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Perched on my toes a mere 30' off the deck, I feel in a far more precarious position than if I were on Dropline. I swing my trusty Cobra, using the adze to carefully clear away the large icicles hanging in my face. They fall, exploding to bits as they hit the ground below me. Although on a top rope, I feel as if I could easily slip and swing into the hard white surface next to me and am happy to have the comforting feel of the rope tugging at my harness. I swing the axe into the final chunk of ice, mantling over the final bulge and onto the snow covered ramp. Clipping the axe on my harness I look down and call to my wife, "OK - Throw me the shovel. I'll clear all this snow off the roof first and start hacking at these ice dams."
I don't know what it is this year, but the ice dams have really formed on almost everyone's roofs. Some people are ignoring them, but we started getting a leak in our upstairs bedroom so I had no choice but to get up there & clear the snow and hack them away. Fortunately it was on one of the warm days so it wasn't too bad.
Although I had all the climbing gear and was actually roped up, I always feel a lot more nervous up on a 30' aluminum extension ladder than on some big vertical pillar of ice or rock. That darn ladder moves, and that brown wooden deck just looks so unforgiving. So I tie one end of my old climbing rope off to the bumper of my truck, heave the other end over the roof using a half filled Nalgene bottle as a weight and then use my GriGri to self belay up the ladder onto the roof. Just like climbing Dracula, it's the final moves onto the top that are the most nerve wracking! And while I know it's not an APPROVED use of the device, I gotta tell you that being roped up makes walking around on ice and shoveling 3' of snow off my 45 degree roof a whole lot easier to deal with. Especially since I can't use crampons!
I didn't get everything done on Monday, so late the next afternoon, Tuesday, I got out there to finish the job just as the sun was going down. We had a beautiful sunset and the temperature was a balmy 45 degrees so after the job was done I sat outside drinking a beer. I listened to the thunder of the snow sliding off Whitehorse and the crashes of the ice falling off the Mordor. Of course we'll jump back into winter soon, but I was still a bit frustrated. We've had such a wonderful early season, it's hard to let go. Still - even during the "good old days" there have been these kind of January thaws, usually pretty short lived. This one should be more or less over by Saturday, so I suppose that's not too bad.
Here are some additional pics taken on Thursday morning that aren't in the Ice Report:
The one this does do is to remind me that with these kinds of big snows comes the big-time Spring thaws. All this snow over the winter brings with it the promise that for the first time in a while we'll actually have a mud season this year.
Ice Conditions Report:
Selected Ice Conditions effective February 19, 2026
Just as you would expect following Ice Fest AND a week of truly balmy temps, going to be upper 30's today, the ice can be a mixed bag. I saw someone post about how things are terrible. But digging into it, I realized they were talking about places like the North End that are very well used. It probably gets the most use of all. There are only a few places that have really easy access to moderate climbing and where you can set up a bunch of top-ropes. So that's not unexpected. And of course the climbs that are getting a lot of full sun are getting somewhat punked-out. On my way back from Wolfeboro mid-afternoon a few days ago I took a look at Rainbow Slabs which look as if they are getting pretty funky. And I watched a hunk of the bottom of Way In The Wilderness fall down! IMO it's really the time to start paying attention to what you're walking underneath, any time of the day. Enjoy this weather, but keep paying attention...
Huntington Ravine
numerous options
Repentance
iffy
Standard Route
GREAT conditions
Dracula
IN & very fat
For the full current conditions report, CLICK
HERE
Slideshow - Doug Scott - An Illustrated Lecture:
HIMALAYAN ALPINE STYLE
Significant moments during climbs on
Koh-i-bandaka - Hindu Kush, Afghanistan
Shishapangma South West Face - Tibet
Baruntse-Chamlang-Makalu - Nepal
Lobsang Spire-Broad Peak-K2 - Pakistan
Nanga Parbat-Mezeno Ridge - Pakistan
WHERE:
Regent Theater
7 Medford Street
Arlington, MA
WHEN: Wednesday, January 16 7:30 pm
Tickets $10.00 - available at the door
Box Office 781-646-4249
A Service of the Boston AMC Mountaineering Committee
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.
