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Yes, I am getting this out a day late - so shoot me. [sigh] One big question now is "Is The Ice Season Over?" Boy, that's a tough call to make... It was generally a climbable day yesterday, at least for SOME climbs. But overall things are going south pretty fast. Overnight, Thursday night, we got about 1/2 inch of wet white ka-ka, followed by a mix of freezing slush and rain this morning. My driveway was totally clear yesterday, and now it's a horrible gloppy mess that no snowblower can possibly deal with. I'm going to go out and try to push away some of the mound that the snowplow has deposited on the end of my drive before it can possibly set up. [sheesh] RE full season status - stay tuned...
ON A TOPIC OF SOME CONCERN - NOT DIRECTLY CLIMBING RELATED:
A question I've been getting, for obvious reasons, is "I'm worried about the Corona Virus! Is it safe to come up there?" Well I must say that I'm pretty concerned about this myself. On the good side, there have been very few cases in NH and to my knowledge none here in this area. That doesn't mean that it's not circulating. And since there is almost no testing available in the country at this time, we can't be sure. I'm personally concerned because I'm older (72), and because I am a professional musician - thus I am regularly out in places where there are crowds. 2 weeks ago I went played a local bar gig Friday night, rehearsed Saturday afternoon with 13 folks, went to a concert in Portsmouth on Saturday, played a church gig Sunday morning and went back to Portsmouth for a Hornsby concert Sunday night. I then played 2 very well attended gigs last Saturday and Sunday nights here in NH. I wasn't nervous then, but I am a little nervous now because quite obviously this is putting me in much closer contact with large groups of people than going climbing in the mountains with your friends.
In my estimation, if you're coming up for a day-trip with your buds all should be well. Or let's put it this way, you probably are not going to be at any more risk than you would be at home. That's assuming of course that you take the same kind of basic precautions up here that you take at home. Wash your hands with soap religiously, use hand sanitizer, keep your hands away from your face, etc. If you're going to come up and stay at a local hotel/motel, seriously consider bringing some disinfectant wipes and using them on surfaces like sink handles, toilet handles and door knobs. I know people in the service industry who do these jobs and they are very religious about doing these things. That said, you simply can't be too careful. And PLEASE, if you're sick or feeling bad, simply don't come. Here's 4 other hints/tips that I've been using that you may find useful:
1) After pumping your gas and using the touch pad on the pump, hand sanitize.
2) If possible use the Tap To Pay feature on credit card readers.
3) Hand sanitize after using the touch pad at the grocery or other stores.
4) Keep a squirt bottle of sanitizer in the driver-side door pocket of your car and use it every time you get back in the car when you're out.
BTW I am not going to debate this. This is SERIOUS stuff folks. I believe that we will weather it, but we need to work together to reduce the impact on our health care system. I have friends in Milan Italy who say that many people are dying! The NBA, NHL and NCAA would not have shut down if this was not serious. This is BILLIONS of dollars! If you believe this is some kind of political HOAX, media hype and I'm spreading FAKE NEWS, please unsubscribe and block me. That's all I'm going to say about it.
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
VALLEY CYCLING:
I had originally planned to ride up the Mt Willard trail after I took my pictures this morning. However I decided I wanted a closer view of Frankenstein so instead I rode the tracks on the fat tire bike. It wasn't great, but it was interesting to do. FWIW Strava said that it's exactly 1 mile from the start of the tracks down to just below Dropline. It's interesting that it's that far. After that I decided to ride up Sawyer River Road to the Signal Ridge trailhead by the parking lot. It's 2.16 miles each way so that was nice. The road had been groomed that morning so going up was pretty reasonable. The Carrigan Trail looked like it was very well packed out and I really thought it would be nice to rode out the 1.7 miles to the Desolation intersection. However nobody knew where I was so I figured that probably wasn't a great idea. [sigh] We're right at the point where the trails are going to turn to crap soon, kind of like the ice, so I need to grab stuff while I can.
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.
