January 8th, 2020

Good afternoon fellow trailblazers!


Truly blessed to wake up to yet another beautiful day atop Mount LeConte! It is currently a cozy 29 degrees. The sun is shining with no clouds in sight, with moderate wind gusts every now and then. With 2 more inches of snow yesterday, there is now 6 inches at the top! Yesterday's high was 30 degrees, with another bone-chilling low of 15. We should see some warmer temperatures and clear skies throughout the next few days, and no more snow is on the forecast as of right now. Highway 441 is now open, so Alum Cave and the Boulevard trails are now accessible. Use extreme caution climbing the mountain today! I actually walked up and down Alum Cave yesterday afternoon, and the upper half was pretty dicey. Use the cables to your advantage! Be safe out there folks...

Snow and ice; the perfect mixture of beauty and hostility! A little bit of white on the mountain is like icing on the cake. Seeing the snow cling to the branches of the beloved spruce fir tree, and planting a fresh footprint into untouched powder, it's the simple things that fuel me up here...

During my hike up the mountain last night, I noticed two very bright "stars" in the sky. One of them was light blue, and the other was red. Glowing bright in the night sky, they appeared before any other stars. They were very hard to see with the naked eye, but I am almost certain that these are planets (possibly Venus and Mars?)! Has anyone ever witnessed something like this in the park? I've been trampling around the Smokies for over two years now, and I've never seen anything like this! This mountain needs a working telescope...

-Kemp