| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Stairs Mountain - East Peak, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Davis Path, Stairs Col Trail, bushwhack |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Friday, March 7, 2014 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
parking lot in good shape. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts, Snow - Wet/Sticky |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
brook crossings were all frozen. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
the trail up to the mt. crawford spur had a smooth and solid snowshoe track. a light coating of new powder and some drifting up high. when i got back to that section in the afternoon it was a little more chewed up from the days traffic in areas that softened in the sun. i had hoped that people might have been using the trail over to stairs, but found the davis path beyond crawford to have been untravelled in the recent past. thankfully it had been used at some point this winter as there was definitely some sort of base under a dump of new snow. i was generally going in 6-12 inches with deeper and drifted areas. the corridor was unsurpsisingly grown in at times, but pretty easy to follow with a couple notable exceptions in some of the more open areas. snow depths increased as the trail wound around the side of resolution and down to stairs col. i followed the stairs col trail down its steep upper section through some pretty deep snow to about 2600 ft where the map contour lines looked to mellow out under the main cliffs of stairs. from there i bushwhacked the contour finding mostly open woods then very open sun laden hardwoods where the snow became pretty wet and sticky. i ultimately had to drop a bit of elevation as the slope was still pretty steep. soon i was working my way up a steep, but open drainage towards the col between stairs and east stairs. once in the col i turned east towards the summit and immediately the woods became very scrappy with some thick sections. i was able to avoid most of the spruce traps along the way, but some heavily drifted in spruce near the summit was pretty unavoidable.
i booted across the bridge then wore snowshoes the rest of the hike.
beautiful day. pretty amazing temperature swing from sub zero at the start to 40 when i got back to the car. such a beautiful area with all of the open ledges between crawford and resolution. i had never been in that drainage between stairs and resolution and found it to be a pretty awesome place. the upper slopes and summit area of east stairs had pretty difficult going, but some nice views were there to be had to the nearby peaks and i did manage to find a nice look up montalban ridge to washington from a drifted area near the summit. a tough, but rewarding day. great to be out.
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 | Name: |
bryan |
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 | E-Mail: |
bryancuddihee@yahoo.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2014-03-07 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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