One big Icy Mess up North

[peakbagger]

The combination of cold ground and temps that didn't get that high today means lots of ice on the trees and paved surfaces up north. I expect its going to set up solid once the temps drop. Barring a jackhammer I don't think folks are going to be shoveling out bankings in front of parking lots.

 

[JustJoe]

Sounds like we can forgo the snowshoes this weekend.

 

[donna]

I had big hopes to try out my new cross country skies

 

[JustJoe]

I had big hopes to try out my new cross country skies

I was hoping to try mine out for the first time down my way, third time overall. Wonder if they work on grass.

 

[rocket21]

Sounds like we can forgo the snowshoes this weekend.

Don't give the parasitic postholers any ideas! Not much was broken out after the big snow storm, so snowshoes will still be very much needed.

 

[VinnieG]

How much rain did you get up there today? Was thinking Carrigain or Isolation on Saturday.

 

[CaptCaper]

How much rain did you get up there today? Was thinking Carrigain or Isolation on Saturday.

Got the full 2 inches they said. Nasty stuff.

 

[JustJoe]

Don't give the parasitic postholers any ideas! Not much was broken out after the big snow storm, so snowshoes will still be very much needed.

Don't worry. I never winter hike without them.

 

[skiguy]

Don't give the parasitic postholers any ideas! Not much was broken out after the big snow storm, so snowshoes will still be very much needed.

 

[TJsName]

In terms of icy mess, the Swift River in Tamworth (south of the distillery) is now dammed up and flowing each of it's usual channel. It was neat to walk on the 4+ feet of ice that now fill the main channel.

Also, looking at the USGS gauge from 1/24, it looks like an ice dam might have broken: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?...od=&begin_date=2019-01-24&end_date=2019-01-24

Any idea what else would lead to such a spike?

 

[peakbagger]

I expect there were plenty of ice dams formed after the heavy rain. While making a loop around Mt Washington on Friday I saw lots of rivers that had blown out. The Wild River in Gilead usually blows out in conditions like that and the the walls of ice on either side of the channel can be very impressive. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/me/nwis/uv?site_no=01054200

 

[TJsName]

Woah - that would have been a sight to see!

 

[peakbagger]

Yup, If you go on Google Earth and fire up street view looking from the US RT 2 state highway bridge north to the railroad bridge you can see the original large "splitters" on the railroad bridge supports and the new one they added when the new state highway bridge was added. They are there to break up ice jams coming down the Wild River. During the right conditions usually in the spring when there is heavy snow pack and the river is still frozen, a rapid thaw lifts the frozen river up and creates a series of major ice jams along the river usually at major bends or chokepoints. The river level rises rapidly until the water finds its way around the jam sometimes creating a new channel. The resulting debris and ice then rush down the river until the next chokepoint and eventually the choke points are the bridges. The Wild River enters the Androscoggin roughly at a right angle in this location and sometimes the main river is still frozen with ice and the area floods.

This is far more on an issue with rivers that flow north like the Allagash and St John in Maine.

The original reason for the WMNF was not forest protection as much as flood protection to the towns downstream. There are a lot of historical reports of bridges washing out during spring "freshets" which were a combination of ice jams and floods or on occasion river drives. These "events happened far more often after the hillsides were stripped off softwoods with the drainages blocked up by undesirable hardwoods and tops. The Connecticut River and the Merrimack seemed to get the brunt of the damage as the banks were far more developed than the Androscoggin River which was an undesirable place to live due to the formerly industrial use of the river.

 

[SpencerVT]

It's so bizarre - I climbed Elephant Mountain (3772') in Maine Saturday and there was virtually no evidence that it had rained. I know it did in fact rain up there last week, but the snow was almost all unconsolidated powder with negligible crust. It felt like such an anomaly.

 

[peakbagger]

One of the more noticeable weather pattern shifts has been that Western Maine seems to get far more snow and less wet snow events of late. When I first moved to Gorham, snowfall maps were usually a series of somewhat concentric rings about Mt Washington, of late the high snow zone starts at Washington and then runs in a band NE towards the western maine mountains. The Andover Maine valley seems to get very high totals.
There was recent news report despite below average snow pack in southern maine along the coast, northern maine is having a record snow year.

 

[peakbagger]

To close this one out, that icy mess translated into a 10 to 12" of snow with breakable crust with another 10 to 12" of snow on top of it. Going to make for some interesting trail breaking of bushwhacking until the warm up next week to start redeveloping a crust.

 

[SpencerVT]

Vermont got a ton of snow this week, especially northern Vermont, so I will be out with my 40" mega snowshoes (canoes) this weekend!
Interesting about Western Maine, definitely sounds accurate!

 

[bikehikeskifish]

If there really is 10-12" of new snow, how come the commercial XC areas are not advertising it? They're saying more like 2-3 (WV and BW).

Torn between XC and Hiking this weekend,
Tim

 

[peakbagger]

Its very location and elevation dependent