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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Stairs Mountain, Mt. Crawford, NH
Trails
Trails: Davis Path, Stairs Mountain Spur, Mt. Crawford Spur
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Saturday, December 17, 2011
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes: We parked near the bridge, resident of one of the homes across Saco came out, requested us to park in the main lot in future as he pays to have private snow plow from mani lot to the bridge. 
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Dry Trail 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment: Light Traction 
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: Bridge over Saco is in good shape, brook crossing easily steeped across 
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes: DAvis Path is in great shape, kudos to the adopter, great rockwork and waterbars, waterbars are pretty clean 
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes: nothing I could see 
Bugs
Bugs:  
Lost and Found
Lost and Found: n/a 
 
Comments
Comments: We did out and back hike to Stairs & Crawford 9.1 miles RT. Snow cover is still pretty light. There was no snow at the trail head elevation 1100' and started to appear at 2000' or so. When we got to summit plateau we put on Hillsound Trail crampons we had purchased and were taking out for test drive mainly to negotiate the ledges which had 1-2" snow cover hiding areas of black ice. They performed well. We liked the longer teeth on these vs the Microspike.


Unfortunately snow cover was thin and we couldn't avoid walking on rock which seriously wore my teeth out. I'll be sharpening these before our next outing. At least the teeth have enough meet to permit some sharpening which you can't do with microspikes.

Views from Stairs was less than ideal due to partly cloudy skies, but were nevertheless impressive and well worth the hike out. The slabs near Crawford were covered with shallow snow hiding glaze ice so they were bit tricky in spots.

We did Crawford on way out and by that time clouds had cleared enabling long range views Crawford is noted for.
 
Name
Name: jazzbo 
E-Mail
E-Mail: rdcaron@rcn.com 
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2011-12-18 
Link
Link: https:// 
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