| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Pierce, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Crawford Connector, Crawford Path, Webster Cliff Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Friday, December 20, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Plenty of parking at the Crawford Connector parking area. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Ice - Blue, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, and a wee bit of easily avoided open water |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
None were an issue. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Quite a few blowdowns -- but a dozen or so fewer now, than earlier today. See notes, below. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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|
 | Comments: |
Really nice, fast-moving conditions, in spite of the warm-up/melt-out from last week and all of the blowdowns that previous posters have mentioned. Most of the footbed has firmed up really well with the cold temps from the past couple of days. A bit more fill-in on some of the lower elevation sections, and we'll have good winter hiking on this.
Light traction was the way to go; the footbed is just too varied/uneven and full of bits of blowdowns for snowhoes for now, until a short distance from the Webster Cliff Trail intersection, when there's a couple of inches of unconsolidated powder. If you're heading further, to Eisenhower, you'll definitely want snowshoes. But, until a decent snowfall to even out the trail and cover some of the embedded blowdown bits, light traction is fine.
Related to this: no one had been up Mizpah Cutoff for a while, so snowshoes would be recommended for that, as well as Webster Cliff Trail south, to Mizpah Hut.
After a quick trip to the summit, we spent some time removing blowdowns on the way down, as well as de-limbing others that were too large to remove without a chainsaw. Someone else had sawed out a few in the last day, as well -- thank you, whoever did this.
(There are still another dozen hand-sawable ones left, if anyone wants to bring a Silky Saw with them in the next few days. [Just a suggestion.] After that, there are 4-5 that will require a larger [chain] saw.) |
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 | Name: |
Pancks and Tesco Heaney |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-12-20 |
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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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