Carter Dome

Trail: Ski trails, Wildcat Ridge Trail, Nineteen Mile Brook Trail, Carter Moriah Trail, North Carter Trail, Imp Trail

Conditions: Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable)

“Traverse from Wildcat D to Middle Carter. Started polecat and across the ridge, there was some hard/greyish ice past the summit.. rock spikes pretty much went & stayed on from here. Could get through it with holding on to some friendly trees & taking it slow. Ridge itself was mostly hard monorail. Then coming down Wildcat A had minimal ice in a few sections, just handled similarly to coming from Wildcat D, otherwise hard monorail. Coming up Carter dome was surprisingly bare in a lot of parts, the rock spikes took a good beating here but better than on/ off. Nothing notable, there’s obviously some steep sections, at the time it was hardpacked & firm grip with spikes. Headed to South Carter from the dome, the section between on the way to zeta pass, is your usually ugly section.. there’s stuff to grip onto, that lil monorail may breakdown soon on some warm days/ with rain. Some bare trail between ice.. from zeta pass lots of dry earth, some ice but not as memorable. Ridge between South / middle was a solid grip of hard monorail, then down north Carter/ imp trail was a mess of ice on/off but grey ice so traction was solid.. lower elevation towards camp dodge is a knee beating of bare earth & rock. Long day, but always big bang for buck. Saw other 3 couples out there in spikes. Happy hiking 🥾”

Trail: Nineteen Mile Brook Trail, Carter Dome Trail, Carter Moriah Trail, North Carter Trail, Imp Trail

Conditions: Dry Trail, Wet Trail, Ice - Blue, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable), Snow - Wet/Sticky

“The weather today was *chefs kiss*. We didn’t use traction until almost 3 miles in. Loads of ice - snow shoes were overkill. We encountered an extremely aggressive grouse going up to Carter dome as an fyi. The ice going down north Carter trail to Imp was very thick for extended periods of the trail (traction definitely needed!). We did Imp face which was a delight! Adds a few miles and a lot more fun.”

Trail: Camp Dodge Cutoff, Imp Trail, North Carter Trail, Carter-Moriah Trail, Wildcat Ridge Trail, ski trails

Conditions: Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Ice - Blue, Ice - Breakable Crust, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable), Snow - Wet/Sticky, Snow - Spring Snow, Slush

“Parked at Wildcat, rode my bike down to Camp Dodge to start the hike. Monorail was very solid all day, it will take quite a warm up or decent snow storm to need snowshoes at this point, but there is a lot of ice out there lurking under the snow. Bare booted in ~1" of new snow through Camp Dodge and up Imp trail for 1.5 miles. At that point, there started to be significant ice flows under the snow so switched to microspikes, which worked well up to Carter-Moriah Trail. Very narrow monorail under ~2-3" of fresh snow keeps you on your toes but microspikes still the way to go. S facing sections started to get slushy which added to the challenge. Some hard ice under the snow in places, especially coming down from S. Carter. Met another hiker near Zeta pass coming back from Carter Dome, he had started up to Hight but turned around as he felt it was a bit sketchy. I was gridding out the Carters today, and it was a clear/no wind day so I wanted to give it a shot and the climb ended up being not bad...packed monorail but not icy and my microspikes held well. I've been fortunate to have some great days on Hight and it is one of the best peaks in the Whites on a clear day. More elevated monorail from Hight back to Carter Dome trail and up to Carter Dome. Still crazy amounts of snow which means you get views you won't get in the summer as you can see over the scrub. Coming down from Carter Dome to the Notch had a lot of Slushy Side Slope of Doom. Spikes were balling up, but they were necessary with the new snow on top of the side slope. The steep section down into the notch after the lookout had enough rocks that you could mostly downclimb, but there is still enough ice that whatever your best traction is, you will be glad you have it. Crampons and an ice axe wouldn't be crazy. Heading up Wildcat Ridge Trail from the Notch was more Side Slope Shenanigans...mostly grippy with microspikes but you would not be sad with crampons...there are sections with solid ice under the snow which could become very exciting quickly if not careful. Once I got to A I was glad to see a lot of people had done an out/back from the ski area and the trail was pretty broken in (the ski area was closed Mon-Thurs this week, so people could climb/descend the trails all day as opposed to the usual "not when the lifts are operating". I didn't get to the ski trails until 4:15pm, so it didn't help me. Remembered to retrieve my bike down at Camp Dodge, one of these days I'm going to forget!”