off, but everyone else we met used microspikes the entire day. The chimney bypass was almost entirely clean of ice or snow!
We bumped into Michael Blair and Monica Trust on the ridge. Michael was in shorts. To each their own!
There is a lot of ice on the trail up, and I do suggest people wear crampons there. Not a lot of snow on the trails yet, nor on the ground in general.
Brian
It was an AMC trip. Sunday afforded nice warm weather. We were in microspikes from the start on the trail off the Kanc. As we were getting ready, one of the new Forestry officers stopped by and introduced himself. Very nice gent, very professional, I get the impression he really cares about his job and I liked the fact that officers are making a presence in the parking lots, since we all keep things in our vehicles we hope to see there when we get back.
The trail was in nice condition. There was snow, but not much of it.
The stream crossings had nice strong ice, the water levels weren't high, and all were easily crossed.
The trail up was in good condition with no blowdowns. Halfway up were switched to crampons, and I would suggest you do so as well. The ice was nice and plastic and held the crampons well. At the summit ridge, we kept our crampons on simply because we were too lazy to switch them off, but everyone else we met used microspikes the entire day. The chimney bypass was almost entirely clean of ice or snow!
We bumped into Michael Blair and Monica Trust on the ridge. Michael was in shorts. To each their own!
There is a lot of ice on the trail up, and I do suggest people wear crampons there. Not a lot of snow on the trails yet, nor on the ground in general.
Brian
