March 29, 2023

Good Morning,

It’s a frosty mountaintop this Wednesday, with every surface glazed in a crunchy white. The skies are clear all around though, and we are set to have a beautiful sunny day ahead. Hikers will experience brisk conditions to start this day, as we’ve dipped down to temps in the teens. Once that glowing orb in the sky overtakes High Top to the east, its warmth should help toast things up and even see us reach temps in the 40s this afternoon. Breezy conditions will persist out of the north with gusts of 30mph at times. Traction devices and warm layers are all good things to pack today whether staying overnight or just passing through.

We’d prefer to be done talking about it, but The Great Ground Freeze of March 2023 on Mt. LeConte had one more parting shot in store for us yesterday. Thank you to everyone who visited the lodge Tuesday afternoon for your patience and understanding while we tackled another unplanned and pesky pipe issue. Not having running water for a couple hours during peak traffic hours is never ideal, especially for the hard working crew having to tote jugs of water up from the spring just to keep things rolling. But all systems are back up and running as they should be once again! April is drawing near, and hopefully we can put this bothersome beast of March to bed once and for all.

Have a great day.