Where do you learn about current conditions?

[hikeutah]

Usually it's easy to predict where is good at what time of year... but some years (like this one, when the West got inundated with snow) it's hard to know where is good to go! Just looking at Mountain-Forecast.com only gets you so far, and asking around in Facebook groups gets annoying to the people in the group.

So where do you check conditions? Do you know of any cool sites people are using to give conditions updates? I'm looking for places with solid info (see example), for anywhere in the US.

Here's an example of an awesome way to get conditions reports for a place with no webcams, and that's infrequently travelled (the Wind River Range): https://www.greatoutdoorshop.com/conditions/trail-report/

[Uncle_Bob]

For Washington State the trip reports on WTA (https://www.wta.org/go-outside/trip-reports) is a fairly good resource to see where the snow level is at and general trail conditions/access issues.

[hikeutah]

That's awesome, I forgot about that one! I used to live in WA (got into the outdoors after I moved away), but I recall my brother useing that one. I'll have to bookmark it for next time up up there 🙂

[Philreedshikes]

You are so right!  Getting good intel on trail conditions is sometimes hard as heck.  Most trails don't have the benefit of having a dedicated FB group to talk about the trails, and when they do, most don't report back after the hike.

I use weather.gov for the most accurate extrapolations of weather forecasts at different altitudes/places, perfect for places without weather stations.

I also go to webcams at or near the trail head when available, also the viewing of traffic webcams near the trailhead will give a point in time look at what's going on right now, or to see if the snow has melted, at least that the traffic cams elevation.

One thing I do, which I think a lot of folks overlook, is calling the nearest ranger station or sheriffs office or local SAR group, they usually have great information.

good luck!