Mount Tripyramid (North Peak)

Trail: Pine Bend Brook Trail, Mt. Tripyramid Trail

Conditions: Ice - Blue, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow - Spring Snow

“Such nice conditions. Spikes/Hillsound Pros were used by all of us. David did use crampons for the descent from Middle to the flatter portion of Pine Bend Brook trail for added traction. There are areas of bare ground, interspersed with come granular ice and snow but much of the trail is nicely packed snow. There are a few areas with blue ice but we managed to work around those. No issues with our traction for the steeps either ascending or descending and no bum touches. Conditions were fast and just really great. This crew was stellar in every way and we were well fueled by our favorite sponsor.”

Trail: Pine Bend Brook Trail, Mt. Tripyramid Trail, Kate Sleeper Trail, Rollins Trail, Dicey's Mill Trail, Walden Trail, Square Ledge Trail, Passaconaway Cutoff, Oliverian Brook Trail

Conditions: Ice - Black, Snow - Trace/Minimal Depth, Ice - Blue, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Wet/Slippery Rock, Standing/Running Water on Trail, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable), Snow/Ice - Postholes

“Microspikes all day. Pine Bend Brook is everything from bare dirt/rocks to packed snow, never came close to sinking in either on trail or off. The rain and thaw/freeze has set everything up nicely. On a warm day, things will get messy as there is still a lot of snow above 3000'. The climb down from S. Tripyramid is ice/bare ground/rock, and the S. Slide is pretty much snow free. Tracks for one or two snowshoers from a while ago are still visible on Kate Sleeper and helped tremendously with navigation...only had to use the GPS a couple of times. They did a great job navigating and was happy to keep seeing the blue blazes. If you are going to try this route, you should be a good navigator as even 1 or 2 inches of snow will obscure the previous tracks and the route meanders a decent amount and is not always obvious. Even the Moose aren't postholing right now, but they sure are crapping all over the trail on Kate Sleeper and Oliverian Brook...never seen so much! Rollins trail has some postholes and some somewhat sketchy ice flows which can be down climbed carefully, but you'll def want sharp spikes. My Hillsounds worked well. The climb up to Passaconaway on Dicey's Mills has more ice slabs, but the most challenging (from icy trail perspective) section is the Walden Trail going down the back of Passaconaway. If you were at all uncomfortable coming up Dicey's Mill to the Passaconaway summit, don't go down the Walden Trail...go back down the way you came. Heading down the Passaconaway Cutoff, it is very lightly traveled, with just one set of snowshoe tracks, I'm assuming the same hiker I followed through Kate Sleeper.”

Trail: Pine Bend Brook Trail, Mt. Tripyramid Trail

Conditions: Ice - Blue, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Snow/Ice - Frozen Granular, Snow/Ice - Monorail (Stable), Snow - Spring Snow, Snow/Ice - Postholes

“Pretty good conditions today, a far cry from when I was here 5 days ago on a warm day with oodles of rototilling and postholing. Today the trail was rough with some fossilized postholes from bareboots and snowshoes but overall was good. Nice and firm so no postholing. Spikes trailhead to trailhead. There's a couple of bare spots in the lower coniferous trees but few and far between. And there's some ice on the upper half mile in the usual ledgy areas so rock spikes are not recommended. Careful route selection easily avoids the ice. My Hillsound Trail Crampons (spikes) worked just fine although I carried real Crampons and snowshoes. Neither needed. The SS could be used depending how much snow we get tonight but too rough and uneven trail to use today.”