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At this time of year I am very aware of just how fortunate I am to have my health, to live here in this beautiful Valley, have as many dear friends as I have and to be able to do the variety of things that I am able to do. And I wish all of you a very healthy and happy Thanksgiving.
As I plan on spending tomorrow with friends I figured I should get up early and take pictures today. It was a dreary morning, and honestly things didn't look good. Looking through the binoculars at Standard Route I particularly noticed a few things that I think are worth pointing out. If you look carefully at the picture below, you can see a number of things that would make climbing this route a total non-starter FOR ME. And sure, your milage may vary! There are lots of hangers all over the route, PLUS what you can't see in the picture is the amount of water that's running. I know everyone is all excited to get out and climb. AND there are folks who will pretty much give anything a go.
EARLY DESERT CLIMBS SLIDESHOW:
A benefit slideshow for Friends of the Ledges about the early days of rock climbing on the Colorado Plateau, presented by George Hurley. Suggested donation of $10. Tuckerman Brewing Company, Conway Village, 6PM.
George is an 84-year-old rock and ice climber who lives in New Hampshire, he has established hundreds of rock and ice routes around the country. The slideshow presentation begins with the first ascent of Shiprock in October 1939. Hurley entered the desert climbing game in the 1950’s. In 1962, he, along with Lyton Kor and Huntley Ingalls made the first ascent of the 900-foot Titan and returned in 1966 with TM Herbert and Tom Condon to capture the second ascent. From 1966-1988, Hurley and Bill Forrest made first ascents of most of the spires in the Valley of the Gods in the southeast corner of Utah. In the 1980’s, Hurley, Earl Wiggins and Katy Cassidy climbed towers near Moab. Included in the slideshow will be photographs of the first ascent of the Titan (1962); Standing Rock (1962) and Castleton Tower (1961).
I've seen this show and I personally feel it's very good. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. And on top of that the Tuckerman Brewing Company makes GREAT beer!
2019-2020 WHITE MOUNTAIN REPORT FUNDRAISER:
YUP - It's November, so it's time to start putting out the weekly ICE REPORT. I've been writing the Report for 21 years, since 1998. Red Sox radio broadcaster Joe Castiglione says, "Can you believe it?" I guess I do...
I truly hope you find this weekly White Mountain Report and NEClimbs.com web site are enough to warrant making a small donation to support what I do. As always, absolutely any amount is welcome, so please take a minute to and go ON LINE and make your donation via PayPal. And you don't actually NEED a PayPal account, you can use almost any credit card. Just click the link below:
Of course you can also contribute via check or money order if you like. Make it out to NEClimbs and send it right here:
NEClimbs
92 Bow Lane
North Conway, NH 03860
The time and expenses of the running and maintaining NEClimbs.com and putting out The White Mountain Report continue all year. PLEASE REMEMBER, it's your contribution that makes this newsletter and the NEClimbs web site viable. You can see many of the Reports on NEClimbs.com web site, I've archived them from as far back as September of 1999! To get a sense of the popularity of the site, current traffic as of October 2019 on NEClimbs.com is about 127,447 UNIQUE site visits a day, generating roughly 1,900,000 monthly "HITS". The White Mountain Report newsletter also goes out to over 1,200 subscribers weekly! If you're one of those, please consider making a donation to the site.
Thank you once again for all of your support...
Ice Conditions Report:
Selected Ice Conditions effective April 24, 2024
It's all over for 2023/2024.
Huntington Ravine
OUT
Repentance
OUT
Standard Route
OUT
Dracula
OUT
For the full current conditions report, CLICK
HERE
ICE FEST 2020:
Oh Yeah...That's Right. It's time to think about ICE FEST 2020 folks! I know the the web site & Blog haven't been updated yet, but you should put the date on your calendars and start making your plans. # 28 is going to be a fun one that's for sure.
I do have one teaser for you... The main presenter for this year will be the most amazing Mark Richey! Mark is a great human being and a phenomenal climber. His most recent achievement was on August 5th, 2019 pulling off the First Ascent of Link Sar, a 7040 meters peak in the Karakoram. A spectacular summit with an amazing team that included Steve Swenson, Graham Zimmerman and Chris Wright. The route took six days of difficult climbing of over 30 technical pitches, over approximately 8,000 vertical feet from ABC and about 11,300 feet from basecamp.
VALLEY CYCLING:
I got out to ride the fat tire bike this a few times this week. On Sunday I rode up Sawyer River Road to the intersection above the Pond Trailhead. The road was quite icy for the first mile, but had a nice crust for the rest. I was happy to have the studded tires for the whole ride tho. There were 5 other cars in the parking area when I arrived at around 11 AM. I never saw anyone out there but there were tracks headed into Mt Carrigan/Signal Ridge, the Pond and above. Then I took a ride on the Marshall Conservation trails on Tuesday. There was one other car and rider out, but I didn't see them. While I suppose you could ride without studded tires, IMO you would be far safer with them. It was also a little muddy, but not bad.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20191127/bike_1.jpg http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20191127/bike_2.jpg http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20191127/bike_3.jpg
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
Breaking into a new area of climbing while remaining safe is probably sort of like practicing religion. There's no best way to do it, and if you screw up, you're going down...
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.
