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Well we're back from our annual week in Philadelphia for Xmas, doing the in-law and big-city thang. We had a great time and hope you did as well. It was surprising just how relaxing it can be in the city, away from all the stuff that you HAVE to do at home. That said the return ride on Monday was the "trip from hell." 10 1/2 hours in the car alternating between pouring rain, standstill traffic, snow, sleet and freezing rain. Certainly not he way I personally would like to spend the day after Xmas! On top of that I had to play at the Wildcat on Tuesday, climb on Wednesday, guide on Thursday, and play Friday & Saturday at the Parka. No wonder Philly seemed relaxing!
The ride down on the previous Wednesday was a piece of cake. It was a cold day, low 20's, and I was really quite surprised by just how much ice I saw almost everywhere I looked. All the way down into New Jersey there was ice alongside the road. If I'd taken my gear with me, and the wife probably would have had a fit if I had packed it, I would have stopped & checked some of it out. There were some monster pillars in Massachusetts on 495 and more on 84 in Connecticut. Mountain Man had posted some great shots of Pennsylvania ice on the Gallery last week. I hardly believed my eyes when I saw them, but from the ride down I changed my mind.
Of course all that had changed by the time we headed back north. Even the places where the ice was biggest it was reduces to a mere shadow of itself. It was very disappointing. It also made me very nervous about what I was coming back to. I had been checking the weather conditions regularly and was very disturbed to see the amount of precipitation that came down - almost 1/2 inch on Sunday and 1 1/2 inches on Monday! I fully expected that most of the ice around here would have been gone. I was pleasantly surprised that was not the case. It did thin things out a bit, but not too terrible. I think that this is because temps dropped on Monday afternoon and stayed down on Tuesday and much of the day on Wednesday. Hopefully this upcoming event won't have too much of an effect. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
Below are links to a few pix from Wednesday's fun. Note that the last 2 are by Eric McCallister. Nice shots Eric. He posted these and some others in the Gallery so check 'em out.
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:
Thanks to the folks who are contributing to the new Gallery. I really appreciate your postings. It's really easy to put up your latest & greatest shots. Good ones from the weekend's exploits or from your road trip. Share your climbing related shots with the community.
New Years Resolution:
Just a quick wish to all of you for a healthy, prosperous and happy new year. I appreciate all of you and wish you all the best. FWIW here's my New Year's Resolutions for '06 -
1) climb more
2) climb more
3) climb more
Should Alud....
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.
