Hi,
I’m going to thru hike the LT this summer. This will be great but not my last experience.
I want to take advantage of my chrismas vacations (about 2 weeks) to return to hike in Vermont. My preference is in the northern section.
What are conditions of the LT near january 1st? I’m concerned about how many snow level. Can I expect more than a feet of snow? Or even more?
La Fourmi
La Fourmi
Snow cover in December depends on the winter. It can be cold frozen ground, or a few feet of snow. No way to predict.
Peaks
Vermont gets snow around or before Thanksgiving,any North East storm will hit vermont very hard.I’am sure you would need SnowShoes.Also the trail crosses,or goes near Ski areas which make it’s own snow.Deep Snow can cover white A.T./L.T. markers.Heavy Snow can bend tree limbs covering the trail.Some Mountains are very steep and very Icy,you will need Crampons or Instep Crampons.Some Shelters used to have Wood Stoves but I think they are mostly gone now,so you will need a Winter Bag.Other than that,have a good trip.:boy
Old&In The Way
The northern part of the LT gets the edge of the lake effect snow from the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. It also can dip well below zero degrees at altitude in January. If you are prepared winter hiking is great.
Big B
It can dip to sub zero weather almost anywhere in the North country in January. I’ve seen -30 in the Bershires, and colder in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. And that’s not just in the mountains.
Peaks
www.viewsfromthetop.com/trail/vt/index.html is a good web resource for trail conditions year round but especially in winter. Scroll down the chronological list for winter entries and look for reports on LT hikes. Big LT peaks like Mansfield and the Lincoln peaks are hiked in winter but not by the LT because road access is limited in winter by closed mountain roads. Mansfield has many non LT trails. I climbed it in 02/04 from Underhill State Park on the west side of the mountain via the Sunset Ridge Trail. A very enjoyable hike, cold and lots of snow but on clear day winter hiking can’t be beat. You can find some pics from my hike in the Whiteblaze.net photo gallery.
Celt