Next Sunday, 1/13: Isolation

Here's how things are shaking out: based on feedback so far, this Sunday we're talking Isolation for tMail's list, and a big Franconia Ridge thing (Liberty to Lafayette) for Spungie Day on the 19th. Right now, it's raining everywhere, including on the higher summits where it's mixed with ice and sleet and snow... but mostly rain.

If cold temperatures between tonight and Sunday morning are adequate, we'll be on hard, frozen snow and the challenge will be enormous, especially brook crossings where most of the snow bridges will have washed out.

Isolation is becoming for me what Owl's Head is for the PM. After my first time there, I decided that was enough. Sunday, if that's where we go, it'll be my third visit in two years.

[Update 1/12, 3:45pm] Spanky and I went for a trail run for about an hour, in part to judge the snow cover. We're at about 1,400ft which is about 500ft lower than most of the lower trailheads in the Whites. Here's how it sugared out:

• Well packed trails: plenty of snow - at least a foot of firm surface
• Fresh snow off the trail: snowshoes needed, soft, grainy, deep postholes
• Open, sunny, south-facing knolls: bare from rain & sun
  
• Streams, low drainage points, etc.: wet
• Low snow cover spots in the woods: bare from rain.

So my guess, for anyone venturing into the high country tomorow, is that the packed trails will be in good shape with hard, icy surfaces from tonight's freeze; the summits will be bare and possibly frosty/icy, and poorly used trails or bushwacks would be slow and wet.

I realize this isn't a profound discovery.... just thought I'd share, you ungrateful bastard.