Catskills snow conditions?

[keb]

Planning to head in for an overnight hike Friday afterwork. While the forecast is for 6-12 inches of snow, I am seeing reports of freezing rain. I understand elevation will have a great affect on snow/ice/rain lines, but any first hand info on what is actually coming down would be appreciated.

 

[Jay H]

If you know what the weather is coming down on sunday, please let us know too.

Jay

 

[mudhook51]

I had rain, sleet and about an inch of wet snow at 1800' on the lower slopes of Old Clump Mt.. Its mid 30's and nothing now. I saw reports of 2" in Elka Park . The mt. tops are fogged in so I can't see if they got ice or snow or just the same mix. Later Friday and Sat are supposedy going to be nicer. We will see.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

There may be some additional wet snow accumulation tonight, although temperatures are forecast to remain nearly constant, near freezing. Like Mudhook I haven't been able to see mountain tops all day. The reports I saw:

2.00" East Jewett
2.00" Elka Park
2.00" Hunter
2.00" Windham
1.50" Phoenicia
1.00" Jefferson
0.75" Lexington
0.50" Platte Clove
0.50" Slide Mt (Winnisook Lake)​

edit: Saturday sounds OK, but there may be a major northeaster starting predawn Sunday and lasting into Monday. Could be rain, could be snow, could be both, too early to tell.

 

[albee]

I'm heading down to the Catskills tomorrow - with all the rain and now warmer temperatures, what are the trails like these days? I have never hiked in the Catskills before, so please excuse my ignorance. I haven't been able to find any trail conditions reported since the storm early this week.

I wouldn't think of venturing out into the White Mtns in NH without my snowshoes these days, but the Catskills are much farther south. I was thinking about doing an out-and-back of Slide, Cornell, and Wittenberg. Any advice/suggestions? How much snow is left up there??

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help!

 

[Mike P.]

albee,

there is a 4/18 Bearpen posting on the trail conditions section 4-12inches on this 3500+ bushwhack.

 

[Tom Rankin]

there is a 4/18 Bearpen posting on the trail conditions section 4-12inches on this 3500+ bushwhack.

And it gets worse!

http://www.adkhighpeaks.com/forums/showpost.php?p=37478&postcount=22

 

[Mark Schaefer]

I can't offer my own sightings as I have not been up since the storm hit. Based upon the Bearpen and Fir reports -- this is likely to be more of a challenging than enjoyable weekend in the Catskill high peaks. There was over a foot of new snow from the nor'easter on the higher summits. More importantly there was heavy icing on the trees (several inches from the look of the Fir picture on the Catskill 3500 Club yahoo listserver). Temperatures were in the 50s Thursday, will be 60s today, and approaching 70s on the weekend. The ice will probably be mostly dropped off the trees by the weekend, but with the potential of hanging widow maker branches. Trails will be covered in broken ice and/or flowing water from the snow/ice melt.

Traction devices are likely to be helpful. There is a short icy chute to climb approaching Cornell from Wittenberg. In Mudhook's opinion (he posted the Bearpen report, and a longer version is here), snowshoes may not be required, but he does agree it may be wise to carry them this weekend. The southern Cats (around Fir - Slide) did get more new snow than did Bearpen. You probably noticed -- I posted some Catskill Snow and Rain accumulations from the nor'easter. Winnisook Lake, near the western trailhead for Slide, received 13" of new snow and an additional 6.43" of rain which led to the icing.

Also FYI, there is a stream crossing at the start of the western trail approach to Slide that can be difficult in high water -- there is no trail bridge.

 

[mudhook51]

May I add that it was 4-12" new snow, with what was there before, 2-3" is not out of the question in areas. Alot of the summit ice seemed to have melted today.( viewed from Tannersville)

 

[albee]

You guys know your Catskills. All the advice here was pretty accurate.

Lots of flowing water down low, 2-3' of snow up high, tons of frustrating fallen branches and snapped off treetops, some ice on the trail. You could bareboot most of the way but snowshoes were preferable for the deeper stuff. Surprisingly, I only saw one other group (out of many) on Slide and Hunter that even had snowshoes with them, much less used them. Lots of bareboot tracks and postholes.

I made it to both summits, although Hunter was a lot harder and took a lot longer than I expected due to trail conditions. Slide was a walk in the park in comparison and took me less than half the time even though the distance travelled was longer.

Thanks for the advice everyone, and hopefully my next trip to the Catskills will have better trail conditions!

 

[Jay H]

Hiked Burnt Knob from Big Hollow on sunday, snow was patchy down below but was a solid 3" by the time I hit the Escarpment trail and the summit of Burnt Knob. As I posted in the NY section trip report, I could not cross the feeder stream to the Batavia kill right after the bridge there by the trail register so I simply whacked up the ridge til I could see the little hump known as Burnt Knob. A steep ledgy 500' more and I was on the summit. Very nice views on the summit and I got buzzed by some kind of predatory bird that zinged by within 20ft of me at 100mph in search of some prey. Scared the hell out of me cause it came from my rear and then flew right by my head....

http://www.vftt.org/trail/ny/6047.html

Jay

 

[NukedRocket]

Hiked Red Hill on Earth Day, picture perfect day. No snow at all on the north-facing trail. Trail down low was "summer" dry, up top was soft and damp, no mud. Summit only 2990', but I think safe to say under 3000' should be pretty much snow free? Hope this helps.

 

[coldfeet]

Scared the hell out of me cause it came from my rear and then flew right by my head....


Jay[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a case of "gas"...welcome to the club

 

[mtn.goat]

I ran up Peekamoose (S Catskills) yesterday (Mon) and there was no snow until 3500' or so. But from that point on it seemed to increase quite a bit. I ended up turning back after postholing up to my knees a few times.