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April 10, 2014
Hi Folks,
My goodness, hasn't spring come on with a huge rush? We've gone from winter to full-on spring conditions and I'm excited! Sure, I love winter and ice season, but this has been a long one and frankly I'm ready for the change. One fortunate thing is that we haven't had the torrential rains that sometime accompany the switchover to warmer weather. We all have been expecting a big mud season, but that may not happen. My back yard has gone from 5+ feet of packed snow to under 3 feet and it's all soaking right into the ground. And so far the streams and rivers have just gradually risen, without the huge jams and blocks of ice that we got last year. You know what? I'll take it!
And I'll take days like last Friday when I managed to get one of those rare 4-season- sport days that I so covet. I climbed the first pitch of Standard Route, rode the bike up to the top of Crawford Notch, skied Mt Clinton Road to the base Road and back and did an hour on the boulders at Humphrey's. It really doesn't get a whole lot better than that!
4Sport_ice.jpg
4Sport_ride.jpg
4Sport_ski.jpg
4Sport_rock.jpg
Although I knew what the ice conditions in Crawford Notch were, abysmal, I decided to run up and take a last series of pictures to round out the season. While I was there I figured I would get some exercise by hiking up to see what was up with Willie's. Just like I figured, it was a giant mostly-firm snow-cone! I figured that, unless I managed to get in a trip up to Huntington, it would probably be my last ice of this season so I said "What the heck…" and ran up it. As I went I used the opportunity to clean off all the v-threads I spotted - 5 of 'em! It made me feel like I was doing a bit of community service. Good excuse to go climbing, right?. [grin] All in all it was a perfect morning and I'm glad I did it.
As I was coming by Humphrey's on the way home I spotted a couple of cars and stopped up the road to see what was up. Turns out there was someone on the second pitch of Wanderlust. As far as I'm concerned, the ice season is over. It's been a great one for me and I hope it was for you as well. I can't say that I'm looking forward to next year 'cause I'm just looking forward to warm rock right now, and that's OK by me.
A quick note about the Report - I've gone up to the Notch every Thursday but open this winter and brought back pictures and descriptions of the climbs. I hope that you have enjoyed and appreciated them. If you did, and you haven't put in a donation to support NEClimbs and the White Mountain Report, perhaps this would be a good time. Just a thought - [wry grin]
Here's some pictures:
Willies_01.jpg
Willies_02.jpg
Willies_03.jpg
Willies_04.jpg
Willies_05.jpg
Willies_06.jpg
Willies_08.jpg
Humphreys.jpg
There's pretty much nothing left to climb, but here's what I saw… There will be more on NEClimbs tomorrow and our FaceBook page later today:
MtWashington.jpg
MtWillard.jpg
ShoestringGully.jpg
LH_MonkeyWrench.jpg
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
| Dry-tooling is something i used to do in high school when I couldn't find a date for the weekend. |
| Jack Tackle |
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