Mount Washington

Trail: Base Road, Ammonoosuc Link, Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail, Crawford Path, Monroe Loop

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

“Traction devices are very much dealers choice on best personal comfort pick. I wore snowshoes from the top of the Cog lot back down to hiker parking and felt pretty good. George swapped to crampons at the hut and wore them up summits and back down a little ways past the gem pool. Mix of very crusty flows, hard granular, and soft spring snow in the sun. Minor areas of drifting in the high shrub up to the hut near the headwall, its only slightly braided and mostly follows the cairns. There is one very short very sketchy spot on Monroe and medium amounts of really crusty hard ice flows on the way up Crawford Path. Started to get sticky and slightly suncupped in the big snowfields on the summit cone. Ammo down is in really good shape and a nice mix of grippy packed granular. Also zero bum touches and the perfect presi summit winter alpine zone day. Ample sunbathing and incredibly balmy on the summit. Stayed in base layers all day :)”

Trail: Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail, Monroe Loop, Crawford Path, Cog Path, Westside, Gulfside, Jefferson Loop, Jewell Trail

Conditions: Ice - Blue, Snow - Packed Powder/Loose Granular, Ice - Breakable Crust, Snow - Drifts

“Snowshoes or light traction below treeline, light traction above. I wore spikes door to door. Ammo was a packed highway 99% of the way, this will change after tomorrow's snow, so bring snowshoes. Above the hut to Monroe; a little icy to the Monroe Loop, then dust on crust to the summit, easy going. Crawford Path to Mount Washington summit was hard-packed snow with some very minor drifts, simple to scoot up in spikes. From Washington, I hiked right next to the tracks until Westside, where I picked up Gulfside, crusty snow on the immediate right or left of the tracks, but ice covering a good portion of the swath. Gulfside and Jefferson Loop were a mix of hard-packed snow, rocks, minor drifting, and easily avoidable ice. Jewell Trail, was packed but soft where it missed a switchback above treeline. Below treeline, it's packed and in great shape. Beautiful day above treeline; no wind, abundant sunshine, and incredible visibility. Sarge had a blast rolling around in the snow and eating it. Plenty of happy Gridiots out and about taking advantage of beach day conditions :)”

Trail: Valley Way, Osgood Trail, Airline, Gulfside, Jefferson Loop, Crawford Path, Monroe Loop, Eisenhower Loop

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

“Beautiful day out. Rare no wind day that stayed above 20 degrees the whole outing. Valley Way is packed down nicely, used snowshoes but mostly just for the televators. Around the tent site it is a little soft until your break treeline. Madison and Adams via Airline are crusty and packed nice. Microspikes were great here all the way down to Thunderstorm Junction. The walk over to Jefferson from here was tough work. Started it in spikes but the trail has been well post-holed all the way over so snowshoes came back on which made it a bit easier. Ascending Jefferson was awkward in snowshoes due to the side slope but was ultimately better option due to the knee-thigh deep posthole track until the top summit cone which is crusted over nicely. Mountaineering axe just took a ride for the day, the snow was soft enough that it never felt necessary to pull out. Snowshoes stayed on from here until over around the cog. The south side of Jefferson was much more hard-packed and could probably have been fine in microspikes. Mount Washington was a circus with lots of guide groups, saw more than 40 people on the summit at 12 pm. Switched to microspikes which carried us all the way to the car. The walk from Washington summit to Eisenhower was a highway and the most pleasant part of the day. Some pretty solid ice flows on the north face of Eisenhower put no issues with traction in microspikes. Eisenhower to Pierce was in better shape than expected although drifty in places, never felt the need to put snowshoes back on. Pierce down the Crawford path was bullet proof from all of the holiday weekend traffic and was a speedy trip to the car.”