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Jack Tarlin
10-19-2005, 15:48
The following appeared in today's Boston Globe:

"While most of New Hampshire continues to enjoy a warm fall, it's like the dead of winter on Mount Washington. A weekend snowstorm on the highest peak in the Northeast set two records for October. The 6,288-foot summit got 34 inches of snow between Saturday and Monday, beating the record for the most snowfall from a single storm in October. It also beat the record for the most snow in 24 hours in October, with 25.5 inches falling between noon Sunday and noon Monday." (Associated Press)

I'm sending this along in case any of you guys are planning some fall hiking in this part of the world.....it might be Indian summer down low, but it's definitely winter in the high country, so plan and equip yourselves accordingly.
This can be a very unforgiving part of the world, so if you're planning a fall visit to New Hampshire, enjoy it, it's a great time of year, but enjoy it carefully.

Incidentally, this weather report should be instructive for folks planning to hike next year.....there are still thru-hikers heading South, mostly flip-floppers. In most cases, these are folks who either started their trips late in the season, hiked too slow to finish before cold weather set in, or perhaps flip-flopped too late in the season, i.e., they should have flipped some time ago, from further south, so as to have gotten thru Maine and NH before the snow started falling.

While I greatly respect that these folks are still slogging away, I daresay a lot of them would rather NOT be tromping thru New Hampshire in weather like this, and are probably wishing their trip was long-since completed.

Prospective hikers should keep this in mind when planning their trips.....a thru-hike generally takes 24 to 27 weeks. If you don't start til late April or May, or if you don't keep your mileage up, you WILL be hiking in some rough weather. And while there's nothing wrong with having to flip-flop in order to finish, it doesn't make any sense to do so if it means you'll still be in Maine or New Hampshire in mid-to-late October; the idea of a flip-flop, in most cases, is to get the rough stretches out of the way well before winter weather arrives.....one can continue from Massachusetts southbound from October thru December and you'll probably get very little snow.

I hope the folks presently hiking in New Hampshire right now are all healthy and well, but as for you guys who'll be hiking next year, this is probably something you'd be best to avoid. Most folks really don't want to do the Presidential Range with 70 mph winds blowing and two feet of snow on the ground; it can be very beautiful and very exhilarating to be up there in the wintertime, but it can also be very dangerous.

the goat
10-19-2005, 15:58
dude! i can't imagine trying to cross washington in that condition.....every time i've crossed it it's been 55 and sunny.

Footslogger
10-19-2005, 16:00
No thanks ...September was cold enough on Washington for me.

'Slogger

Topcat
10-19-2005, 18:09
http://www.mountwashington.org/cam/ravines/index.php

here is a link to the webcam that shows the snow topped mountains across the ravine.