| Like reading the White Mountain Report every week? Why not get it delivered to your e-mailbox every Thursday? All you have
to do is subscribe. It's fast, painless, and best of all it doesn't cost you
a dime! |
| CLICK HERE... |
November 8, 2018
Hi Folks,
Let's face it, October sucked big time. Or at least the weather did. And honestly the first several days of November have as well. But amazingly yesterday and today, were both stellar. If there ever was a thing called Indian Summer, these were certainly it. a truly balmy 67 degrees and sunny yesterday, and 64 today. [WOW] Both with bluebird skies and few clouds. Even tho I couldn't go climbing on either, they both were days to be savored, like a fine cognac.
I am reminded of a few lines by one of my very favorite composers, Frank Zappa, in the song "Call Any Vegetable" from the Live at The Filmore album.
FZ: Questions, Questions, Questions, flooding into the mind of the concerned young person today. Ah, but it's a great time to be alive, ladies and gentlemen. And that's the theme of our program for tonight. It's so fu%&ing great to be alive! Is what the theme of our show is tonight, boys and girls. And I wanna tell ya, if there is anybody here who doesn't believe that it is fu%&ing great to be alive, I wish they would go now, because this show will bring them down so much.
And honestly, if anyone doesn't believe that, then this day would have definitely brought them down. And yet on a day like this it is hard to imagine anyone being down. Truly, I live for these crisp, clear days with moderate temps that make me feel that yes, it's a great time to be alive. ;-)
Well I did get out for a hike yesterday and a ride today. The hike was one I've done before and have been wanting to do again for some time. We started at the Thompson Falls parking area, hiked up Middle Mountain, crossed south over the saddle to Rattlesnake, back down to the "Raccoon Junction" mountain bike intersection, one down to the power lines and back to where we started. A fairly moderate 4.8 miles, 1,400' of elevation gained in a bit over 2 hours. Not too shabby for a pair of 70 year olds. The bike ride was one that included some obscure trails that started by Echo Lake over here on the west side. A fairly leisurely 6.8 miles, 752' in 1:28. And it's a good thing we grabbed these 2 since according to the pundits we're in for some rain Friday afternoon and colder temps behind.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20181108/FromMiddleMt.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20181108/Cathedral.jpg
Many of our National Parks are suffering from neglect--crumbling trails, dangerous bridges and roads, decrepit restrooms, and out-of-date parking. In fact, the National Park Service has a backlog of maintenance projects to the tune of $11 billion dollars. Some of America's most iconic climbing areas are located in National Parks--like Yosemite, New River Gorge, Rocky Mountain, Joshua Tree, and Grand Teton to name just a few--and they are long overdue for stewardship.
Right now, Congress is gearing up to vote on a bipartisan bill titled the "Restore Our Parks Act", which would provide funding to begin repairing national park facilities, infrastructure, and recreation access. Access Fund recently signed a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service to provide stewardship services and expertise to help maintain sustainable climbing areas. The Restore Our Parks Act would allow the National Park Service to fund the Access Fund-Jeep Conservation Teams to do more critical work at some of our most valued climbing areas.
If you're in the market for a super pair of axes, in great condition, at a fair price and complete with a spare pair of new picks, Check these X-Dreams out. $440 takes the pair, complete with a new unused set of ICE picks. Email me if you're interested.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20181108/tools.jpg
Dear Friends, I hope you find that the value of the my weekly musings here in the White Mountain Report and NEClimbs.com web site is enough to warrant making a small donation to support everything I do. Absolutely any amount is welcome, so please take a minute to and go ON LINE and make your donation via PayPal. You don't need a PayPal account, you can use almost any credit card. Just click the link below:
http://www.neclimbs.com/index.php?PageName=donation_fundraiser
Of course you can also contribute via check or money order if you like. Make it out to NEClimbs and send it right here:
NEClimbs
92 Bow Lane
North Conway, NH 03860
The time and expenses of the running and maintaining NEClimbs.com and putting out The White Mountain Report continue all year. PLEASE REMEMBER, it's your contribution that makes this newsletter and the NEClimbs web site viable.
You can see many of the Reports on NEClimbs.com web site, I've archived them from as far back as September of 1999! To get a sense of the popularity of the site, current site traffic as of October 26 2017 on NEClimbs.com is about 20,000 UNIQUE visits a day, generating roughly 900,000 monthly "HITS". The White Mountain Report newsletter also goes out to over 1,200 subscribers weekly! If you're one of those, please consider making a donation to the site.
Thank you once again for all of your support...
http://www.neclimbs.com/index.php?PageName=donation_paypal
Mark your calendars folks! Time to start thinking about ice! IT'S THE 26TH YEAR of the 2019 Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest: February 1st-3rd, 2019
Yes there are some wet spots here & there, but overall the trails are still in great shape. Bot the east and west side have great riding to be found. If there is a downside, it's that at times the leaves obscure the trails. That's right, you can be riding along and find yourself simply off the trail. Who knew...? It happened to me coming down a trail on the east side a few days ago called EKG. In spite of having done the decent many times, the next thing I knew I was going straight where there was a turn. You'll be OK if you keep your eyes wide open all the time. It's just funny when it happens. There are also a lot of sticks, limbs and even trees down across the trails. I seem to find myself stopping at least half a dozen times on any given ride, clearing stuff off the trails. Unfortunately there are lots of stuff that's bigger than I or my little folding saw can manage. But it's worth the effort.
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
| If we need rope ladders to ascend a peak, then we've climbed our ladders, not the mountain itself. |
| Tod Skinner |
|
