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It's been a busy week and it's not going to slack off. A bunch of climbing, band rehearsals and music performances, plus a great bike ride up Hurricane Mountain Road. All in all it's the kind of week you want to do when the weather is changing to warm! It was 44 in the Valley on Thursday, 37 on Friday morning and it will get warmer on Friday, before it cools off at night. [YUCK] Hang on folks it may be a bumpy ride...
I climbed last week on the Unicorn on Cathedral Ledge with area Petal rep Dave Karl. I got to try out the new Ergonomic tools with the superb new Pureice picks. These are great tools and the picks are amazing folks. It's the first tool that may actually get me to abandon my vintage Ergo's! Believe me, that's saying something. Note that this isn't the normal Unicorn climb. That one usually comes in at the corner. For some reason it didn't make it this year, but some other cool stuff did. This climb was probably 50-60' high and close to vertical. Very sweet...
I went out today (Thursday) with the Bagel-meister (Bagels Plus) himself, Frank Dahlmeyer. He wanted to do Repentance, so that's what we did. I led the first two pitches as one and he did the chockstone on the left. It was POURING water and I was totally soaked at the end. I wish we'd brought the 70 meter rope so I could have belayed at the new newish anchor 20' higher tho. It would have been a lot more comfortable.
I got up at 5 AM today to practice for my gigs and then took pics and climbed, so I was beat after Repentance. Enjoy your weekend and climb safe folks...
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
Of course the regular Thursday ice pix are on NEClimbs.com and Facebook, but here are some of the other pix.
VALLEY CYCLING:
I haven't ridden too much lately because of the snow and because I hadn't put on my studded tired. [shucks] That changed on Wednesday morning and I took them out for a run up Hurricane Mountain Road and the Black Cap Trail. I ran out of time and didn't get to the top, only to the kiosk, halfway up the trail. Still it was a great ride on a balmy day and I worked up a sweat. Highly recommended folks!
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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.
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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.
