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January 12, 2012
Hi Folks,
6AM Wednesday morning the phone rings… "Hello, this is Mark Zingare from John Fuller School. There will be no school today due to a much needed winter snow storm. School will be in session tomorrow." CLICK. Needless to say I had a hard time getting back to sleep so I got up and groggily wandered downstairs, fully expecting to see a snow-filled back deck. Surprisingly enough, there was nothing - nada - not a speck! I put the kettle on for some tea and puttered into the office to check out the latest radar. The big green blob was coming our way, looking like noting but big alien amoeba, coming to gobble us up. However, it was still a ways away. Maybe it could still miss us…doubtful tho.
I went back in the kitchen, poured my tea and settled in for some work on the computer while my mind was fresh, checking out the window every once in a while. At 7AM, almost on the dot, the snow started to fall and it hasn't stopped yet. As I'm not a downhill or backcountry skier, I'm not all that excited about snow. However I know that we need snow to make the ice continue to build and for the local economy, so I'm happy when it comes.
I've been working hard on programming for a couple of web clients for the past 10 days and usually I get pretty burned out after a couple of days in front of the computer with no breaks. I reached that stage on Tuesday morning so I gave Brad a call and begged him to get bail from the office and go climbing instead of going out for lunch. He agreed and came by at 1 and we headed over to Cathedral. Several folks have done repentance over the past week, and tho I didn't have that much time I figured we could go grab the first pitch in the time I had available.
We pulled up and there was already a couple of cars there at the little pulloff just past the kiosk. As we were gearing up Jeff L and Brian P came out of the woods. I'd seen Jeff on the climb last Saturday and he said that it was so good he just had to grab it again! He mentioned that there was even enough ice in the curtail at the start of P2 that he got in an ice screw before he had to "gun it". We headed up the hill and he was certainly correct. It looked great, better even that expected.
I grabbed my gear, Brad flaked the rope and up I went. As always I clipped the pin at the start and kept on going. There was plenty of ice all the way. It wasn't exactly plastic, and a couple of places it fractured, but there were lots of places for screws and one place when I kind of scummed my way against the chimney and relaxed for a bit. The copout to the anchor stance was a bit fluted and tricky, but it's always that way so it was no biggie. It really felt good to climb something a bit on the hard side that I needed to place screws in for a change.
I set it up as a TR and Brad lowered me down. He took his run, we packed things up and headed back to the house. The time was not the issue, but FWIW the whole thing took 90 minutes door to door. Just what I needed to clear my head. A bit of lunch and I was back at it. I just gotta love living up here…
repentance_1
repentance_2
repentance_3
A third incident in a week took place on Mt Washington on Monday evening.
"The accident happened around 7:45 p.m. Monday, according to U.S. Forest Service Snow Ranger Chris Joosen, when Patrick Scott Powers, 46, of Mansfield, Mass., fell down snow- and ice-covered slopes into Tuckerman Ravine. Powers was alive when rescuers first reached him, but he succumbed to injuries sustained in the fall before he reached Pinkham Notch."
You can read the full story here:
http://www.conwaydailysun.com/featured/story/fall011112
2 previous incidents were avalanche related and took place in Huntington so needless to say with the current conditions some attention would be justified!
Last summer Boston native Mark Richey led an expedition to the remote peaks of the Indian Karakoram. His goal was to reach the summit of Saser Kangri II (7,518m), the second-highest unclimbed mountain in the world. For Mark and partner Steve Swenson, both in their 50s, the climb would be the capstone of their long and already distinguished climbing careers. To round out the team, they recruited four younger climbers: Freddie Wilkinson, Janet Bergman, Emilie Drinkwater, and Kirsten Kremer. Supporting each other from a shared basecamp, these six ropemates charted new ground on five new routes, including the coveted first ascent of Saser Kangri II.
The story of their expedition provides more than a glimpse into the future of exploratory alpinism. It highlights the powerful tradition long exemplified by the New England climbing community and The American Alpine Club: partnership across generations.
Please join Mark, Freddie, and the rest of the Saser Kangri II team for a journey—vividly told in words, images, and video—to one of the last frontiers of Himalayan climbing.
