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It's been continually cold over the past week. I had to go to Portland on Wednesday and it was a "balmy" 0 when I left North Conway at 7:30, dropping to -5 in Fryeburg and by the time I got to Portland at about 9AM it was a toasty 14! I took care of my business, was home by 2 and it was cloudy and 20. Over the past week that was pretty close to the high! And there is more cold on the way tonight & tomorrow along with pretty significant wind chills. SHEESH
NOW THIS IS INSPIRING:
Great oped in Rock & Ice by local climber Zac St Jules.
TREAD LIGHTLY February 25 @ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm EST Free:
Winter Climbing in the Eastern White Mountains - Join Friends of the Ledges and the Access Fund in a community forum about winter climbing in the White Mountains.As more and more people discover the challenge and allure of cold weather climbing, there is an increasing concern about permanent rock damage caused by dry tooling and mixed climbing.
The article is extensive and very well done. I think this final sentence may be the take-away, and it applies to climbing and really any extreme sport:
"If there are lessons to be learned from this accident, they aren’t new. Skiing technical lines, in a thin snowpack above a notorious terrain trap, with no partners, even on a Low danger day, raises the stakes tremendously."
CHICK COREA RIP:
I know this is not climbing related, but I just received the news that master jazz pianist/composer Chick Corea passed on the 9th. I was living in Gainesville Florida and first came across his album Now He Sings and Now He Sobs. I was enamored with his compositions and his empathy with his trio of Miroslav Vitous and Roy Haynes. And then I heard the Light As A Feather album with Stanley, Airto, Flora and Joe Farrell in '74. I was totally and completely floored... The band and their playing was amazing of course, but for me it was the songs! I was just starting to get into jazz and of course our band had to learn Spain. It became a staple in our repertoire and one I learned inside and out and I learned the head. When I auditioned at the University of Miami Music School, that was the piece that both got me in and got me a scholarship. Of course there Chick has written many many tunes, but that tune resurfaced in his set list regularly. 2 years ago I did a concert at the Leura Hill Eastman PAC at Fryeburg Academy and I pulled it out and dusted it off. It featured Jeff Loewer: vibes, Craig Bryan Jr: drums, Jed Wilson: piano, Jarrod Taylor: guitar and Mike Sakash: sax. You can hear it here:
I saw Chick play a number of times over the years, the first being at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC in '76. My friend and I thought it would be the same band that was on Light As A Feather, but it was the first iteration of the Return To Forever band with Stanley, Lenny White and Bill Connors, bringing us both a full-on mind altering experience. The last time I saw him was with his trio of Brian Blade and Christian McBride in Hanover, NH in 2016. It was an amazing and inspiring evening of creative music by 3 masters.
Here is the announcement of his passing. RIP maestro... There will never be another one like you.
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
As always the full set of regular pictures are on Facebook and NEClimbs.
SOME LOCAL/NATIONAL PANDEMIC THOUGHTS:
While there is no doubt that things are getting somewhat better, this pandemic is not over by a long shot, and there is another surge expected following the Super Bowl. But the big thing is of course getting shots into arms. Currently 157,404 total doses have been administered to NH citizens. While that sounds like a lot, the population as of 2020 in New Hampshire is 1,366,275. Fortunately the new administration is churning out vaccines and distributing them across the country much faster than before. While of course we need lots more doses, but more compliance with masking, social distancing and sanitizing will really help to knock this thing back. Do your part please, even when you are outdoors...
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 have only ridden once in the past week. Partly because I've been busy, and partly because the trails aren't in great shape. That may be changing now that the snowmobiles are out and they trails are getting groomed. I rode by Sawyer River Road and saw the groomer had been there this morning so I may hit it up there very soon. Stay tuned...
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
The rules of the game must be constantly updated to keep up with the expanding technology. Otherwise we overkill the classic climbs and delude ourselves into thinking we are better climbers than the pioneers.
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.
