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I was very happy that Tuesday was a nice day so Brad and I could get out in the morning, even if only for an hour or so. We both had stuff to do mid-day so we opted for a morning excursion to Cathedral. It's been a little while since I've walked out my back door to get to the cliff, tho that's one of the main reason I bought my house 24 years ago. I can walk out the back door and be at Bombardment in 15 minutes! pretty sweet...
My friends the Perez's had gone over to top-rope AP Treat on Monday and said it was a little dirty, but generally OK. Brad and I have done it a number of times over the past several years, so we decided to give it a go. We walked uphill on the trail to the base of Three Birches and ran into Bill Lutkus and his friend getting ready to give Ego Trip a go. He asked us about the location of the pocket for the pink Tricam in P1.
I have led AP Treat probably 8-10 times over the years and I always find it entertaining. It's been a couple of years since I've done it and this time I found it a little harder than I remember. I managed it OK, but I thought that the crux move over the bulge was a bit harder than I remember; even tho the bolt is right there! There is a finger pocket on the right on the upper slab about 2 moves past the bolt. This time it was full of water & mud so it wasn't very appetizing. Oh well...it was fun to climb something challenging and I enjoyed it. Brad was on a top-rope, but he totally nailed every move. He told me afterward that had made a decision that he was going to stick every move, and he did that for sure.
For gear it takes 3 small cams, has 1 pin and a single bolt. The first placement is a vertical slot at about 30' that requires something on the order of a red BD X-15. You can get in two small cams around the large "dish" before you move right to the pin. Then there is a nice bolt before the crux move over a bulge and onto the top-out slab. While rated 5.8 in Handren and on MP, I feel it's closer to a 9. It's easy to go up the stairs to the right, traverse left and throw a TR on a tree if you want to give it a run before you lead it.
As I was putting on my climbing shoes I noticed a small frog on the rock beside me. I've seen many of thee tiny frogs recently, in a variety of places including my front yard, my veggie garden in the back and even in the parking lot over at Hemlock Lane behind Walmart. I'm happy to see that they are around. I would think it's a positive sign for the local environment.
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
RUMNEY CRAGGIN' CLASSIC:
It's back folks! This year it will be September 17-19, 2021 and is being sponsored by CAMP Technical Adventure Equipment. It looks to be a great weekend and there is limited space so get your tickets NOW.
PEREGRINE CLOSING NOTIFICATION FROM CHRIS MARTIN:
All seasonal climbing closures put in effect in Spring 2021 for NH Peregrine Falcon nest sites have been lifted. Climb on! This season, I especially want to acknowledge direct involvement by Bob Hall, Lee Hansche, Torie Kidd, and Andy Casler in management efforts at specific sites. And thanks again to all for your support of Peregrine Falcon management here in NH!
Please continue to send me updates when you encounter falcons at any of the areas where you climb. I look forward to working with you in the 2022 falcon nesting season.
Chris Martin
Senior Biologist, NH Audubon
INSTANT BUG REPORT: 2
Ticks are still out and about in numbers, but other annoying buggies not so much. Even the moth population has declined. Just sayin'.
SOME LOCAL/NATIONAL PANDEMIC THOUGHTS:
Honestly I am not a doom and gloom person; just a pragmatist that tries to keep on to of things. And the status of the ongoing pandemic is something that is WELL worth staying aware of. And what I see is quite concerning. While Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are doing better than many states, the increase in infections is quite concerning. In case you hadn't noticed, last Thursday's # of active cases was 538, while today that number is 893! Not a good thing IMO...
According to Columbia University epidemiologist Jeffrey Shaman; "I know everyone wants to put the pandemic and the virus behind them, but that's not the case." The seven-day average of cases across the US has risen by about 60 percent in the past week alone. According to Johns Hopkins tracking, daily hospitalizations rose by roughly 40 percent and deaths rose almost 30 percent, now averaging more than 300 each day. Shaman said his team’s most recent model showed a peak in cases in four to five weeks, at which point there would be “a little over a million cases for the whole week” across the U.S. population, which averages to more than 140,000 cases daily.
I lived in the South for many years and still have friends in Florida and Georgia. The increase in infection and hospitalization numbers down there are staggering. I just received a discouraging text from a good friend who plays music in Miami. Altho fully vaccinated, he got infected at a big-band rehearsal where several players were unvaccinated and asymptomatic! His symptoms were very mild, but before he realized he was sick he passed it on to several other musicians at a gig 2 days later! One is quite sick and all are now quarantining. My parents lived in Jacksonville and I just read that Baptist Health Jacksonville is cancelling elective procedures and their hospitals are over capacity. I'm glad that I'm not living down there any more. Just sayin'...
I have no interest in getting sick from COVID, even if it''s mild; so I'm now masking up in places like grocery stores, LL Bean, even the Frontside. I find it interesting that all Bean employees are masked, about half the people in Hannaford are masked (tho almost no employees) and no one is masked in the coffee shop. [go figure]
New Hampshire:
1 new death reported
138 new cases reported
893 Active cases
34 patients are currently hospitalized
1,389 total deaths
United States:
Confirmed: 35,347,582
Deaths: 614,858
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.
OUR ONLY WAY OUT IS IF YOU GET VACCINATED, WHERE RECOMMENDED PLEASE STILL WEAR A MASK, WASH YOUR HANDS!
REMEMBER - WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
VALLEY CYCLING:
Rode over at the Marshall for the first time in a while. Just a little mud on the dips at Shumway, but overall in great shape. There are great blackberry bushes here and there on Lucille's which make it ever more fun than usual. It's that time of year.
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.
