shadowcat
New member
"Where has all the snow gone? Long time passing. Where has all the snow gone, long time ago?"......
Really folks we need to all pray for snow, do the snow storm boogie - something!
We got up to Keene late as usual and with the iffy weather we didn't want to find ourselves out on a long wet crappy trail. So we picked a short not so crappy one!
Like everything else it was wet down below, running open water in several places, water running under ice, mud. Not too bad but it is January for crying out loud.
I wore stabilizers which were perfect going up. As you continued up there was more ice on the rocks & trail and a bit more snow coverage. The last 1/3 or so (a bit before the cut off to Porter) there was nice snow coverage on the trail. Snowshoes not needed and would have been a real pain to maneuver in. Hiking crampons would be recommended or stabilizers, micro-spikes something for traction. Coming down was much icier since it was dark & much colder and the stabilizers really didn't grab like some crampons would have. (however I don't get these folks who hike in ice climbing/mountaineering crampons - you catch those puppies on an exposed root and bye bye....)
Anyway, the summit lived up to it's rep with lots of wind but we were toasty warm in our Golite 6-mos parkas that I bought for $50 which kick butt over coats selling for $500! <long story>
Georgous views albeit cloudy and there was this awesome sun ray thing going on over the mountain range with rays of light breaking thru just one section of clouds - very zen like! If you saw it you'll know what I mean.
Anyway, what can I say - I love to hike up in the Daks and any day I am up there is a good day. But ever since I invested in all new winter gear & snowshoes - we haven't had any decent snow!
My suggestion: Everyone take their favorite pics from winter adventures & create one of those "Vision Boards". If you don't know what it is, it's a visualization tool that activates the universal law of attraction to begin manifesting your dreams into reality. Or something like that.
Hey you never know, after all Oprah says it will work.........
Really folks we need to all pray for snow, do the snow storm boogie - something!
We got up to Keene late as usual and with the iffy weather we didn't want to find ourselves out on a long wet crappy trail. So we picked a short not so crappy one!
Like everything else it was wet down below, running open water in several places, water running under ice, mud. Not too bad but it is January for crying out loud.
I wore stabilizers which were perfect going up. As you continued up there was more ice on the rocks & trail and a bit more snow coverage. The last 1/3 or so (a bit before the cut off to Porter) there was nice snow coverage on the trail. Snowshoes not needed and would have been a real pain to maneuver in. Hiking crampons would be recommended or stabilizers, micro-spikes something for traction. Coming down was much icier since it was dark & much colder and the stabilizers really didn't grab like some crampons would have. (however I don't get these folks who hike in ice climbing/mountaineering crampons - you catch those puppies on an exposed root and bye bye....)
Anyway, the summit lived up to it's rep with lots of wind but we were toasty warm in our Golite 6-mos parkas that I bought for $50 which kick butt over coats selling for $500! <long story>
Georgous views albeit cloudy and there was this awesome sun ray thing going on over the mountain range with rays of light breaking thru just one section of clouds - very zen like! If you saw it you'll know what I mean.
Anyway, what can I say - I love to hike up in the Daks and any day I am up there is a good day. But ever since I invested in all new winter gear & snowshoes - we haven't had any decent snow!
My suggestion: Everyone take their favorite pics from winter adventures & create one of those "Vision Boards". If you don't know what it is, it's a visualization tool that activates the universal law of attraction to begin manifesting your dreams into reality. Or something like that.
Hey you never know, after all Oprah says it will work.........
