Non-technical Spring Hike Recommendation?

[mrzilliox]

hey folks

my sister was hoping to hike one of the "name" peaks (Washington/Katahdin/Greylock) this spring before she returns to fighting fires in Sequoia for the summer, but didn't quite grasp the technical & weather aspects that April/May hiking bring. she's been in California too long!

anyway, we had figured the weekend of April 7-8-9 to get out and hike before she heads off. She doesn't own crampons, but we were hoping maybe this mild winter would have thawed at least some of the lower peaks by that time. I haven't been up north since last September.

any chance that any portion of Franconia Ridge will be thawed by then or would it just be a sloppy mess even if it was?

any other day-hike recommendations that wouldn't require winter gear?

 

[Mike P.]

Do you have snowshoes?

April 7-9th will likely still require some traction in Northern New England. While the Ridge may be relatively ice free if nothing new falls (likely there will be some) there will still be a bunch of snow & ice below treeline, heading down having more potential for falling than going up also.

Greylock may be doable, Monadnock maybe also if you go mid -day so any night time freezing may warm up. I as in southen Berkshires last weekend & they are snow free. (this was East of Butternut & just east of Otis)

MSR snowshoes may get you enough traction for Franconia Ridge although personally I love crampons.

 

[mrzilliox]

hey Mike - thanks for the reply.

we've got snowshoes, but also a couple dogs. so that rules out Monadnock and has me nervous for anything steep & icy that requires serious traction. Franconia Ridge has been a goal of mine for a couple years, this might not be the time.

any southern Whites with a nice ski-lift-free vista?

I'm gonna have to break out my white mtn guide over a couple beverages tonight and see what I can find...

 

[Mike P.]

What kind of snowshoes? If MSR's & you head up OBP/Greenleaf & descend Falling Waters, IMO you should be fine. IMO Falling Waters is not that steep that the MSR's are useless. It's steep enough to make Recreational snowshoes IMO unwise.

Doing the loop this way in questionable weather IMO is better. April & October are the toughest months to gauge as both can exhibit nice conditions at the trailhead (upper 40's low 50's) and really feel like winter up top. Sure it can be miserable in July that usually is a cold 35 degree rain, bad for hypothermia but not a white out potential, just peas -soup fog. An Early April snowstorn is possible, even in CT.

Doing loop this way allows you to get to the hut @ 4200 & see what lies ahead. If you can't see it, strike one. Will also have some wind, if real windy, strike two. If combined with strike 1, your done. Can safely ascend to the end of the scrub but I would be very leery about hitting Lafayette & returning, Lafayette is a pretty wide mountain when trying to figure out where the trail goes amongst the rocks. You have a half mile or so between the end of the scrub & the top to lose your bearing & not be able to find the hole through the thick vegetation that the trail goes through.

I feel more comfortable getting to the hut & saying, "I got to 4200 feet" instead of saying " I got to some point on X trail & turned back." How high is some point? A trail junction typically can be determined to be at a certain elevation & distance but a turning back at a birch tree or a rock can't be.

Moosilaukee via Glencliff or the Carriage Road are not steep climbs & it's a great summit.
Pierce is very doable in Snowshoes only too, bad a Preseidential & if conditions are good Eisenhower can be done, Sunday of that Week is after DST, so another hour of daylight in the afternoon/evening