now for the bad news

12/28/2024

UPDATE MONDAY AFTERNOON 12/30: The forecasts said we'd only see 40s, but Sunday night the temperatures climbed into the 50s with some wind, so more melting than initially expected. Still expecting cooler temperatures starting on Wednesday and even a few snow showers, but not enough to get us back to where we were a few days ago. There is some indication that at least the first two weeks of January will be consistently cold, but so far no indication of whether that will translate into any snow. As of Monday, the only x-c skiing is about 3 km of man-made snow on the competition trails at Mt. Van Hoevenberg.

POSTED SATURDAY, 12/28: The latest forecasts are unanimous that we will have rain and temperatures in the 40s both Sunday and Monday and the warmth will continue into Tuesday. This pattern appears to be coming in as a temperature inversion, so no guarantee how much of the rail will fall as snow at the higher elevations..
Then it will start cooling down on New Year's Day with a high only around 20 by Friday. Unfortunately, so far only a few snow showers predicted as it cools down. This warm spell won't likely melt all of the snow, but surface conditions will not be ideal after it cools down. The exception will be the groomed centers - assuming they have held a base.
We won't try to provide daily reports of the melt, but will see what is left as of New Year's night and go from there.

1 Comment

Trail Conditions 101

Trail condition reports are posted frequently during the ski season. The Adirondack backcountry can be a hard place to predict with weather and trail conditions that often change rapidly. We can't offer the same detailed descriptions of trail conditions as groomed nordic centers.

Always plan ahead for your outing, be prepared with proper clothing, equipment, maps and emergency supplies, and check local weather conditions as well before departing on your trip.

Maps - don't leave home without them!

For trails in the High Peaks Wilderness area, we recommend purchasing the High Peaks Adirondack Trail Map from the Adirondack Mountain Club.

For trails outside of the High Peaks area, we recommend purchasing the Lake Placid & Saranac Lake Winter Trails Map from Green Goat Maps, which covers the Jackrabbit Ski Trail and other adjacent ski touring opportunities.

Matt

12/28/2024 02:42:48 pm

Skied the wright peak ski trail on Thursday 12/26 and it was very good, and well covered. From the loj I was able to skin all the way up to the junction with Algonquin, where I then booted up with crampons. Good coverage on the whole trail, didn’t hit any rocks or trees until the bottom of the ski trail. I tried skiing a little further down the regular trail, but it was a bit too rocky for my taste. The ski trail (not sure the name of it) that goes from near the whales tail junction back to the loj was good to ski too.

Ski Trail Conditions
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