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A 10 degree swing in either direction can be quite the difference. Start at a cloudy and damp 32, warm to a sunny 42 and you'll be sweating bullets. But start with a sunny 32, drop to a cloudy and breezy 22 and you can easily be in big trouble. I started my morning walk here in the Valley with a sunny and calm 30 degrees and it really felt as if spring was here. 2 hours later standing at the Dry River Campground at 24 degrees in a breezy light snow and it felt like we were in late January instead of almost March 1st.
The early part of this week really did feel almost like Spring. After a beautiful Monday morning, 4" or so of powder dropped in the afternoon/evening and by Tuesday morning temps headed upward into the sunny 40's. It felt glorious and gave everyone that's been cooped up for the past 4+ months a hint that there actually WILL be an end to winter.
I've been wanting to get over to Kinsman for a while, it's probably been 10 years since the last time I was there. Matty Bowman wanted to get out as well and we met up over there at 10 Tuesday morning.. Quite surprisingly there was no one there at that time! Matty wanted to do The Beast, so we wandered down that way first. Unsurprisingly he did a great job leading the steep line right up the middle and we rapped from some slings in the cool little cave above the top of the pillar. From there we walked back right and realized that a lot of folks had shown up. People were on everything but I just did a short bit on the left side of what I think may be Shamrock. Pretty easy grade 3 I would suppose. Matty followed and we rapped of this cool drip that came out of the wall on the left. There is an interesting looking mixed route on that wall with several bolts and obviously some gear required. All in all a very fun morning.
A MUSICAL REQUEST:
I just posted a video on YouTube of a new song I put together recently. It's a funky dance song that's basically an ode to the time before COVID, and wishes for that coming back once again. If you have a spare 3:40 please do check it out. And if you like it I would appreciate you actually hitting the THUMBS UP / LIKE button. Thanks...
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:
When Matt Bowman and I climbed on Tuesday at Kinsman Notch I was gratified that almost every climber I saw either was wearing a mask, or had it on so it could be immediately pulled up. I realize that being outside it's easy to rationalize that you don't need to mask-up. But when you are standing next to your partner before or after you climb, or at a belay it's the smart move! Why would you want to take that chance?
On Tuesday I happened to tune into the Maine CDC bi-weekly broadcast by their guy, Dr Shah. This guy is really good! One thing I in particular I took away from his talk was about the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Some folks are saying that it's "not good enough" or they will only take the Moderna or Pfizer because " they're better". He said that if you have an opportunity to get a vaccine, Just DO IT!!! ANY vaccine! And in the case of the J&J, within 28 days of getting a shot, you have less than 90% chance of getting seriously sick, and almost 100% of not getting hospitalized. Hell, those odds seem pretty damn good to me. I've already gotten my first Moderna, but if I'd had the opportunity to get any of them, I'd just take whichever. The more folks that get vaccinated, the more we can knock this thing down and get back to living our lives closer to what we want. I agree with the Docs...JUST DO IT.
Oh yeah, and mask up and wash those hands peeps! I don't want to hear that any of my climbing friends have gotten sick. Stay well.
Thank you...
New Hampshire:
2 new death(s) reported
338 new cases reported
1,157 deaths total
2,783 Active cases
103 patients are currently hospitalized
US:
Confirmed Cases: 28,363,932
Total Deaths: 506,807
Global:
Confirmed Cases: 112,786,577
Total Deaths: 2,502,411
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 rode at Marshall last weekend and things were firm and well packed out for some good riding. On Monday I had to take my Outback to Frechette to get the oil changed and tires rotated. I have no intention of sitting inside a waiting-room so I threw the fat bike in the car. The temp at 7:30 was what felt like a balmy 32 so I rode down Passaconaway Rd to High Street and headed uphill to the gate. Just past the gate is where Red's (snowmobile) Trail connects to the Marshall area. The trail was well consolidated and the riding was quite good. I noticed that the bike trails had been "groomed" with the SnowDog machine so I did a loop in there, cut across 2 Up into Hale's Estates and headed back to Frechette, pulling in just as my car came out of the bay. Perfect timing and a great start to the day.
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.