dreams

[zemlya]

This trail sounds like the perfect solution to my winter stir-craziness! However, before I get my hopes up, I have a few questions for anyone out there who cares to comment. First of all, I always dream big, I am thinking of an end to end journey, but I don't have a large budget. How's the winter camping? How about resupply for food and such? I am envisioning something similar to my thru hike of the AT, only colder! Also, I would not consider myself an expert skier, what about a combination of snowshoeing and skiing? I envision a pulk or toboggan of gear, and switching footwear as necessary. Lastly, I have the month of March off. Is that too late in the season? Any feedback would be great, I'm still in the dreaming stage...

[Peaks]

I don't know of anyone who has done winter camping on the Catamount Trail. Unless there are property owner restrictions, there is no reason why it couldn't be done. Much of the Catamount Trail goes through private property, so we need to be aware of that, and not violate agreements. Certainly there are no established camping places, except where the trail coincides with the AT or Long Trail (Stratton Pond and Gov. Clement Shelter).

You would be at the mercy of the conditions. Sometimes the snow is too deep and soft to even ski. Other times, there is very little snow cover, especially late in the season. The trail can be ice covered.

Most people ski the Catamont Trail as a series of day trips. They use two cars so they don't need to double back.

Resupply: basically the same as the Long Trail. You need to go off the Catamount Trail and into town for resupply.

If I were going to do a long back-country ski, I might consider doing the Northville Lake Placid Trail, and in Feburary. I understand that trail stays fairly low and does not have sections like Huntington Gap and Bolton to Trapps.

[sambartlett]

I heard of one couple who started (at least) an end-to-end camping CT trip a few years ago, don't know how they did.
A school called Kroka takes a dozen or so teens each year on a nearly end-to-end backpacking trip with 2 break days. Then they build a boat and float back down the CT River in the spring.
I've done some winter ski camping/backpacking, never pulled a sled. I've skied 75% of the CT and on many sections I can remember thinking "This would be really tough with a pack, and a sled would be even worse." Yesterday I was sometimes hopping over open water barely breaking stride; with a pack I might have had to remove my skis to get across some of these same spots. And last winter, simply breaking trail solo with a daypack was tough, we had 20 folks in 1 minute rotation and we were still slow. But it can be done, it depends on your frame of mind, fitness level and skill level.
Another aspect is that TransCanada, who owns the southern three sections, does not allow overnight camping. You might be able to get permission, and if you haven't left a car in one of their trailhead parking lots, they'll never know, but we don't want to violate the rules of our host property owners.
GMNF has a nice cabin at Grout Pond, near the N end of section 4.
Have fun!