Looking like Winter again up north

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peakbagger

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The snow pack was getting down up in Gorham with lots of brown patches. This morning I have about 6" of new fluffy snow and all the trees are coated. Current forecast is foot of snow this weekend and no major warm up in the ten day forecast. The frost was starting to come out of the ground so any dirt road or driveway is going to rut up with any traffic.
 
Listening to radio broadcast from St J around 1 pm yesterday the National Weather Service cut in with an alert for very intense squalls, but I noted the affected areas were all north central VT with the farthest east being Newport. I checked the NWS forecast for Bethlehem NH and there was not even a whiff of such an occurrence forecast.
When starting chores after supper I noted it was mild enough to gather water from the outside faucet. Went inside to gather other things and heard the wind and looked out and could not see more than 5 or 10 feet through the blowing snow, and a full inch already on the ground. In about 20 minutes there was 3 inches on the ground, and 6 inches this morning. Pretty cool.
 
I was driving back home from Pinkham Notch around 8 PM and it was spitting snow. In downtown Gorham it was snowing and visibility was degrading. The drive up Gorham Hill on RT 2 was an adventure, zero visibility. It was a 5 MPH drive. The snowbanks are gone so it was point and hope up the hill catching occasional sight of reflectors. Headlights were not very helpful. I eventually made it to the top of the hill and hung out at a friends house for 20 minutes before heading home.
 
The snow pack was getting down up in Gorham with lots of brown patches. This morning I have about 6" of new fluffy snow and all the trees are coated. Current forecast is foot of snow this weekend and no major warm up in the ten day forecast. The frost was starting to come out of the ground so any dirt road or driveway is going to rut up with any traffic.
This week we have gotten about 8 inches with 5 last night. We are in the 8 to 12 zone for Saturday.
I see 50 for early next week.
Roads and driveways are too soft to plow.
 
At of 6Pm Saturday in Gorham, there is about 10" in the driveway. Considering the 18 to 24 inch forecast its bit on the low end. My guess is it stayed south do the mountain effect that tends to block storms fed from the south.
 
Was a serious car crash on 16 in Rochester due to a squall.
Thursday a log truck headed south on 201 lost the road in a whiteout, drove right into a pond in The Forks, and rolled on its side. The logs went forward and took the cab off the truck. The 35 y/o driver was eventually found underneath the logs.
 

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Sad about the truck driver. Definitely a few feet in MWV. Lots of plowing and cleanup.
 
Berlin was reporting over 20" this morning so I figured you would have gotten more peakbagger. We got just over 18" on this west side of Bethlehem NH as of this morning, although that is not with proper scientific measurement. I was shoveling some after 9 pm and kept hearing large areas of the snow settling down during lulls (otherwise the hiss of the falling snow was rather loud). As I was anticipating the rain/sleet mid-day and checking NWS, I was very happy to see they had removed the mixed precip forecast for us. Beautiful snow that just got a little more to almost sleet for a short period.
Alaskan snowshoes will be used for a walk. In anticipation I can picture the shoes slicing gracefully through the snow and leaving a checkered track.
 
I did get more, despite that it was looking like it was tapering down when I did the prior post, I got up this morning and had lots more. About 18 to 19". My snowblower chewed it up nicely when I hit the street it pretty interesting to see it tunnel under the 4' snowbank. The wind was a bit of challenge to keep from getting dusted from blowing snow. At least it stayed snow. No trace of rain. My snowshoes are still out but if I want to go roaming I think the powder shoes need to come out.

Cleaning off the solar arrays around the yard the combination of this latest storm and the one last week have created mounds that I had to dig down to keep the panels out of the snow. Blue skies, fresh snow and cold temps means a potential for record solar production.
 
We got about 16-18” here in Jackman. I’m going to attempt Coburn Mtn today, the logging road to the trailhead (Enchanted Mtn Rd) may or may not be plowed yet by the crew working on the NECEC. If not I’ll snowshoe in (about 2 miles), but if there are any snowmobile tracks forget it. They run like bats out of hell on the trail to the summit and I’d rather not end up like that musher who was run over and just left about 25 years ago in the Barrington/Nottingham area.
 
We got to camp Friday night and got to enjoy being dumped on. Got about 2 feet in the Sandwich Range. Powder shoes are a must. It took 6 hours to do the 2 mile hike out of the woods on 22" shoes.

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Wonder how many folks from Mass will drive up to the whites thinking that they go on hike without snowshoes?

Several "attempts" on New England Trail Conditions on Sunday.
 
Someone only made it about 100 yards up the Oliverian Brook parking lot before turning around on snowshoes. By the end of the day, snowballing was becoming a problem with a crust forming on top. Whoever gets to break trail is going to have their work cut out for them.
 
The other issue is with the storm timing and lack of employees many of the hiker parking lots were not plowed last night. Nineteen mile brook trail lot is mess and when I went by this morning folks were parking along the road blocking a plow from being able to clean it up. I expect a few folks will be getting parking tickets today for parking on the pavement.
 
The rain tomorrow might take a bit of the fluff factor out of things.
 
Me and my dog did a couple of easy peaks this weekend, Kearsarge (south) and Avalon. Both had incredible snowshoe tracks, I won't lie, I wasn't complaining about it.
 
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