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YES, spring has sprung for sure. But this year it's not exactly coming easy folks. For example, if you're not able to grab a nice day when it comes along, you may be left out. So what that basically means is that you need to either be a guide, independently wealthy, self employed, retired or a climbing bum to enjoy the climbing right now! The weather really has been that variable.
I'd been "reduced" to riding the road bike to get my outdoor fix these past couple of weeks, mainly because when the weather has been good for climbing, I either haven't been able to find a partner or I've had to work. SIGH So I was darn close to ecstatic when my buddy Jeff called and said he wanted to get out for a couple of hours on Monday. We made plans to get together and do something mid-day and fortunately the weather cooperated. We've done Cormier-Magness together many times over the years and know it very well; and since we basically had a couple of hours available we knew we could run up it to any point and get off quickly.
Monday was sunny, tho fairly breezy, and the temperature was in the low 50's. We've done it in mid-December with temps in the low 30's with verglas on the 3rd pitch, so this was tame by comparison. He led pitch 1 and I did pitch 2. This was my first time on rock this season, so 5.6 seemed a little spicy but AS always fun. The Whitehorse runout are always entertaining. I noticed a couple of the bolts had loose nuts and so Jeff used his nut-tool to tighten them down as he followed. As I belayed him up the breeze picked up and I realized that I was a bit underdressed and decided that 2 pitched was just fine for a first time out this season. Today is a dreary & rainy day, but I have my fingers crossed for a dry weekend so I can get out again. Riding the bike is great, but I sure do like to climb...
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
VALLEY CYCLING:
Until a couple of daze ago many of the trails still had snow on them. For that reason, even tho it makes me quite nervous to be out there with the cars & trucks, I've been riding the road bike as much as I can. Places like Jackson, Passaconaway Road, Mill Street from Conway Lake to Brownfield Rd are all good options. Jackson is especially good and I can easily get in some good mileage and great climbing. But I've been Jonesing for the woods. So on Wednesday I decided to check out the East Side trails from Hemlock Lane behind Walmart.
So I rode over the RR tracks, through some water past the pillar, across the power lines and left up Swamp, over to 4 corners, right and up Rattlesnake to the Quarry, came back on Swenson/Grout and then back to Hemlock. There was no snow in the woods that I saw on my ride. That said, I spent a pretty fair amount of time doing trail-clearing, especially on Swamp. There are 2 down trees on the lower section of Swamp - the lower one I was able to mostly break apart and get off the trail, the next one, a fairly large birch, was too big for me. It needs a chain saw. There were others here & there that I was able to deal with fairly easily. At the 4 Corners you can hardly tell where the trail is across the stream. There is a tree down next to the stream and the stream itself has split and is quite wide! Overall Rattlesnake is good. The little ramp thingy on the stunt was smashed and in bad shape so I moved it away to the side. The trail up to the really big rock and intersection is pretty good, as is the rest of the way to the Quarry. The Swenson bit is fine and is a must because the road itself is under water! Fortunately there is only a small bit of water on the Swenson. I didn't look at Pillar To Pond or Muffler, tho I can well imagine that both have some water. If we get a dry bit of time I may have a look at Sticks & Stones.
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.
