| Summary | None |
| Owner | Aaron Yahr |
| Creation Date | 2012-03-20 15:41:27 UTC-0400 |
| Description | 3/17/12 - 13 hrs - 20 mi - 8000+ ft gain
Last day hike of the winter season. Did it solo in plastics and microspikes. Started the day with 4L of water, and didn't end up needing to get any more along the way. Shell, heavy gloves, googles, etc never left my pack. This was the most interesting of the day presitraverses that I've done. I encountered three seasons worth of trail conditions including firm snow, slush, postholing snow, ice of many angles, baked ice, bare rock, plants, dirt/mud, standing water, and even a nearly impassible (in microspikes) ice bulge on Valley Way in a steep shady spot. The worst though, by far, was the snow runoff from the south face of Washington that created an ankle deep river on top of slush along the Crawford Path. Good thing I wore the plastics. Although the ground conditions were mixed, the weather was quite summery despite it still being calendar winter. One of the Lakes of the Clouds had thawed. Winter 2011-2012 came late and left early in the Whites...here are what the experts said: "If we were face to face and I was explaining the overall conditions on the mountain to you it wouldn’t be a pretty sight. My eyes would be red and weepy, tears rolling off my sunken cheeks soaking my water logged shirt. My head would be hunched down dreaming of winters gone by, I think you’ve got the picture." - Chris Joosen, WMNF Head Snow Ranger, 3/14/12 "Years from now, we’ll be sitting around the woodstove telling stories of how wacky the weather was...In case you spent the weekend watching basketball games in your basement man cave, the weather was unbelievably hot and sunny for the middle of March." - Jeff Lane, WMNF Snow Ranger, 3/18 and 3/19/12 "If you are a white tail deer or a deer tick, this was a great winter. If you like to cross country ski - not so much. Either way, it's unusual for this part of Maine to be so springlike in March." - Jensen Bissell, Director, Baxter State Park, 3/19/12 |