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September 30, 2021
Hi Folks,
As is often the case, Fall came in with a BANG! Temps have been really quite nice for some time, but over the past 36 or so hours that really changed. I certainly don't mean we are looking at snow, or even ice god forbid, but it's certainly gotten chilly. And probably cool enough to get me to light up a fire tonite too!
I've been watching the weather and based on predictions of sunny skies and mild temps, I coerced Brad into going to climb up at Mt Forist in Berlin yesterday. It didn't look that great in the morning, but the pundits spoke of partial sunshine and lower 60's by mid day, so that was fine by us. When I walked into IME to pick up the Boss there was a couple picking out hiking poles who excitedly were talking about snowfall on Mt Washington! I had just looked at the weather and found that hard to believe... Since we were going through Pinkham, we would be able to get the real skinny on what was happening. The drive north wasn't great. It wasn't raining, but there were a lot of clouds everywhere. I'd been wondering about the foliage status, and neither of us was impressed; but course it never looks that great on a dull day. The summit was pretty socked in, but there was no indications of snow up there from what we were able to see.
We got to Berlin and there were a lot of clouds, but it really didn't look too bad. We decided to go for Madigan (5.7) to start since it is a clip-up. We got set up, I started up the climb and just before the first bolt I heard the sound of rain on leaves and could see just a little spit! [DAMN] I was on a comfortable little stance so I decided to just wait a few minutes to see what was going to happen. In a couple of minutes the rain stopped and the rock didn't seem to have gotten wet so I headed on up. I brought Brad up and we reassessed... Tho it still wasn't raining, you could see some pretty good clouds spilling over on the Mahoosuc's, on the other side of Berlin. It sure looked stormy over there! I decided to give the second pitch a shot which didn't take very long. Brad followed and we rapped back to a different lower anchor. We decided to TR the climb to the left of Madigan with the little arch. He went first and then I took a run. As he was lowering me I tensioned further left to take a short run on the 5.8 start of the climb that starts on the upper tree ledge. It's quite thin, but fun.
Just as I got down it started raining again. This time it was coming down a bit harder, so we quickly packed up and headed back to the car. On the way back we swung by Matt Bowman's house to see if he was a round. He and Jenna were on their way out do we just chatted for a few minutes and headed back to our Valley. I'd hoped for a little more, but at least we had gotten in a couple of fun pitches.
Regarding the purported snow on the summit - on the 6pm weather there was a report that the Observatory reported a few spits of snow during the day. I couldn't see anything in the little video, but I guess they know what they are talking about. regardless, it's in the mid-20's up there so I assume it will happen soon enough. That said, I'd personally prefer Fall hanging on a little longer.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20210930/Forist_1.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20210930/Forist_2.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20210930/Forist_3.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20210930/Forist_4.jpg
This week I'll just leave these stats to speak for themselves...
As of Sept 24th, 33% of new cases are those under 18 years old!
925 new cases in Maine today!
New Hampshire:
2 new deaths reported
443 new cases reported
3,433 Active cases
146 patients are currently hospitalized
1,479 total deaths
United States:
Confirmed: 43,430,334v
Deaths: 696,284
Global:
Confirmed: 233,572,830
Deaths: 4,778,857
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
I've only gotten out on the Marshall and local, both of which were fine...
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 it weren't for egos, some of the greatest accomplishements of climbing would never have happened. |
| Michael Kennedy |
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