White Mountains

[One Half]

Does anyone know when the latest White Mountain Guide (30th edition I believe) was published and when the next edition may be due to come out?

Thanks

[Slo-go'en]

30th edition was published 2017. Looks like it's been updated every 5 years or so, going back to the '80. Judging by that, I guess a new edition might be coming out in the next year or two. Not that much changes, the trails haven't moved in a 100 years, except for very occasional minor reroutes.

[peakbagger]

I agree that a new one is coming up in about a year. The recent WMGs have been expanding. Talk to any highlighter (formerly called redliner), there are lot of small local trail networks being built in the region and the editors are adding them to guide so the list of trails to be hiked to complete the list is increasing. The WMNF is also slowly but actively abandoning trails at the fringes of the forest) and just letting others disappear with zero blazes and zero maintenance like several in Caribou Speckled Wilderness (Haystack Notch trail being one of them). The only reason some of those Wilderness area trails seem only to be kept navigable by the passage of hikers working on their list

Some of the new trails are pretty ridiculous like the one in Shelburne on the ME state line. My thoughts are that the WMG is a big revenue source for the AMC and they need to add new copyrighted content to keep the sales up of new editions. A vast majority of casual hikers are depending on online phone aps and maps and a lot of the "free info" is crap. Sites like AllTrails has just enough info to get in trouble, high on superlatives from clueless folks but low on important content and warnings, they just scrape the web for info and there is no moderation.

The downside with the WMG is its a "heavy brick" that few hikers actually carry in the woods. Most read the description at home or photocopy the page or take a picture of it. AMC did have an online version for a few years but it was pretty buggy and just did not work well.

[One Half]

thanks guys!