Like reading the White Mountain Report every week? Why not get it delivered to your e-mailbox every Thursday? All you have
to do is subscribe. It's fast, painless, and best of all it doesn't cost you
a dime!
This is a quick one this week. I left the house this morning under bluebird skies and headed up the Notch fully expecting to see mediocre ice conditions. Just about at the Bartlett C-country Ski area it started snowing. By the time I got to Frankenstein it was all huge flakes & pretty much full-on conditions. As usual I took a shot of the Fang area and there was basically nothing left up there. Pretty depressing!
I was very surprised that at 9:30 AM I was the only person in the parking lot so I grabbed my pack & headed down the tracks. The Amphitheater looked as expected, mostly devastation! However on the other side of the trestle I was very surprised to see the mixed in the cut were all basically in, as well as the slab. That was a good omen. Not surprisingly I could see ice up in the Walk/Way In The Forest area, but Waterfall looked pretty poor. There was a large open rock area in the lower section and the top out had rock showing as well. Standard, on the other hand, looked very good. It had built up substantially since last weekend.
It had been a while since I'd run up Standard by myself, so that was a real treat, in spite of an annoying crust on top of the entire first pitch. There were lots of interesting runnels that had formed up on the right side and it looked as if many options were available. Unfortunately the very top had open rock and running water, so I wished I'd taken a line over in the trees above Standard Left instead. I sat around for about 15 minutes at the very top, eating a bar and enjoying the silence and the snow.
I was blown away that the Hanging Garden area was still standing. While it still wasn't what I would call IN, it's very close. Still there are some very interesting lines between The Garden & Dracula that look as if they would be good fun. Dracula looked much better than on Monday, both sides, and the start of Machine had come in again. If the curtain at the top fills in again it will be in good shape. The Last Exit pillar and curtain have formed and it looked thin, but doable. Dropline has hung in there and looks doable as well. While I did ride up in to the Notch, it was hard to see the climbs on WIllard because of the blowing snow. There is ice up there, but I would think that Cinema is still to thin to be done. Elephant Head looks good and there are cool variations to its right.
All in all I would say that we have really dodged the bullet and the ice is still happening. If we don't get another warm spell or rain we will be good to go for the weekend. Here's a few interesting pix.
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
Locals Done Good:
Local IMCS guides Freddie Wilkinson and Dave Scharratt did a new route on Cerro Innominata. Word has it that it's destined to be a classic line. The route is 2,000' of steep splitter cracks going at sustained 5.11 with 2 pitches of 5.12, and it went all free!
As someone put it; "Yet again - two more unknown, modest, and incredibly talented New Hampshire based climbers, doing what they do for love, not glory."
Great Job Guys!!!!
Alien Cam Recall:
In case you hadn't heard, there has been a recall on fairly recently produced cams. If you use Aliens, and who doesn't these days, you should check out this link for the details.
http://aliencamsbycch.com/recall/
Lake Willoughby Rescue Cache Donation:
Jeff Campbell, an ice climber and an EMT in Pennsylvania heard about the Lake Willoughby rescue cache project and volunteered to donate some supplies. This was very generous of him and is much appreciated.
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:
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 rules of the game must be constantly updated to keep up with the expanding technology. Otherwise we overkill the classic climbs and delude ourselves into thinking we are better climbers than the pioneers.
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.
