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I knew I wasn't going to have a car Thursday, so I drove up to the Notch Wednesday to see what was happening up there. Temps were in the upper teens, there were flurries and the wind was howling. It was especially interesting to experience the difference between the conditions in the Valley and the Notch.
It was chilly and breezy in the Valley, but once I got up around Sawyer River Road there was snow on the ground and the wind picked up a lot. There were flurries such that I couldn't see Mt Washington and at times it was difficult to see the climbs at Frankenstein from the road. I drove up to the top of the Notch and had a hard time capturing pics of Mt Willard and unfortunately I couldn't get a good one of Willies Slide at all! I decided to walk the tracks into Frankenstein both to get better pictures and for some exercise.
Altho the wind didn't let up, the flurries stopped and the sun came out as I went across the Trestle. There has been some jerk tagging boulders and other places with graffiti this year. Apparently Frankenstein isn't immune either as I saw some on the trestle itself! [grrr]
INSTANT ICE REPORT:
Ice is forming in Crawford Notch, but I didn't see anything that looks climbable yet. If temps stay chilly at night and we get some more snow up there I'm sure that will change pretty quickly. For those interested in taking a walk, I'm almost certain Tucks has climbable ice now. Bring your stubbies and tools with old picks tho, cause I'm pretty sure it will be thin.
2020/2021 FUNDRAISER:
It's already November 19th, the week before Thanksgiving! YUGE thanks to all 45 supporters who have donated to the annual fundraiser. I truly appreciate every one of you. I updated the current Donation page on NEClimbs.com today and thank you all once again for your consideration.
If you find the weekly Report useful or even mildly entertaining, I'd sincerely appreciate a small donation to support what I do. Of course any amount is welcome, and you can easily go ON LINE and make your donation via PayPal. You don't even need a PayPal account, and 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. Please make it out to Al Hospers and send it here:
NEClimbs
92 Bow Lane
North Conway, NH 03860
The time and expense of the running and maintaining NEClimbs.com and putting out The White Mountain Report continue all year, but I only ask for donations once. In the winter I put in at least 5 hours every Thursday driving up into the Notch, taking the pictures, processing them, writing the Report, posting the pix on NEClimbs and FaceBook and putting out the email newsletter Report. It's an effort that I do enjoy, but PLEASE REMEMBER, it's your contribution that makes this newsletter and the NEClimbs web site viable.
BTW You can see almost all of the Reports on NEClimbs.com archived from as far back as September of 1999! To get a sense of the popularity of the site, current traffic as of October 29 2020 on NEClimbs.com is about 126,000 UNIQUE visits a day, generating almost 2 million monthly "HITS". The White Mountain Report newsletter goes out every week to over 1,200 subscribers weekly!
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
FLASH Governor Sununu has announced a Mask Mandate for the state if New Hampshire. With numbers rising precipitously this month, it's about time.
SOME LOCAL/NATIONAL PANDEMIC THOUGHTS:
There are now, Thursday, 111,542,561 confirmed cases in the US with 250,732 American citizens dead. According to Johns Hopkins there are 1,352,775 reported deaths world-wide from the Corona Virus as of Thursday November 19th. This is beyond sad, it's incredibly tragic. This is NOT the flu!
The numbers everywhere have really jumped up again, even up here. On Wednesday alone, New Hampshire reported 447 new cases of the virus a positivity rate of 2.16%. In the 19 days since the 1st of November we have picked up 20% of the total cases since the pandemic started! This is a major escalation folks. All of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont are now RED and showing SUBSTANTIAL Community Spread and we have now had cases in ALL of our local schools.
In almost every neighborhood you see multiple cars with out of state tags at houses. In my little neighborhood I regularly see houses with 5, 6 or even 7 cars at a time! Unfortunately our local Chamber Of Commerce is still encouraging people to come up here to shop and recreate. I see the parking lots at local restaurants full and there are a lot of people shopping at the outlet stores. It's as if for some people this still really isn't happening. On the news this week I saw an interview with a nurse who works on a Covid ward in a hospital in the Midwest. She said that she has patients who right up to the time that they die, they continue to deny that they have the virus.
Thanksgiving is next Thursday friends. In the past I would have 4-8 friends over for a party and a feast. This year, instead of a big turkey, I will be cooking a small chicken, baking only one small pie and will do dinner via Zoom. I want to be able to get together again next year, and am willing to forgo this year for the promise of the future. I hope you will do the same...
I find JHU's Daily COVID-19 Data in Motion report to be very informative. It shares critical data on COVID-19 from the last 24 hours in a short 1 minute animated video format.
WEAR A MASK, SANITIZE AND STAY PHYSICALLY DISTANT FRIENDS!
REMEMBER - WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
VALLEY CYCLING:
I've done 6 rides so far over the past 7 days, and have one more on tap for Friday. 4 of them were one of my 1 hour go-to local loops, one up Bear Notch Road and back down the Experimental Forest and yesterday was a ride back from dropping my car off at the mechanic on East Conway Road. All except Saturday were chilly, but yesterday was downright COLD! It never got above 26 according to my home weather station, and the wind gusts made it feel MUCH colder. Even with good gloves and a warm jacket, I was cold. It may be time to get out the booties and lobster-claw gloves friends.
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
Instead of sport climbing I go bouldering. It's pure, and basically impossible to cheat. Bolts can't be used to manipulate the experience. Sure, I sometimes take a thicker crash pad but I still have to take the fall.
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.
