| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Mt. Chocorua, NH |
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 | Trails: |
Piper Trail, Nickerson Ledge Trail, Camp Penacook Spur, Liberty Trail, Hammond Trail, Weetamoo Trail |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
Big plowed lots at both Hammond and Piper Trailheads! |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow - Drifts |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
Snowshoes, Light Traction |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
I almost slid into the shallow Chocorua River and got a little owie (blood!) on my finger, catching it on the branch that prevented me from slipping into said river. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
Couple of crawl-under blowdowns along the way, a big un on Camp Penacook Spur |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
Pretty deep snow on some of these trails |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Fun day with Mikeymace grabbing some final winter blueline trails on Chocorua. We left a car at Hammond just in case we were able to get all the trails (we weren't). Started up the well broken out Piper Trail in spikes for the first 1.2 mile but switched to snowshoes for the out-and-back on Nickerson Ledge Trail which surprisingly had seen a little bit of traffic.
Continued up Piper in snowshoes - could spike this section, but you're gonna definitely want snowshoes to get to the summit. Camp Penacook Spur was completely unbroken, UP!, and the snow was quite deep. Finding the sneaky outhouse proved a bit of a challenge, but I found it! (Is there a Winter White Mtn. Outhouse List?)
Piper continued to be well broken. Added layers and switched back to spikes for the breezy above treeline section. Traction of some sort is necessary on the ledges although I've seen it icier. We actually bypassed the final little bit to the summit and headed directly down Liberty Trail. Snow was DEEP here, so we switched back to snowshoes. Thankful for M's better knowledge of the mountain's trails because finding/following the actual trail is potentially challenging here.
With plenty of snow, the sloping cliff section of Liberty was no problem today. There was an old blown over snowshoe track in here, but the snow was deep. We took turns breaking trail. Continued on the upper 0.9 of Hammond and finished with Weetamoo (the ROCK - wow!!) and Piper. Weetamoo had an old snowshoe or moose track, but it was more trailbreaking.
It was suggested by someone that I do the 2.1 out and back on lower Hammond, but I'd had enough workout for the day. :)
We encountered no one else on the trails today.
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 | Name: |
Snowflea |
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 | E-Mail: |
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| Date Submitted: |
2026-02-05 |
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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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