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I've never started a 4K peak in winter so late but when I heard the forecast and knew Hale was still on the little mutt's winter 4K list I went for it. Zealand road a bit like walking in sand. The trail itself was a good trench of unconsolidated snow thanks to the nice woman snowshoer I met coming down while we were going up. I ran into nice two guys at the top who had postholed up from the hut and they said that it had been rough going. I think they are sold on getting snowshoes now. It was fabulous doing the snowshoe boogie down the trail, faster and easier than a summer descent, but I still couldn't keep up with the mighty tough little dog on the descent. But with the storm coming and the postholers following me, the trail will likely be quite different from what I had. I got some of the blowdown , but in addition to a couple trees too big for a hand saw, I left a beech and some nuisance striped maples, and only got one cut spruce partly out of the way, since I wanted to stay ahead of the postholes. But the next hiker can get those easily.
