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October 6, 2022
Hi Folks,
I went to the first 3/4 of the Friends Of The Ledges board meeting Wednesday night at IMCS. To me the most interesting topic discussed was Mike Morin's presentation about the proposal to repurpose the Wall Of Hurley Morning Light on Cathedral as an "adaptive climbing access area". It's being used a lot for a wide variety of purposes, and this seems like it could be a pretty cool thing. As Mike pointed out, it's probably the only place in the valley where with a handicapped/adaptive accessible trail could be put with very modest amount of effort, allowing those climbers to access it fully independently! Honestly this might actually become the first place like this in the country, and certainly in the Northeast. There is significant design work to be done of course, but on first and perhaps second glance, this could be a great asset to the area. Not to mention that it could most likely be fully or close to fully funded through grants and could possibly be completed sometime in 2023!
To my total and complete surprise I was asked if I cared if the bolt studs were removed so as to not catch on the folks using it. [YIKES] Since the hangers have been stolen and there is so much brouhaha about the bolts my response was; "Why should I care? That ship has obviously sailed..!" Needless to say I'd still like to get the STOLEN hangers back. That's REAL $$$.
I was also a bit surprised when a certain climber/guide/board member approached me and questioned my recollection about he and I replacing the bolts on Thin Air. For some reason he recollected that we just went over and cleaned up the mess that Bayard had made in the chopping. Needless to say that was not the case. And of course I have all the pictures of he and I from that day, the big bolting meeting at Cranmore and then of Brad and I climbing Thin Air the day after it was chopped. As it turns out, the bolt replacement was done on 6/20/2002, the big meeting was a year later on 10/4/2003, Bayard chopped the bolts on 10/5/2003 and Brad and I climbed TA on 10/6/2003 to check it out. Dave Kelly wrote an article for NEClimbs.com about how best to drill and replace bolts in 2002. I'm not sure why it's not in the Articles menu list, but you can read it here:
http://www.neclimbs.com/other/bolting/
Unfortunately I had a previously scheduled meeting here at 8 so I had to leave before Nick's "bolting meeting synopsis" presentation. I'm certain that had some entertainment value, but I'm pretty done with it, so just as well.
I drove up into Crawford Notch this afternoon to take some pictures and ride Sawyer River Road. The foliage was pretty amazing and the ride was great as always. SRR is one of my fun go-to rides at all seasons, but fall is close to the best. Here's some of the pics:
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221006/fang.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221006/Frankenstein.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221006/MtWebster_1.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221006/MtWebster_2.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221006/MtWillard.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221006/ElephantHead.jpg
I know, I know, I know... Not that any of you folks will come out, LOL. Another in my monthly series of jazz duos will take place October 14th at the Majestic Cafe. This one features jazz guitarist Peter Einhorn, literally one of my oldest friends outside of my family. I've known Peter since probably 1966, where we both attended the University Of Florida in Gainesville. We played in a number of original-music bands over 10 years and learned how to play jazz together around the same time. I followed him to the University of Miami in '75, where we both got music degrees and honed our skills. We both were in NY in the 80's and went separate ways but kept in touch. Peter moved to Woodstock NY, raised a family, invented the acclaimed Spider Capo, does film work and has been playing some great jazz in the Woodstock area. I'm very excited about reuniting with him, playing some fun tunes and seeing where our musical journey's have taken us. Please come out and support live creative music in our Valley. Here's a link to one of his latest tunes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAJXf7ABy6Y
None that I've seen this week, but who knows...
SOME LOCAL/NATIONAL PANDEMIC STATISTICS AND THOUGHTS:
I watched Dr Fauchi on the Steven Colbert show last night. He's an amazing 80 year old, so otally on top of things and obviously still very fit. I understand some people's criticism's, but IMO he's someone to admire on many many levels. Frankly I can only hope I will still be as on top of things when I'm his age - 5 years from now. He did say that here is likely to be another wave/surge of Covid this winter, and as he puts it, "400 deaths a day is just too much!"
I just got my 3rd booster yesterday, 5 Covid vaccinations in total. Like all of mine this was Moderna, and like all the others I had little to no adverse effects. My arm is a little sore at the injection site, but that happens to me when I get any shot. Needless to say I highly recommend getting boosted. I'm out riding and climbing with people, playing music mostly outside but some indoors, going to Friends Of The Ledges meetings and I'm just living my life. I've had my flu, shingles and pneumonia shots as well. Hey, at almost 75 I do NOT want to get sick. I had Covid 4 months ago and it was very mild, and I attribute that to being vaccinated.
New Hampshire:
On average 1 death/day!
1,727 Active cases
37 Current hospitalizations being treated for COVID
2,708 Total deaths due to COVID-19
United States:
Confirmed: 96,557,246
Deaths: 1,061,547
Global:
Confirmed: 619,975,921
Deaths: 6,552,852
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map
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.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/covid-19-daily-video
OUR ONLY WAY OUT IS IF YOU GET VACCINATED, WHERE RECOMMENDED PLEASE STILL WEAR A MASK, WASH YOUR HANDS!
I rode several times in this past 7 daze. Once on the East side (Pillar To Pond, Sticks & stones, and The Knot), a bunch of downhill runs at Cranmore and a cut across to grab Tornado in the Hurricane Zone, and then a very chilly (34 degree) early morning ride at Marshall while my car was being serviced at Frechette. YIKES But all the trails were in great shape and it was a blast. This is the last weekend for Cranmore all all the area lift service downhill rides. Since I'm not gigging this weekend for a change, I will make a real effort to get out for a last time even tho it will surely be busy. Oh yes - I rode Sawyer River Road this afternoon and it was great, as always. Highly recommended peeps.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221006/bike_1.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221006/bike_2.jpg
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:
http://www.neclimbs.com/mobile
Check it out and if you have issues on your specific phone, please feel free to let me know.
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:
http://www.facebook.com/NEClimbs/
Remember - climb hard, ride the steep stuff, stay safe and above all BE NICE,
Al Hospers
The White Mountain Report
North Conway, New Hampshire
| Height has nothing to do with it, it is your strength that counts. |
| Lynn Hill |
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