Blazes on the AT.
Can you see the White Blazes of the AT during a snow storm?? Or should you be off the trail and honkered down for the duration?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sometimes the snow drifts higher than the blazes or the snow sticks to the trees and covers them. If someone else hasn't broke trail it can be tough to stay on the trail. Especially if you're unfamiliar with the area.
I'd put it like this...if you can't see the blazes, that's when you know you shouldn't be out there.
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War.
You probably can still hike but study your map well beforehand and pay attention to the terrain as you hike. I hiked under these conditions in March '05 and lost the trail a few times but didn't get seriously lost.
And just because someone has "broken the trail" doesn't mean that is the trail.Originally Posted by Don H
Once when snowshoeing with my daugher, we followed someone elses snowshoes tracks for about 2 miles off of the trail until we got to an uncrossable ridge and said snowshoer with a confused look, studying a map who greated us with "thank god you're here, I am totally lost" Me & my daugher looked at each other and went "oh no."
Had there been no tracks we would have been consulting our map to make sure we were on the trail, but being there were tracks we followed them. Lesson learned.
Love people and use things; never the reverse.
Mt. Katahdin would be a lot quicker to climb if its darn access trail didn't start all the way down in Georgia.
The trail 'right of way' is generally pretty easy to see in the south, if you know what to look for. Ive done a lot of winter hiking and have not gotten lost. There are usually signs of where the trail goes, such as cut blowdowns, ledges on sideslope, or troughs in the snow. That usually works for up to about 8 inches. Some areas of the trail have over 4 ft covering them right now. That makes it a little difficult to find in some places.
Don't worry about the trees, what's difficult are boulder fields and rocky areas covered with snow.
When I was hiking in NY/NJ this past December there was 4-10" of snow on the ground and a lot of ice. There were several treeless areas (especially around Prospect Rock) where the blazes were painted on rocks and that made it very, very difficult to stay on course.
The only reason I didn't turn around and stuck it out was because I didn't think I could make it back over the rocks I had already climbed over to get back to the road... This was the stretch with that ladder, the Lemon Squeezer and all that.... I was literally between a rock and a hard place.
In the past ive never had a problem in finding blazes on trees. with the exception like 10-k said only on boulders and stuff like that.
I've seen snow cover up the blazes by sticking to the tree bark. And I have gotten off trail because of it (happened on Roan Mtn). Just be careful. Maps and compasses needed.
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