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September 9, 2021
Hi Folks,
The weather has been all over the place these days. Tuesday night was darn chilly and it was 48 when I got up at 6am Wednesday morning! Yesterday was gorgeous, but it's rained off and on all day today. Check out the weather prediction from the Observatory below. It looks like things will be all over the place again this weekend. [sheesh]
I was away for a couple of days and was really going nuts to go climbing when I returned. My plan was to do something on Tuesday, but I picked up a gig over in Ashland on Monday night and was kind of beat Tuesday. Plus Matty B was busy and Brad was away... [snif] So when I got up on Wednesday I decided to go up to the little cliff at the top of Cathedral, a.k.a. the Wall of the Hurley Morning Light, and just run a few laps on TR using my Shunt. There are some OK trees up there to setup a butterfly/loop with my little 30 meter rope and I can do all the lines just using that. As I've mentioned before, there are 2 trad lines on the left, and 4 bolted ones spread across the face. My personal faves are the corner on the far left and the arete on the far right. Here's a couple of pictures that will give you a good idea. The rope is down over the 2 leftmost bolted lines and there is another bolted line right behind the large tree on the right. The arete line starts to the right of the big tree, tiptoes to the right following a coouple of bolts and then heads straight up on the arete. As I've mentioned before do NOT mess with the flake just left of the arete. If you haven't been there, I certainly recommend it. Hey, they ain't big, but they's fun. [LOL]
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20210909/HurleyWall_1.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20210909/HurleyWall_2.jpg
The 62-year-old climbing guide sustained moderate brain trauma with multiple facial fractures in the incident. Medical professionals identified numerous brain bleeds. Blanchard’s family says that he’s having trouble communicating and has lost most of his memory.
https://explorersweb.com/2021/08/24/barry-blanchard-injury/
Jon Sykes will do a presentation of his adventures and whatnot in the Whites on September 11 at 5pm at The Dam Brewhouse in Campton, NH. I've hung with Jon on occasion over the years, and he sure has some stories to tell. This should be a good one.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20210902/Sykes.jpg
The Western Massachusetts Climbers’ Coalition (WMCC) and the Ragged Mountain Foundation (RMF), in partnership with the Access Fund, purchased the 14-acre Hanging Mountain parcel in November of 2019. Previously, Hanging Mountain, a small mountainside with ten distinct crags, was privately owned and closed to climbing.
Now, after the construction of an access road and parking area, building a network of approach trails, and developing approximately 70 rock climbs, the WMCC and RMF are ready for climbers, hikers, birdwatchers, and other users to recreate at Hanging Mountain.
https://climbgneiss.org/hanging-mountain/
I did a review on NEClimbs.com of John Branch's new-ish book Sidecountry last week. It's a collection of sports-related stories/articles he wrote for the NY Times. Check it out. It's a great read (the book that is). HIGHLY recommended...
http://www.neclimbs.com/index.php?PageName=review&ReviewID=20210819
Damn folks... We are rapidly going in the WRONG direction. Numbers are going up everywhere, even here in the hinterlands. NH was doing pretty good for quite a while, but now we aren't even in the top 10 of states doing well. Our current positivity rate is 4.8% and we have ~60% of our population fully vaccinated. While that's not too bad, we need more. Unfortunately, only 54% of the total US population is currently fully vaxxed and that simply ain't cutting it. Our local hospital, Memorial, has shifted back to a surge ready status and has reported that they have at least a couple of Covid related deaths! In addition the County nursing home also reported several new positive cases. Not good news at all...
As a professional musician, obviously I work in places where people congregate. It simply goes with the territory. Fortunately, almost all of my work this summer has been outdoors. However, that is going to change as the weather closes in on us. And if the numbers keep rising, things will get shut down regardless. This is not something I want to see. I didn't work at all last winter, and that's quite possible again this winter. And if it's as bad as last year, there is a strong likelihood that things like Ice Fest may be cancelled once again. We need more people vaxxed and masking to be able to keep things open, and I'm not hugely optimistic. Especially when I see the push back against masks and vaccination even going on up here. It's especially disappointing, when I talk to people I know living in Italy and France. The government has imposed strict vaccination requirements that apparently are being accepted. I do wish we would do that in this country. Several months of that would assuredly kick up the vaccination rate and change everything. Heck, if everybody took masking seriously, that would make a yuge difference.
"Researchers find correlation between consistent mask-wearing and improved well-being"
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20201224/Researchers-find-correlation-between-consistent-mask-wearing-and-improved-well-being.aspx?
New Hampshire:
5 new death reported
522 new cases reported
3,079 Active cases
140 patients are currently hospitalized
1,436 total deaths
United States:
Confirmed: 40,572,631
Deaths: 654,268
Global:
Confirmed: 222,989,119
Deaths: 4,602,538
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
OUR ONLY WAY OUT IS IF YOU GET VACCINATED, WHERE RECOMMENDED PLEASE STILL WEAR A MASK, WASH YOUR HANDS!
REMEMBER - WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
If you haven't ridden the Outer Limits and Twilight Zone trails on the east side, you owe it to yourself to give them a try. Tho they are in the Intermediate range, they are great fun and well worth the effort. Access is generally from the Hemlock Lane parking area behind Walmart. Coupled with the Swenson/Grout & Cheater trails, they make up some of my fave rides. You can get the info on them from Trailforks here -
https://www.trailforks.com/trails/outer-limits-76033/
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
| The vias normales had perfect lines but new rock was the essence of climbing for us; throwing loose holds over the shoulder, feeling the exposed grains crush like sugar on footholes.... |
| Paul Pritchard |
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