It is finally winter. You can tell by looking outside, having the paralyzing early morning air steal the breath from you, and looking at a calendar today. I wish I had a wind gauge up here, things were really rocking up top. I was getting a little worried about the solar panels! The high yesterday reached 36 degrees and the overnight low dipped to 10 degrees! The current temperature is 10 degrees and it is snowing lightly. The mountain has received 2 inches thus far and we also had 1.70" of rain yesterday. The snow started falling around 8pm.
The trails are sure to be a mess today. There was a ton of water on the trail yesterday afternoon and I'm sure it has frozen. I would definitely recommend Microspikes or some other traction device. I also saw a few small blowdowns on Alum yesterday evening, there are bound to be plenty more. For the time being, the Newfound Gap road is closed. Keep an eye on the Park Service's twitter feed for more updates. Happy winter!