I have never seen this much snow on Mount Moosilauke, in 42 years of hiking this mountain. Especially not in February. Well, maybe just once – in late March 2017, the first time I had to actually crawl a section of trail because the snow was so deep it nearly reached the branches of trees overhanging the trail. Today, the snow may have been slightly less deep – but with vastly more snow pillowed on the trees, causing them to bend over the trail. Today’s hike involved a lot more crouching and crawling. On the way up, I met hikers who had turned around, claiming the trail ahead was “impassable.” Read on!
Meanwhile, the sky was incredibly clear and blue, offering vistas across Vermont into the Adirondacks of New York, and across New Hampshire into Maine, with nary a cloud in sight. The summit was busy – I encountered about two dozen other hikers, and skiers, who were also out to capture the magic of this day.
What spectacular conditions! Be sure to visit the photo gallery for more. It’s really hard to capture in photos the experience of hiking through this snowy wonderland, with huge pillows of snow on the trees, and the challenge of crouching (or crawling!) between the top of the snowpack and the branches of overhanging trees – so don’t miss this short video.
Hike stats:
Distance: 7.36 miles (11.8km)
Time: 4h30 (about 2h51 up, 1h39 down)
Gain: 3,164 feet (964m)
David Kotz 
I broke this out on Friday — it was the most exhausting hike up Glencliff I’ve ever done (and I’ve done it 50+ times). Took me almost 3 hours just to make the junction breaking through that snow (alone). It hadn’t been touched since before the big dump last weekend. Definitely an experience.
Wow! By going on Saturday I figured someone must have broken it out during the week, but didn’t realize it was broken out just the day before. THANK YOU, that must have been a real grunt to do it alone.