Weather Advisories / Trail Conditions

[geneseejake]

I know tons of people should be on or starting the trail in the coming weeks. Wheres the best place to get updates on trail conditions from the boots on the ground? I'm looking to start soon, but am willing to wait another week or two if conditions are bad. I'm reaching out to the hikers out there, are you guys and gals doing alright with all these advisories?

[Grinch]

be on springer saturday come hell or highwater.

[Slo-go'en]

Trailjournals. All the recent entries talk about snow, ice and slush from Springer north. Sounds pretty sloppy and slippery out there. And another snow/sleet/ice/rain storm on the way for tomorrow. It continues to be a very active weather pattern, typical for early March. Something about "in like a Lion"?

[Catdog1]

Im looking particularly at conditions from CT north. Will be starting my last section hike, CT-maine, here late april. Curious how much snow is on the ground and how much will be left late april -june

THanks,

[Deacon]

be on springer saturday come hell or highwater.

You may get your wish!

[lemon b]

Catdog, I'm a couple miles from the trail in Ma. Still about 18 inches on the ground here. Yesterday it was hard, but not hard enough to hold up human weight. On some uphills crampons are necessary. My experience is it will be another 3 weeks for the vast majority of snow to melt.

[Catdog1]

hmmm, thats about what i expected. I start april 20th, im afraid theres going to be alot on the ground for most of the lower section of my hike, shooting for ct border to khatadin by the end of june.

[Catdog1]

hmmm, thats about what i expected. I start april 20th, im afraid theres going to be alot on the ground for most of the lower section of my hike, shooting for ct border to khatadin by the end of june.

[Traveler]

Conditions in Northwestern CT around 12 miles east/southeast of the AT at similar elevations (but not on the AT) yesterday (4/5) were as follows and should be similar to, if not slightly better than the AT sections in central to northern CT:

There is about a foot deep snow pack on most of the forest floor, a little less in southern exposures, more in drifts and north facing woodland and slopes. I would expect the areas the AT moves through to have about 14" to 16" snow pack on average based on this and the 18" to 24" snow pack we encountered last week.

Ice on the trail monorail was sufficient to allow microspikes to grip well where there was evidence of foot traffic through the winter months, but where there has not been a lot of winter traffic, the footing had a lot of slip to it due to the rotting snow, even with spikes.

Snow is too far gone to support MSR trail type snowshoes, we postholed in them as easily as we did in spikes. I would be concerned with north side climbs with unstable packed snow and/or ice.

It is probably at least another week or so before most of the snow is melted off in all but the sun hidden northern slopes. The hard freeze we had for a few months will take a while to leave the ground, longer to leave steep northern climbs that don't get any sun. Even in places that were exposed to sun a good part of the day and free of snow, the ground was still frozen hard.

North of the CT/MA border conditions worsen according to people we met on the AT last week, and on the other trails this weekend.

Of course all of this can change if we get temperatures at or above 60* for a few days, but the mountains this year seem determined to hang onto winter cover.

[Red Tail]

I was on trail April 6 and 7 in southern Mass. Jug end to River was mostly clear with some monorail south of Shay's monument. The next section up to Route 23 involved miles of postholing. Hoping to finish up to Katahdin this year. Shooting to get back on trail about May 15 and bringing my yak trax for the monorail.

[BillyGr]

I was on trail April 6 and 7 in southern Mass. Jug end to River was mostly clear with some monorail south of Shay's monument. The next section up to Route 23 involved miles of postholing. Hoping to finish up to Katahdin this year. Shooting to get back on trail about May 15 and bringing my yak trax for the monorail.

Section you describe sounds much better as of this past week. Also Pittsfield Rd-Dalton only a couple scattered snow spots and not as much muddy sections as would be expected.

[Catdog1]

im in manchester center right now, glastonbury and stratton mountain were about waist high snow, every 5th step you would post hole, hoping it keeps getting warm, lotta tall ones coming up. any other news north of the greens?