When: March 2 & 3, 2012
Where: Boston, MA
Waterfront Dining, Awards, and Auctions
Friday Night March 2: Annual Members' Meeting & Climbers' Gathering
Location and Details To Be Announced
Saturday Night March 3: Annual Benefit Dinner & Saser Kangri II Presentation
Accommodations and Dinner Location: Boston Seaport Hotel
American Alpine Club Hotel Group Rate: $169.00
Please call to make your reservation and ask to be part of the American Alpine Club Group Rate 617.385.4514 using code AACG12
200 Seaport Boulevard
Boston, MA 02210-2031
Local Mountain Rescue Service Benefit:
This year's Mountain Rescue Service benefit night will be on Tuesday, February 28th from 5pm-9pm at Flatbread Company in North Conway, NH. Please tell all of your friends and bring them by to eat some great flatbread!
As always, a portion of the profits from each flatbread sold will be donated to Mountain Rescue Service, www.nhmrs.org.
There will be a silent auction with great gear, great music, a slide
show, and all your friends in one place. Mark it on your
calendar...hope to see all of you there!
Local Mountain Rescue Service Benefit:
This year's Mountain Rescue Service benefit night will be on Tuesday, February 28th from 5pm-9pm at Flatbread Company in North Conway, NH. Please tell all of your friends and bring them by to eat some great flatbread!
As always, a portion of the profits from each flatbread sold will be donated to Mountain Rescue Service, www.nhmrs.org.
There will be a silent auction with great gear, great music, a slide
show, and all your friends in one place. Mark it on your
calendar...hope to see all of you there!
Due to Thursday's impending storm I decided to ride up into Crawford Notch and take pictures on Wednesday. It turned out to be a spectacular day and I wished I'd had gear with me to go climbing. Unfortunately I had work to do in the afternoon so that wasn't possible. I do think that the pictures this week tell pretty much the entire story. The ice has been building very well and with the exception of some of the Frankenstein Amphitheater, things are in good shape. I even raised the IceCOM level to a 3 this week. Sure some things could be better, like Chia, Cinema and some of the Webster gullies, but frankly there is ice to climb almost everywhere and it's time just to get on with it. Simply use your normal amount of caution and you will be fine.
A few interesting pictures...
SuperGoofer.jpg
Diagonal.jpg
Unicorn.jpg
Shoestring.jpg
AngelCakes.jpg
LostHelmet.jpg
CrawfordTrestle.jpg
SnotRocket.jpg
At the suggestion of NEClimbs member Mark Sprague, I added a new section called Conditions to the Forum. While mainly intended for the rapidly changing ice season, it can be used for everything. It's a great place for folks to post their observations about the state of climbing in various areas here in New Hampshire and beyond. If you are out climbing anytime, but especially during ice season, please drop by the forum and post your observations. Obviously I can't be everywhere and it can be a very valuable resource. You can also post your pictures there or in the Photo Gallery. Of course you will need to register to do anything other than read. I hope you find it useful…
Up on one of the Mount Washington Valley's finest crags and want to know what that climb you're looking at is? Or maybe you're on your way up from Boston and want to check out the Ice Report for your upcoming weekend plans. Or more likely, you're at work just want to daydream about your next adventure. Well if you have a smart phone handy, you can get to NEClimbs from anywhere you have cell service. While it doesn't offer every single feature of the site and it's not an "app", in mobile form, it does do a whole lot and is very useful. Here is the live link to the mobile version of NEClimbs:
http://www.neclimbs.com/mobile
Check it out and if you have issues on your specific phone, please feel free to let me know.
Join us and LIKE us on Facebook. I'll try and post interesting pix every Thursday and the latest Ice Report in the season, tho certainly not the whole Report. Here's where you can check it out:
http://www.facebook.com/NEClimbs/
Remember - climb hard, ride the steep stuff, stay safe and above all BE NICE,
Al Hospers
The White Mountain Report
North Conway, New Hampshire
| Let's get real here. No one does a figure-four ice climbing. |
| Karl Nagy |
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