btausend
New member
Date of Hike: December 7, 2013
Trail Conditions: We parked at the Flume Vistor's Center parking lot and walked the Bike trail in instead of taking the Whitehouse trail to the Bike trail. The Bike trail is thinly covered in ice. The lower part of Liberty Springs and the Flume Slide trails are a mix of snow, ice, dirt, leaves and water. I lost track, but there are about 7 or 8 river crossings on the Flume Slide trail. The third has a decent snow bridge safe for crossing. The fourth crossing is partially bridged, but not safe for crossing. It can be rock hopped. The other crossing were wide open and easy to cross. We were able to rock hop them and the rocks were not cover in ice. Two of the crossing had log bridges. There are significant ice floes on the slide which is why we did this hike. The Franconia Ridge trail is a combination of hard packed snow (not much of it) and ice. As we headed down Mt Liberty towards the Liberty Springs trail we encountered a lot of ice on the trail and that ice continued a long way down the Liberty Springs trail. The ice was pretty hard and it was tough to get a good bite with our Microspikes. It slowed us down a lot and we ended up hiking on the side of the trail, on the rocks, etc to try and get some good footing. There was one tree down across the Franconia Ridge trail near Mt Liberty which was easy to get over or around.
Special Equipment Used: We used trekking poles and traction for the whole hike. Crampons are a necessity for the ice floes and ice axes were helpful. We got by with Microspikes for the rest of the hike, but crampons would be a good choice on the upper sections of the Liberty Springs trail. There is not enough snow yet for snowshoes.
Comments: A really good snow storm would improve the trail conditions. We'll see what Monday brings.
Brian Tausendfreund
Trail Conditions: We parked at the Flume Vistor's Center parking lot and walked the Bike trail in instead of taking the Whitehouse trail to the Bike trail. The Bike trail is thinly covered in ice. The lower part of Liberty Springs and the Flume Slide trails are a mix of snow, ice, dirt, leaves and water. I lost track, but there are about 7 or 8 river crossings on the Flume Slide trail. The third has a decent snow bridge safe for crossing. The fourth crossing is partially bridged, but not safe for crossing. It can be rock hopped. The other crossing were wide open and easy to cross. We were able to rock hop them and the rocks were not cover in ice. Two of the crossing had log bridges. There are significant ice floes on the slide which is why we did this hike. The Franconia Ridge trail is a combination of hard packed snow (not much of it) and ice. As we headed down Mt Liberty towards the Liberty Springs trail we encountered a lot of ice on the trail and that ice continued a long way down the Liberty Springs trail. The ice was pretty hard and it was tough to get a good bite with our Microspikes. It slowed us down a lot and we ended up hiking on the side of the trail, on the rocks, etc to try and get some good footing. There was one tree down across the Franconia Ridge trail near Mt Liberty which was easy to get over or around.
Special Equipment Used: We used trekking poles and traction for the whole hike. Crampons are a necessity for the ice floes and ice axes were helpful. We got by with Microspikes for the rest of the hike, but crampons would be a good choice on the upper sections of the Liberty Springs trail. There is not enough snow yet for snowshoes.
Comments: A really good snow storm would improve the trail conditions. We'll see what Monday brings.
Brian Tausendfreund
