October 20, 2005

Hi Folks,

FINALLY!!!! After days and days of cloudy, rainy, foggy, blustery weather we finally get to FALL. And not only that, after the Valley being green all the way to mid-October the leaves are changing at last. In fact, I'll bet that this weekend we hit peak color. Of course the hard freeze predicted for Friday night will likely cause all the every leaf in the area to immediately drop off, so get it will you can.

A snowstorm last weekend on the Mt. Washington set two records for the month of October. Between Saturday and Monday the summit got a dump of 34 inches of frozen precipitation! This beat the record for the most snowfall from a single storm in October and also beat the record for the most snow in 24 hours in October, with 25.5 inches falling between noon Sunday and noon Monday.

"Basically, we've had white-out conditions for the last three days," weather observer David Balfrey said Tuesday morning. He said it looks like January or February, with 12-foot drifts and tons of ice that has to be chipped off their instruments. That means climbing weather towers and smashing the ice with crowbars, hammers, "anything heavy and blunt," Balfrey said. "It's not the most scientific end of our job."

He and fellow observers are confident of beating the October snowfall record. They are only 5 1/2 inches short of the record of 39.8 inches set in 2000.

"We are pretty sure we'll get another four or five inches before the end of month," Balfrey said.

Here are links to some interesting pics taken last weekend.

http://www.mountwashington.org/comments/2005/IMG_2931.jpg
http://www.mountwashington.org/comments/2005/YankeeTim.jpg
http://www.mountwashington.org/comments/2005/DeckSpears.jpg

So, Who Will Be First:
With all this snow and cold in the Ravines, who will be the first to climb Pinnacle? Last year I believe it got done before Halloween, I think around the first of November. I went up and soloed it November 10th. I haven't heard of anyone getting up there yet, but I'll bet it's getting close. Of course if it's snowing up there, there is the possibility of an avalanche. it's time to start checking the Avalanche Advisory for Tuckerman and Huntington Ravines BEFORE you go up. Here's the link if you don't have it handy -

http://www.tuckerman.org/avalanche/index.html

It's time to get out the winter gear, and don't forget the beacons, shovels and probes!

Mt. Washington Winter Closings:
The last day of operation for the theMount Washington State Park's Sherman Adams Building as well as the Mount Washington Auto Road will be October 23rd. After this date no public facilites will be available on the summit. The Mount Washington Observatory's Summit Museum closed on October 14th.

Selected Ice Conditions effective April 24, 2024
It's all over for 2023/2024.
	Huntington Ravine	OUT
	Repentance	OUT
	Standard Route	OUT
	Dracula	OUT
For the full current conditions report, CLICK HERE

Annual Fundraiser Begins This Week:
Wow, believe it or not we started putting the White Mountain Report out on September 16, 1999. That's over 6 years ago folks! Time flies when you're having fun. Over that time we've seen the Report grow to almost 800 subscribers and NEClimbs evolve into a very deep site. Over the past few months we've made some very major overhauls to NEClimbs and there are more in the works, including our most-requested upgrade - the ability for subscribers to post their own pictures in the Gallery! In order to manage this we need to upgrade our server space once again, but this feature will be in place soon.

We're starting our fundraising efforts a bit late this year, but "Fundraiser Month" at NEClimbs and The White Mountain Report is upon us. Normally we start on Labor Day. That said, all year we quietly put out our weekly Reports and maintained NEClimbs. Now it's time to get NOISY.

Keeping you up to date on what's going on in climbing in the White Mountains, and in the White Mountain climbing community is one heck-of-a time consuming effort. Providing the latest ice and rock conditions plus reporting on the events and people in the local climbing community consumes 10+ hours a week. Think about it. 10 hours from your week is not an insignificant amount of time. Your contribution is what makes this newsletter and the NEClimbs web site possible. Without your support we simply can't justify the effort required to make it happen.

You have to admit that we're not asking for much. The minimal requested donation of $20 isn't a lot for all the great information provided every single week. As usual, to make it more enticing, once again we're offering you even more. Make a contribution and be automatically entered in a raffle for some GREAT prizes like:

Nalgene water bottles donated by Backcountry.com
Petzl Duo LED 5 Headlamp donated by Backcountry.com
Craig Luebben's new book "Rock Climbing: Mastering Basic Skills"
"An Ice Climbers Guide to Northern New England" by Lewis & Wilcox
Tim Kemple's "New England Bouldering" guidebook
"Boston Rocks" guidebook, donated by Richard Doucette

And there are MORE great prizes yet to be named

The drawing will be held on November 21st, 2005 and winners will be notified in the Report. Your donation must be postmarked or received by PayPal before
November 17, 2005 to be entered. It's a perfect opportunity to support NEClimbs, and a great chance to win a useful prize.

Don't wait to make your contribution. Don't assume that others will pick up the slack. YOU'RE the one who signed up to be included on the mailing list! YOU'RE the one who reads it every week! Support NEClimbs and The White Mountain Report. Send us a check or money order for $20 right now.

Or make your contribution ON LINE via PayPal. It's easy & painless and you can use all popular credit cards. Remember, you DON'T need to have a PayPal account to use this service. To make your donation on line CLICK HERE.

PLEASE help us keep the White Mountain Report and NEClimbs growing and evolving. Make out a check for $20 to NEClimbs or donate via PayPal. We'll appreciate whatever you can do.

Make out your check or money order to NEClimbs and send it to:

NEClimbs
92 Bow Lane
North Conway, NH 03860

The Contributors' Donations List will be up in a few days. It will contain the names of all of those individuals and organizations who have contributed as a part of the 2005/2006 fundraiser.

MAKE SURE YOUR NAME GETS ON THE LIST!

And The Bolt Wars Go On And On:
On Wednesday two climbers at the North End observed "a guy with earrings" chop the bolts at the North End. They brought the chains to IME. In my opinion this is getting to be a real DRAG! Who knows folks, maybe it IS time for some glue-ins.

Speed Climbing Record:
From Hans Florine at speedclimbing.com
On October 17, 12005 Tommy Coldwell free climbed the Nose of El Capitan in less than 12 hours, taking only one fall on the Changing Corners pitch. Beth Rodden-Caldwell belayed Tommy on his ascent; incredibly, Tommy and Beth freed the route together in four days, swapping pitches, only 36 hours before Tommy’s successful ascent. The pair started Tommy’s free bid around midnight and encountered only one other party, whom they passed around 3 A.M. on the top of Dolt Tower. Rather than simul-climbing, Caldwell “pitched out” the route and rested while Beth jugged. This is the second time that the Nose has been freed in a day, and is the first all-free-in-a-day ascent by a male (the previous one-day ascent was made by Lynn Hill in 1994). For details http://www.speedclimb.com.

Remember - climb hard, ride the steep stuff, stay safe and above all BE NICE,