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My oh my... The wind was a howling and the house was a rockin' Wednesday night. It was very cold on Wednesday, barely rising up into the mid 20's by mid-day. The temps plummeted 6 degrees in about an hour, starting at around 4PM, bringing them down to a winter low of 14. When I walked over to the cliff to check on the state of the North End and Repentance I was a little underdressed and even the dog was an unhappy camper. But about 2 AM I woke up to silence, stillness and even colder temps.
Cold weather notwithstanding, it's still disconcerting to look out in the back yard and see the green grass. After all the rain and warm temps recently, there is a minimal snow cover anywhere except up on the Mountain. I don't downhill ski, but I do cross country and this is not what I am looking for. One of my fave things to do is to walk out the back door & x-ski over to the North End for a few laps on Thresher or the pillars. Right now I can mountain bike over there. Pretty amazing.
Chatting around with Maury McKinney (IMCS) Wednesday afternoon we both agreed that walking around in crampons in the woods where there isn't any snow is totally annoying. Hiking down the trails after topping out on a climb and getting all the leaves stuck on the points of your crampons seems so obscene. I mean, having to watch that your crampons don't ball up with leaves! Give me a break. We decided that we should design a new tool to scrape the leaves off your points, perhaps some kind of small rake. And since the normal "bot plates" don't keep leaves off, maybe a new style of plate would need to be developed. Hey - maybe this would be something that we could get Trango, Black Diamond or Petzl to manufacture. Hmmm...just how far can we take this?
Ice Conditions Report:
Selected Ice Conditions effective March 21, 2024
I can't actually say that there is nothing out there that can't be climbed. That would be foolish. But for the average, or a little above average climber, that's probably correct. That said, I did hear that there is climbable ice on Parasol in Dixville Notch. Not sure how that will be after we get a foot of heavy wet snow on Saturday. Regardless, here's a few pix I took today just to document things.
Huntington Ravine
AVALANCHE
Repentance
OUT
Standard Route
OUT
Dracula
OUT
For the full current conditions report, CLICK
HERE
New Photo Gallery Coming To NEClimbs:
After evaluation and testing I found a Gallery software package that it looks like will integrate with NEClimbs and its new Forum. Of course I had to more than double the storage space at NEClimbs to be able to handle it and I am in the process of configuring the package. With any luck, and a bit of time, it will be online over the weekend - just in time for you to post the pictures of you sending that first M10 of the season!
Once it's up you will be able to access the Gallery by selecting the Photo Gallery menu option on the site. You will need to be a registered member of the NEClimbs Forum to post images. That's easy, just go tot the Forum
Mobile Version Of NEClimbs:
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:
Check it out and if you have issues on your specific phone, please feel free to let me know.
NEClimbs & White Mountain Report On Facebook:
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:
Climbing is a very dangerous sport. You can get hurt or even kill yourself. When you go climbing, you do so of your own free will. Everything on this site is to be taken with a grain of salt. Don't blame us if you get up some totally heinous route, in over your head and fall and hurt yourself.
