Conditions tough for spring N.E. hiking

Memorial Day is the traditional start of the summer hiking season across northern New England, but people who climb the region’s mountains this weekend could find something they might not have been expecting: winter.

From Vermont’s Mount Mansfield to New Hampshire’s Mount Washington or Maine’s Katahdin, there’s snow, and officials say it’s deep in places.

In Vermont, the trails are going to be opened on Saturday as usual, but in Maine, it could be several weeks before all the trails on Mount Katahdin are open.

On Mount Washington, the Appalachian Mountain Club is expecting the usual influx of hikers this weekend, but rather than sunscreen and bug spray they’re being urged to bring crampons and ice axes.

“People in the next several days will encounter some winter conditions,” said Ben Rose, the executive director of the Green Mountain Club. The club oversees Vermont’s Long Trail, which runs along the spine of the state from Massachusetts to Quebec.

Rose said that while this winter had more snow than normal, it wasn’t unheard of to find snow in the mountains on Memorial Day, although it has been more than a decade since it has happened.

“I would say this is on the snowier end of the late-snow normal curve,” Rose said. “It was a good snow year, but it’s not historic.”

Rose urged hikers to be prepared and use common sense.

He said people who walk through deep snow without snowshoes, a process he called post-holing, without proper footwear could be setting themselves up for trouble.

“If you start to chill, escaping in sneakers in the snow can be a hypothermia situation. When people take it lightly, and there’s still snow they can get in trouble,” Rose said.

People are already having trouble.

Last week, two hikers from Pennsylvania called for help after getting into trouble in the upper reaches of the Dry River Wilderness in Hart’s Location, N.H. One had lost a sneaker while trudging through 5 feet of snow.

In that case New Hampshire Fish and Game officials said the lack of snowshoes and appropriate footwear were significant factors in leading the two to call for help. Neither man suffered permanent injuries.

At the base of Mount Washington, Ben Schott of Appalachian Mountain Club volunteer services said it still is easy to hike back into winter.

“For the most part, you are going to run into muddy, rocky trails, but as you get farther into the huts and toward the summits, yeah, you are going to run into snow and ice,” he said.

The AMC is recommending people planning to hike to the summit of Mount Washington come prepared with crampons for traction and ice axes to get across snowfields.