I just wanted to take a moment as I ring in the New Year and share a little of the beauty that I get to enjoy every day here on Mt. LeConte.  May your life be filled with many, many beautiful moments this year.

    On your journey through this coming year I hope you can pause and ask,"What Difference Do I Make?"  You do make a difference.  It's important and significant and essential.

    Happy New Year from Mt. Leconte.  I am on the mountain to pass the New Year.  I came up the Rainbow Falls trail today and had a wonderful hike.  The trail still has pleanty snow and ice.  Highway 441 was closed today so I wasn't able to get to the Alum Cave trail head.  It looks like there may be more snow over night.  It warmed some today and made all the snow mushy.  The cold tempatures tonight will freeze everything solid.

    LeConte Lodge crew members went to the Tennessee Theatre to enjoy the Avett Brothers in concert.  We had a fantastic time.  It was really nice to get together with everyone in the off season.

    Millie and I had a lovely date.  It was very nice to spend time with eachother.  We had a great time hanging out with crew members Kelly, Alex, Meradith and Katie. 
    I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year!

    It was 11 degrees this morning.  The low reached 4 and our high was 16.  The sun and wind took a couple inches of snow away from us and then a half inch fell overnight for a total of 14.5 inches of snow on the ground.  It's time for some hot coffee!  I'll be hiking on the Alum Cave trail today so I should have another report on the trail conditions. 

   After I reported the low temperature as 9 this morning the temperature promptly dropped to 5!  So far the high has reached 12.  It's been a crisp day to say the least.  I have been out for a walk and the mountain is beautiful today.  This image made me realize that the beauty of Mt. Leconte is reflected in absolutely everything here.

    I revisited the Old Fence Post today.  There's about two feet less snow around it.  Everything looks so clean when it's frozen.

    I went over to check on Millie's Place (The Honeymoon Suite).  It's lonely without you Millie!

    It's a frosty morning here on LeConte.  It's 8 degrees with light snow falling.  The high was 29  and the low was 8 degrees.  There's still about 16 inches of snow on the ground.  There's a lot of patchy ice so be careful if you get out to hike the Smokies today. 

    It's 17 degrees here on LeConte.  The high was 29 and the low 16.  there was no percipitation but we still have 16 inches of snow on the ground.  It should be a beautiful day on the mountain.  If you're out for a hike watch out for ice and downed trees!  There's a lot of spots where the snow melted down and then froze over.  The combination of  snow in the trees and high winds has left a lot of blow down.

    I'm back on Mt. LeConte after a wonderful Christmas.  The hike down Rainbow Falls was difficult to say the least.  There was a lot of snow and patchy ice.  We had some really high winds as well.  but I made it down and Henry made it up safely.  I had a really nice Christmas with my family and Millie.  Mom really spoiled me with some fantastic meals!  I do wish that I could have come down on Wednesday and had some more time to spend with Millie and my family but the weather wouldn't permit it.  It's really a blessing to be able to spend some time with family and friends.

    I got to hike back up the Alum Cave Trail today with my friends Anne and Phil.  Thanks for a great hike!  I always enjoy time on the trail with you.  There wasn't as much snow and ice in the trail as I expected.  But there was an amazing amount of blow down.  The high winds that came through Thursday night really put a lot of trees across the trail.  Fortunately there wasn't anything we couldn't climb over or under!

    Despite all the trees we had to climb over and crawl under, we had a really fun hike.  There were some fantastic views of the Smokies today.  It wasn't too cold.  We followed the Thursday Hiking Group up the trail.  We stayed behind them so they could break trail and clear out some of the snow!  Thanks Thursday Hiking Group!  We all had a cup of Hot Chocolate together at the top.  They brought me lots of goodies!  Fruit, fudge, banana bread, ham biscuits!  Wow!  I love the Thursday Hikers!  What a wonderful day.  I'm glad to be back on LeConte.

    I'm hiking down the mountain to enjoy Christmas with family and friends.  There's 28 inches of snow on the ground.  It's 29 degrees out.  The low was 25 with a high of 34.  There are high winds and no precipitation.  Rain is on the way for the valley.  it's a gamble weather it will be cold enough to snow up here or rain.  I'm betting on snow.  I wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas.

    We've had another beautiful day on Leconte with some fantastic views.  The snow gives everything a clean and crisp feeling. 

    This spot is on the trail going from the Lodge up to the Back Country Shelter.  When the Park Service used to allow tent camping on Leconte this was the camp ground.  The view here is almost always fantastic.

    Brent Weaver, Adam Grant and Brandon Matteson stopped by the kitchen to say hello after climbing the Rainbow Falls Trail.  They are friends associated with Johnson Bible College.  There are reports of eight hikers coming up and back down the Rainbow Falls Trail.  No one has broken trail on any of the other routs.  It's 31 degrees out with sunny skies.  There's still about 30 inches of snow on the ground.  I am grateful that these brave souls have cleared out the trail a bit for me.  I hope to hear that these three make it down without incident.