| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
East Osceola, Mt. Osceola, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Greeley Ponds Trail, Mt. Osceola Trail, Tripoli Road |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Parking lot at Greeley Ponds Trail plowed. Parking lot at Livermore Depot plowed and icy. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow/Ice - Postholes |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Light Traction, Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Several open, especially on Greeley Ponds Trail and lower sections (near summer trailhead) of Mt Osceola trail.. all easily crossed. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
There is a patch of blowdowns maybe a mile below the summit of Mt Osceola (headed towards Tripoli). Maybe from Sandy? They will need to come out but didn't really slow us down today. |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
Small L-shaped tool used to adjust crampons was found just below the chimney. It was on top of the snow but melted in so it may have been there since Saturday??? If it's yours, just let me know. |
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 | Comments: |
Greeley Ponds Trail was postholed but solid. You had to watch where you walked, but we weren't breaking through at all. We were in micros.
Mt Osceola Trail to East O was not bad. Solid, some postholes, some ice that was avoidable. Still @#$!@#$ steep! We had both micros and trail crampons on this part. There are two paths across the slide at this point. We stayed on the lower one (thank you Ryan and Christina) and avoided all the ice. Very solid and good traction as we crossed.
Between the peaks was postholed very badly. Chimney bypass was easy on open rock and good snow. No real ice on any of the steep parts.
Mt Osceola view area is total rock. No snow, no ice.
Trail to Tripoli Road was choppy, but at least the folks over the weekend were in snowshoes (thank you very much)! We, on the other hand, descended quickly in micros as it was very solid. Ran into a friend who was on her way up for a late afternoon summit - YAY PAM!
On Tripoli Road, had a strange encounter with a woman from Waterville Valley Ski Patrol. She started the conversation with "Walking is not one of the options we offer for this road at Waterville Valley". The conversation went downhill from there (no pun intended). She described the money that WV spent to keep the trail groomed. We looked behind us and could see no evidence that we had even been there... the snow was really that solid. We told her that we would have been wearing snowshoes if we were doing any damage (we carried them all day, they were never the right choice of footwear today) and in looking behind us on the road it was impossible to tell if anyone had walked on the frozen granular surface. She acknowledged that but was still very unhappy and kept sputtering as Mark wished her a fine afternoon and we continued to walk down the road towards our car.
Many thanks to Silverfox for a good day out and for handling the tough discussion. |
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 | Name: |
ValC |
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 | E-Mail: |
adknbvi@dca.net |
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| Date Submitted: |
2013-01-15 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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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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