| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
East Osceola, Mt. Osceola, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Greeley Ponds Trail, Mt. Osceola Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Saturday, December 31, 2016 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Tiny lot filled to the brim pretty quickly. We needed to shovel out a space. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Ice - Blue, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes, Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Mostly bridged but a rock hop still needed on a few. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
A few blowdowns mixed in with the snowpack. Brushy immediately below the chimney. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Greeley Ponds Trail to the junction is fairly well packed at this point. Maybe 6-10" of powder on top of the existing granular base.
Mt. Osceola Trail steeps up East only had about 4" of new powder on top of the ice, so I suspect with folks descending this afternoon, it will get pretty hairy. If we had started any later, I would have packed crampons for descending this area. We were able to ascend and descend the still-covered steeps in Flex Alps snowshoes, the aggressive crampons being extremely beneficial. Snow gets deep quickly on the East Osceola ridge...saw a postholer swimming around up to their pockets in snow.
Multi-foot deep powder drifts between the peaks. The chimney bypass bypass was the preferred method and appears to be brushed out.
While others had broken out the trail to Osceola's cliffs, no one had been to the actual highpoint, so we did a hundred yards of trailbreaking.
Temperatures were moderate, blue skies and sunshine out for much of the morning, and very little wind. |
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 | Name: |
rocket21, Nordic Gal |
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 | E-Mail: |
rocket21@franklinwebpublishing.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2016-12-31 |
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 | Link: |
 https://www.franklinsites.com/hikephotos |
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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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