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As if we don't have enough on our plates... Since I'm sure 99% of you live somewhere on or near the East Coast, that means that tropical storm Isaias almost assuredly had some effect on you. Even if it was only some heavy rains. But the fast moving storm really impacted the densely populated Northeast. For us here in northern New England, the storm came through late afternoon on Tuesday and was totally out of here by early morning on Wednesday. While certainly not nearly as bad as hurricane Irene in late August 1999, trust me it was quite sufficient.
It's fairly unusual for power to go out all over Conway, but this time it did. I was working on the computer and bing the power went out around 7pm Tuesday evening. After finding my emergency lanterns I took a drive down West Side Road and into town. Surprisingly there were no lights on anywhere. Here at the cliff, and for most of North Conway, the power came back sometime before midnight. However there are places in Glen, Bartlett and Jackson where it is still not back on - right now on Thursday evening. A good friend in Jackson just posted that they are not expecting their power back until later tomorrow.
Numerous trees were knocked down, blocking roads and ripping down power lines. Sadly a woman was even killed in Kersarge when a tree fell on her house! There were warnings about flash flooding, but fortunately that threat didn't materialize. Several restaurants who have had tents set up for outside dining, saw them damaged. Delaney's in particular was totally destroyed!
As it turned out we only got about 1.5" of rain here at the cliff, although in a very short amount of time. Interestingly enough the dry ground soaked in all the rain and you can hardly tell we got very much. Go figure...
ON CLIMBING:
I met up with Brad at Mt Forist late last Saturday afternoon. I'd wanted to climb some of the routes up the hill on the left side of the cliff, but Brad convinced me to do some in the middle of they cliff around Shining Path. I started on that route, enjoying the wandering nature of the line. I was only planning on doing bolted routes so I only had a truly meager "rack": #1 and .75 Camelots, a Green Alien and 4 Tricams - brown through black. Amazingly enough that was just enough to do 5 routes including Paul Cormier's 5.8 left of the arch all the way over to the line right of Shining Path. Sometimes it's interesting what you can get by with when you need to. And honestly I never felt unprotected except for the crappy flake above bolt on the 5.8. And that had to do with the crappy quality of the rock, not the gear!
JIMMY DUNN:
A great article about a true legend. Check it out...
For the full current conditions report, CLICK
HERE
Pandemic notwithstanding, it's full-on summer here in the Valley. In any other year, I'm sure we all would be saying how great a season we're having. However this year is obviously different. As I've mentioned before, there are more people here than most of us have ever seen. And those that are visiting, are taking the party atmosphere to new heights. While the local business are happy to have the income after the shutdown from March through May, there are absolutely unexpected costs that are coming with it. The Town is worried about how with revenues way down, and expenses drastically increasing, how they are going to manage. It's a conundrum for many small towns. This article provides a pretty good overview of what's going on.
WEAR A MASK, SANITIZE AND STAY PHYSICALLY DISTANT FRIENDS!
WHITE MOUNTAIN HOSTEL - FROM Tim Westwig:
We regret to inform you that the White Mountains Hostel is no longer accepting reservations. After many years of being open for the thousands of adventure travelers that have passed through this hostel, we are forced to close by the financial hardship caused by the pandemic. We were hoping that the pandemic would lessen so we could make it through, but that of course hasn’t happened. We know that shared accommodations like ours isn’t the best option during a pandemic. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause your travel plans.
We thank all of our guests for visiting, and for enriching our lives. This has been a very rewarding experience for us. You all will be missed.
Samara and I, the doggies, Piper and Bandit wish all of you the very best. Stay healthy and please return to the many great hostels throughout the world when this pandemic finally ends.
Sincerely,
Tim and Samara
VALLEY CYCLING:
While the storm on Tuesday didn't bring all that much rain, or the traditional accompanying mud, it did bring a lot of wind which cause blowdowns on the local trails. I walked some of the Echo Lake trails on Wednesday afternoon and spent a fair amount of time moving debris off the trails. I haven't been able to get out to other places, but I'm sure they are the same. If you have a folding saw in your camelback, your may find a good use for it if you're out riding in the woods this week and over the weekend.
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.
