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October 15, 2020
Hi Folks,
Rain & drought - 2 things we're experiencing right now in spades! New Hampshire, and the Northeast in general are experiencing either Severe or Extreme drought conditions. And yes, that's in spite of us receiving 1.74" of rain 2 days ago! Now we are looking at getting another 1"+ on Friday-Saturday, which will help, but won't really resolve the problem.
So don't complain about the rain folks. It is really REALLY needed right now. Hey - I could certainly complain, because it's going to almost assuredly cancel my last gig of the season at the Tuckerman Brewing Company on Friday 2-5pm with the Gravel Project. But we need it, so I'll just suck it up.
As is often the case, I've gotten blow-back about my political postings. Everything from being called "Chicken Little", a promoter of "Fake News" and much worse. I have to suppose it's been the same for Alex Honnold, Conrad Anker, Yvon Chouinard, Tommy Caldwell and numerous others who have chosen to take a stand at this time. Frankly, at this stage of the game, I simply don't care what people think about me personally and I have to suspect that's the way that these leaders feel as well. It's past time to speak out about what's going on in our world and our society. I sincerely believe in the quote that's at the end of every White Mountain Report - "You have to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything..."
Take a minute to read the Caldwell Op-Ed and if you have the time watch the Public Trust movie.
Op-ed by Tommy Caldwell: Trump is Going to Ruin Rock Climbing
https://rockandice.com/climbing-news/tommy-caldwell-trump-is-going-to-ruin-rock-climbing/
Public Trust - The Fight For America's Public Lands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGjnIG7puzY
I was fortunate to get out twice in the past week. Last Friday it was on Whitehorse with Brad. This was our first multi-pitch climb this season, everything else has just been singles. The original plan was Cormier-Magness, but as is often the case it was full-up so we walked over to "The Beach" and did 4 pitches of Slabs Direct. While this is some fun climbing, in inimitable Whitehorse style it is REALLY runout. For example, the first pitch is 80'+ of 5.4 with no gear at all! If you're not 120% comfortable on unprotected friction, you might want to choose something else. It was nice to see our friends Dave Karl and Chris O'Connell to our left on Standard and then Wavelength. All in all it was a very pretty afternoon.
Today, Thursday, I got over to Jockey Cap with Jeff Lea. It was a chilly morning, but warmed up to the mid-70's by mid-day. The first pitch was the trad line that starts on the left side of the tongue, steps around the corner to the wall and then traverses right to an anchor below the the middle tier. From there we climbed 4 nice bolted lines and then rapped down over the big roof and back to our packs. Great fun...
Of course both days we wore masks at the belays.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/Whitehorse_1.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/Whitehorse_2.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/Whitehorse_3.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/Whitehorse_4.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/Whitehorse_5.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/JockeyCap_1.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/JockeyCap_2.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/JockeyCap_3.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/JockeyCap_4.jpg
An unfortunate accident took place on Saturday, one of many this summer. Fortunately there were people around to help.
https://nhfishgame.com/2020/10/12/injured-climber-on-cathedral-ledge/
Climbers of the North East; in a time where our country feels more divided than ever, let's unite our community in a show of support for JEDI principles in the outdoors. Climbing4Change is a non-profit that was started by Kai Lightner with the mission of breaking down barriers to the amazing sport of climbing. This event was organized in an effort to to bring our community together, raise money for C4C, and help make climbing a more accessible and inclusive sport. While we are at it, lets have some fun and challenge each other to attempt this link-up.
Here is how to participate:
1. Donate to climbing4change.org
2. Promote JEDI principles
3. Fill out an IMCS release form at IME
4. Attempt the link-up of Whitehorse - North Moat - Cathedral
5. Report back to IME with your team name, time, combined team age, etc...
6. Have a chance to win some prizes at the end of the month.
This event lasts the month of October. That means you can participate on your own schedule and do it multiple times. Not a climber but support JEDI principles? You can still show support and make a donation to climbing4change, I did.
For more details please visit the web site, or Facebook.
https://climbing4change.org/
https://www.facebook.com/events/417293035907873/
I received an email this week from the Friends Of The Ledges. They will be doing cleanup and trail maintenance events starting at 9am on the third Saturday's in September, October and November. "The increase in visitors to Cathedral Ledge State Park and Echo Lake State Park spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic has created a more critical need for trash clean-up and trail maintenance within these beloved natural areas." Boy I sure agree with this. You can read more about it and signup here:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4faea62aa1fdc43-stewardship
7,774,745 confirmed cases in the US, 214,369 American citizens are dead and 1,087,069 reported deaths world-wide from the Novel Corona Virus as of Thursday October 15th! Over the past 7 days New Hampshire has had 618 new cases of the virus, 12 new deaths and our positivity rate is 1.52%, up again from last week, and an overall fatality rate if 4.95%! This is NOT good news...
The White House and the Administration is pushing the concept of "herd immunity" as a way to get through the pandemic. No reputable organization or scientists feel that this is a viable solution to the virus. Dr Fauci calls 'herd immunity' declaration embraced by White House 'ridiculous': "This idea that we have the power to protect the vulnerable is total nonsense."
https://www.idsociety.org/news--publications-new/articles/2020/herd-immunity-is-not-an-answer-to-a-pandemic/
The concept of ending the Covid pandemic through herd immunity is “a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence”, say 80 researchers in a warning letter published by a leading medical journal. The international signatories of the open letter in the Lancet say the interest in herd immunity comes from “widespread demoralisation and diminishing trust” as a result of restrictions being reimposed in many countries because of surging infections in a second wave.
The suggestion that the way out is by protecting the vulnerable and allowing the virus to transmit among those less at risk is flawed, they say. “Uncontrolled transmission in younger people risks significant morbidity and mortality across the whole population. In addition to the human cost, this would impact the workforce as a whole and overwhelm the ability of healthcare systems to provide acute and routine care.”
The signatories have expertise spanning public health, epidemiology, medicine, paediatrics, sociology, virology, infectious disease, health systems, psychology, psychiatry, health policy, and mathematical modelling. They include a number of scientists who sit on the breakaway Independent Sage group in the UK, such as former chief scientist Sir David King, former WHO director Anthony Costello, virologist Prof Deenan Pillay, behavioural scientist Prof Susan Michie and professor of European public health Martin McKee.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32153-X/fulltext
The Johns Hopkins COVID-19 tracking map:
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map
I find JHU's Daily COVID-19 Data in Motion report to be very informative. It shares critical data on COVID-19 from the last 24 hours in a short 1 minute animated video format.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/covid-19-daily-video
WEAR A MASK, SANITIZE AND STAY PHYSICALLY DISTANT FRIENDS!
REMEMBER - WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
I got in 3 rides this week, 2 especially good ones. One took me and a couple of friends up the Cranmore maintenance road, across the old Cranmore Connector to the entrance to Hurricane and then bearing left down a new flow trail that eventually crosses 3 ski trails and dumps you down on Kandahar. Starting from the Cranmore parking lot, it provides ~6.5 miles and 1300' of climbing. Not too bad, tho for us old folks there is definitely some hike-a-bike. The other good ride was from the house, up to the top of Whitehorse. Interestingly that gives me around 8.5 miles and 1000' of climbing. Couples with a flatter local loop of 11 miles and 500' of climbing and it was a good week. FWIW I was surprised to see about 30 hikers on the slabs at the to of Whitehorse with folding chairs and picnic food! Go figure...
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20201015/Bike_Whitehorse.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
| There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games. |
| Ernest Hemingway |
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