Conditions Davenport Gap to Newfound

[Ox97GaMe]

I was up at NFG on Sunday. There was 3 ft average around the parking lot. They got more snow yesterday and a light dusting today. The report I got from LeConte this morning stated base snow of 54 inches and drifts of up to 80 inches. LeConte is at 6600 ft. Basically everything above 5000 ft in the park still has considerable amounts of snow and it is tough going, but hikers are making it through. It appears to start getting bad around Siler's Bald and continuing to TriCorner.

As for clearing the park of blow downs. Crews are working the areas they can get to right now. I cleared Doe Knob to Russell Field a couple weeks ago. Crews have finished from Davenport to Mt Cammerer. I heard that a crew did from Fontana to Shuckstack recently. And a crew managed to get from NFG S to Indian Gap.

The SMHC is planning a major blowdown removal effort the first weekend in April. That starts a 3 week window when the park allows use of chainsaws in the backcountry. This is dependent on the snow levels in the park at that time of course. Until then, maintainers will be going out when possible to remove the smaller debris from the trail. At this time, the snow is so deep, a lot of the blowdowns are completely buried under snow.

[SGT Rock]

Supposed to be in the 50s up there this weekend. Some rocket scientist can probably calculate the rate of snow melt.

[Egads]

Supposed to be in the 50s up there this weekend. Some rocket scientist can probably calculate the rate of snow melt.

too many variables, temp, wind speed, shade, humidity, ground temp, number of hikers tramping thru...

[SGT Rock]

too many variables, temp, wind speed, shade, humidity, ground temp, number of hikers tramping thru...

You forget, this is WhiteBlaze. Someone here ALWAYS thinks they know everything.

[Egads]

You forget, this is WhiteBlaze. Someone here ALWAYS thinks they know everything.

...or more than us

[SGT Rock]

Zactly....

[Slo-go'en]

Trust me, it will take more than a couple of 50 degree days to melt all that snow up there! A packed down trail takes the longest. The first snow to go is that around the south sides of trees. Rain doesn't do a lot, it just soaks through. A good dry wind will speed the melt up a lot.

[Praha4]

one year ago... still a lot of snow at Leconte Lodge area the first week of April.

Erik and Vesna from "A Walk in the Woods", a Smokies guide service out of Gatlinburg, took Travel Channel's Samantha Brown for a weekend backpack trip to Leconte a year ago, weekend of April 9th.. checkout the slides at their link
http://www.awalkinthewoods.com/

BTW, "A Walk in the Woods" is a 1st rate guide service in the Smokies, they offer shuttle service too.

[SGT Rock]

Not to be confused with the book.

[Egads]

one year ago... still a lot of snow at Leconte Lodge area the first week of April.

Erik and Vesna from "A Walk in the Woods", a Smokies guide service out of Gatlinburg, took Travel Channel's Samantha Brown for a weekend backpack trip to Leconte a year ago, weekend of April 9th.. checkout the slides at their link
http://www.awalkinthewoods.com/

BTW, "A Walk in the Woods" is a 1st rate guide service in the Smokies, they offer shuttle service too.

Here's a direct link to the pic
http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Show..._Mountains?s=9

[Praha4]

yep, not to be confused with Bryon's book!

Erik said Samantha Brown handled the backpacking fine, (plus she's kind of cute) it was the poor Travel Channel camera guys who had to lug those heavy batteries up the mountains that had the toughest time!