Mount Moosilauke

Trail: Roadwalk, Gorge Brook Trail, Snapper Trail, Carriage Road, Gorge Brook Trail

Conditions: Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow - Drifts

“After today, I think I can only reach one conclusion: I must be the laziest MFer hiking in the Whites, because why would you hike right now without snowshoes? As we started on Gorge Brook, we remarked at how, even though the trail was fully broken, it still felt soft underfoot. Luckily for us, this is exactly the type of snow that snowshoes were made for. At the Snapper junction, we saw that it was delightfully packed and flat, so we opted to go up Snapper and Carriage Road. Snapper was delightful snowshoeing. When we got to the junction of Carriage Road, we could see it had been packed by skis both going up, and going out to Breezy Point. Carriage Road was also delightful snowshoeing up to the Glencliff junction. After the junction…yikes. I think on our travels to the summit and Gorge Brook down, we passed close to 50 people coming opposite our direction. All but maybe 5 of them had spikes on. So now, the entire loop is completely churned up and a mess. We saw people postholing to their nether regions, which could not have been fun. There’s one section on the top of Gorge Brook that is DESTROYED, and is on a sidehill to boot. Definitely not ideal right now. It’s too bad Moose is getting the Jackson/Pierce/Liberty treatment with everyone just assuming because it’s broken out, spikes are fine. Will take a LOT of snowshoe love to reset the trails :(”

Trail: Roadwalk, Gorge Brook Trail, Snapper Trail, Carriage Road, Gorge Brook Trail

Conditions: Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow - Drifts

“After today, I think I can only reach one conclusion: I must be the laziest MFer hiking in the Whites, because why would you hike right now without snowshoes? As we started on Gorge Brook, we remarked at how, even though the trail was fully broken, it still felt soft underfoot. Luckily for us, this is exactly the type of snow that snowshoes were made for. At the Snapper junction, we saw that it was delightfully packed and flat, so we opted to go up Snapper and Carriage Road. Snapper was delightful snowshoeing. When we got to the junction of Carriage Road, we could see it had been packed by skis both going up, and going out to Breezy Point. Carriage Road was also delightful snowshoeing up to the Glencliff junction. After the junction…yikes. I think on our travels to the summit and Gorge Brook down, we passed close to 50 people coming opposite our direction. All but maybe 5 of them had spikes on. So now, the entire loop is completely churned up and a mess. We saw people postholing to their nether regions, which could not have been fun. There’s one section on the top of Gorge Brook that is DESTROYED, and is on a sidehill to boot. Definitely not ideal right now. It’s too bad Moose is getting the Jackson/Pierce/Liberty treatment with everyone just assuming because it’s broken out, spikes are fine. Will take a LOT of snowshoe love to reset the trails :(”

Trail: Ravine Road, Gorge Brook, Carriage Road and Snapper Trails

Conditions: Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow - Unpacked Powder

“We bare booted the road walk to the lodge. Snowshoes were put on before we crossed the bridge to the trails and left them on for the rest of the hike. Gorge Brook Trail was packed out with a couple of inches of unconsolidated snow. Same conditions were found at the intersection with the Snapper Trail. Top of the Gorge Brook Trail from the first outlook to the summit cone was not consolidated at all. Plenty of post holes a foot or more deep. Made crossing a steep contoured section of the trail difficult to cross. It was only 50 feet or so and we all made it across with no problem. Summit cone was packed snow with no ice to the summit. Winds today were about 25 mph at the summit which made it uncomfortable to sit and enjoy so we took a photo and headed over the ridge on the Carriage Road. Some sections of ice coming off of the summit was easily avoided and more unconsolidated snow as we headed into the trees. Trails were narrow with a lot of low hanging branches but easy to walk through. After the Intersection with the Glenn Cliff Trail, the Carriage Road widened and the trail consolidate more due to the skiers. Snapper Trail was unconsolidated for the most part back to the Gorge Brook Trail intersection. Snowshoes was the way to go today.”