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Ski
Hiking Trail Conditions Report
Peaks
Peaks Mt. Tom, Mt. Field, Mt. Willey, Mt. Avalon, NH
Trails
Trails: Avalon Trail, A-Z Trail, Mt. Tom Spur, Willey Range Trail
Date of Hike
Date of Hike: Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Parking/Access Road Notes
Parking/Access Road Notes:  
Surface Conditions
Surface Conditions: Standing/Running Water on Trail, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable), Snow/Ice - Monorail (Unstable), Snow/Ice - Postholes, Slush 
Recommended Equipment
Recommended Equipment: Snowshoes, Light Traction 
Water Crossing Notes
Water Crossing Notes: Rock hopped across, though I needed to get my boots wet a bit deeper than the soles. The last crossing on A-Z was pretty steep getting out due to the snowpack on the banks, which was melted away on the stream. 
Trail Maintenance Notes
Trail Maintenance Notes:  
Dog-Related Notes
Dog-Related Notes:  
Bugs
Bugs: Nope - only bug I saw got trapped in my car as I packed up to leave 
Lost and Found
Lost and Found:  
 
Comments
Comments: The A-Z trail was snow free below about 3000' had some wet rocks and a bit of mud along the trail, but nothing tricky. Above 3000' the A-Z was a fairly stable snowpacked monorail the rest of the way to the Willey Range Trail - microspikes were fine.

Mt. Tom Spur was fairly similarly packed. However, the Willey Range Trail heading to Field was getting soft and I switched to snowshoes. The trail particularly between Field and Willey became very narrow at times with a thin unstable monorail making traction rather tricky. Off the monorail I'd posthole even in snowshoes. There were maybe two or three sections of a few hundred feet that were completely bare due to the southwestern exposure, but they didn't last long enough to bare boot it. Heading down to Avalon was similarly full of late day soft spring snow. Between Avalon and the A-Z Trail was some fairly steep terrain covered in layers of melting ice, snowshoes were fine, microspikes might've proved tricky here and I actually saw one pair of crampon tracks.

Didn't come across anybody else on trail. It was a beautiful sunny day to be out hiking.  
Name
Name: Ryan M 
E-Mail
E-Mail:  
Date Submitted
Date Submitted: 2014-05-08 
Link
Link: https:// 
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