NH Tramper
Member
Date of Hike: February 12, 2014
Trail Conditions: We took four up, two down, but that differed greatly from our original plan of an Adams-Jefferson loop. But I digress, here are the trail details: Airline was fresh looking for the day but well-packed underneath any windblown powder. No blowdowns that I recall. Randolph was essentially the same, the part we traveled that is. Shortline was even less packed and on it we were busting up six inches of powder, on average. Here, if memory serves, we encountered a walk-around blowdown. That was it for blowdowns going up; there were none on King Ravine Trail, though there were sections that were brushed in making passage thick and snowy -- tough. Also absent from the KRT was traffic apparently. We could tell people had been up there this winter, but actual sign was very limited at best. Our snow busting ran deeper on this trail, all the way up well past the last scrub. Then it was mostly rock. Thin conditions, less snow than there should be. Challenging. Harder than it is in summer. We took Gulfside to the hut and it was snow and rock, with enough snow to it make it pretty easy walking. There was actually a monorail forming in places. Valley Way was the icy trail of the day. The upper reaches anyway, starting with a major floe at the junction by the hut. We made short work of it in our once-sharp-but-still-functional crampons, though. There were a couple of easy-over blowdowns and one easy-under on the upper part of this trail (my segment), and a couple of blowdowns on the lower part (below Scar Junction). Nothing that presented a challenge.
Special Equipment Used: We brought trekking poles, ice axes, and crampons. We used it all. Snowshoes could have been used on part of our trip on Shortline it would have been nice, but we didn't bring them. We talked about it at length, but decided drawbacks would outweigh the advantages and at the end of the day we felt we made a good choice. Of course with snow coming, it's a moot point. You'll need them Friday. We didn't even bring microspikes. Felt they been inefficient, ineffective, or even dangerous on the terrain we traveled.
Comments: Hiked this one with Steff (it was her birthday hike and she wanted to tackle the KRT) and Bill Robichaud. Bill and I wanted to bag Adams and Jefferson then head down Gray Knob Trail to Lowes Path to a car spot, but thanks to a late start, and a very slow KRT transit, it was getting late. Being prudent, not wanting to stay above treeline after dark (in crampons, in rocky, thin conditons), we threw in the towel and bailed out via Valley Way. It's all good. Maybe next week, though via faster trails. Great freaking climb it was. Fun-fun-fun, and a GREAT day.
Mike "Tramper" Cherim
North Conway NH
Trail Conditions: We took four up, two down, but that differed greatly from our original plan of an Adams-Jefferson loop. But I digress, here are the trail details: Airline was fresh looking for the day but well-packed underneath any windblown powder. No blowdowns that I recall. Randolph was essentially the same, the part we traveled that is. Shortline was even less packed and on it we were busting up six inches of powder, on average. Here, if memory serves, we encountered a walk-around blowdown. That was it for blowdowns going up; there were none on King Ravine Trail, though there were sections that were brushed in making passage thick and snowy -- tough. Also absent from the KRT was traffic apparently. We could tell people had been up there this winter, but actual sign was very limited at best. Our snow busting ran deeper on this trail, all the way up well past the last scrub. Then it was mostly rock. Thin conditions, less snow than there should be. Challenging. Harder than it is in summer. We took Gulfside to the hut and it was snow and rock, with enough snow to it make it pretty easy walking. There was actually a monorail forming in places. Valley Way was the icy trail of the day. The upper reaches anyway, starting with a major floe at the junction by the hut. We made short work of it in our once-sharp-but-still-functional crampons, though. There were a couple of easy-over blowdowns and one easy-under on the upper part of this trail (my segment), and a couple of blowdowns on the lower part (below Scar Junction). Nothing that presented a challenge.
Special Equipment Used: We brought trekking poles, ice axes, and crampons. We used it all. Snowshoes could have been used on part of our trip on Shortline it would have been nice, but we didn't bring them. We talked about it at length, but decided drawbacks would outweigh the advantages and at the end of the day we felt we made a good choice. Of course with snow coming, it's a moot point. You'll need them Friday. We didn't even bring microspikes. Felt they been inefficient, ineffective, or even dangerous on the terrain we traveled.
Comments: Hiked this one with Steff (it was her birthday hike and she wanted to tackle the KRT) and Bill Robichaud. Bill and I wanted to bag Adams and Jefferson then head down Gray Knob Trail to Lowes Path to a car spot, but thanks to a late start, and a very slow KRT transit, it was getting late. Being prudent, not wanting to stay above treeline after dark (in crampons, in rocky, thin conditons), we threw in the towel and bailed out via Valley Way. It's all good. Maybe next week, though via faster trails. Great freaking climb it was. Fun-fun-fun, and a GREAT day.
Mike "Tramper" Cherim
North Conway NH
