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December 1, 2022
Hi Folks,
We have definitely been on the weather-go-round of late. Warm, rain, cold, rain, rinse, spin repeat. Last night we were on the rain/rinse cycle for sure. Starting around 5 PM the rains started and continued in one form or another until late evening. In only a relatively few hours we got almost 1.5" and temps spiked at around 47! [sheesh] And of course the rains did exactly what rains are want to do, wash away most of the ice.
Look at the pics in the ICE REPORT below and you'll get the idea. It's disappointing for sure, but at least we're going INTO the season rather than OUT, right? This kind of event would be the death-knell if it was March. I'm looking for a Christmas present that includes climbable ice.
I was Talking to a friend a few days ago and he mentioned a National Geographic article about Layton Kor and George Hurley climbing The Titan, one of the Fisher Towers in Utah, supported by Barry Bishop and George's wife Jean. I seemed to remember having a copy of it, but when I looked I couldn't find it. It turns out I DID have it, only on PDF. It's an interesting article so I posted it here.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/Titan.pdf
You all know by now that our own Ed Webster passed away very unexpectedly at home last Tuesday at the young age of 66. I've seen many tributes to him, but I thought that this one in particular was worth passing along. Besides the tribute, it included a youtube link to his "Everest The Hard Way" presentation given at the Gilford Public Library in August 2020.
https://gripped.com/profiles/ed-webster-who-defied-odds-on-everest-dies-at-66/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K42I6yhdXCc&t=823s
And an edited version of the presentation by Thom Pollard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjAHkTHn4fA
Love ya Ed... You're already missed.
Amazingly I'm off this week. And after playing Friday and Saturday last weekend and a recording session this week, I'm fine with that. On the 10th I'll be with my jazz trio at the Page Hill Pub on Page Hill in Tamworth 6-9. It features Tom Robinson on piano and Alex Ouelette on drums. The food and drinks are excellent and I promise the music will be delightful. Reservations are recommended. In addition I'll be playing duo jazz with my friend and master pianist Jed Wilson on December 16 in the Cafe in the Majestic Theater in Conway Village. Jed is amazing so don't miss this one.
It's hard to give these conditions a 1, but I gotta figure there will be something to climb somewhere in the upper elevations soon! [HA] So much water...so little ice. [sigh] What we desperately need now is cold! We finally have a gracious plenty of water "in the system". It's the cold that we're all waiting on. Although it's going to be cold at night, without any snowpack we need consistent cold both day AND night to really make it happen. So all I can say right now, is hold on a bit longer. It's not a matter of IF, it's just WHEN.
FYI when I started out this morning from Cathedral Ledge around 8 AM it was a bright and sunny 34 degrees. It was about the same as I passed by Frankenstein heading up to the top of Crawford Notch. Just past the Willie House up toward Mt Willard it was a windy 27 and blowing snow. Enough that I couldn't even get an overall picture of Willard or Webster. By the time I got back to the Dry River Campground it had dropped to 27 and lightly blowing snow as well.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/standardRoute.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/dracula.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/Frankenstein_Right.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/MtWillard_UpperTier.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/SnotRocket.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/CathedralLedge.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/LHMonkeyWrench.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/elephantHead.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/silverCascade.jpg
Get this on your schedule folks. This will be the 30 year anniversary of Ice Fest and it's going to be a good one! And hey - ice season will be here before we all know it.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221110/IceFest-2023.jpg
The official date is February 3-5, 2023. Stay tuned for website and registration updates, guest guide information, and party details. If you have any questions, you can call IMCS directly at (603) 356-7064.
I want to sincerely thank the 43 individuals who have donated so far to my 2023 Fundraiser. I truly appreciate every donation, no matter how large or small. I updated the donation list this morning and it should be current now. I try to thank everyone personally, hopefully if you donated I didn't miss you.
http://www.neclimbs.com/index.php?PageName=donation_list
If you want to be one of those IN THE KNOW about what's going on here in the Whites, so I hope that you will consider taking a minute or two out of your busy day to help support NEClimbs and The White Mountain Report. It's easy, just go ON LINE and make your donation via PayPal. You don't even need a PayPal account, you can use almost any credit card. Just click the link below:
http://www.neclimbs.com/index.php?PageName=donation_fundraiser
Of course you can also contribute via check or money order if you like. Make it out to NEClimbs and send it here:
NEClimbs
92 Bow Lane
North Conway, NH 03860
PLEASE REMEMBER, it's your contribution that makes this newsletter and the NEClimbs web site viable. The expenses of the running and maintaining NEClimbs.com and putting out The White Mountain Report continue all year.
FWIW 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 November 3, 2021 on NEClimbs.com is about 2840 UNIQUE visits a day, generating over 1.5 million monthly "HITS". The White Mountain Report newsletter goes out to over 1,210 subscribers weekly!
Thank you once again for your support...
http://www.neclimbs.com/index.php?PageName=donation_paypal
There have been 2,816 people who have died of COVID-19-related deaths. Health officials reported 231 new cases Wednesday, above the week's average of 132 cases per day. A total of 361,370 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the state since the start of the pandemic. The New Hampshire Hospital Association reported 80 people in hospitals who have tested positive for the virus, up by two from Tuesday. Of those 80 people, 24 are receiving COVID-19-specific treatment, up by one from Tuesday. [from WMUR TV]
New Hampshire:
2 new deaths reported so far this week
231 New cases
80 Current hospitalizations being treated for COVID
2,816 Total deaths due to COVID-19
United States:
Confirmed: 98,796,415
Deaths: 1,080,457
Global:
Confirmed: 643,543,009
Deaths: 6,635,806
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've gotten out a couple of times this week. Once at the Marshall and the other at Whittaker Woods. Overall both were fun riding on my fat tire bike. tho it was mostly dry, there were a couple of muddy spots on Lucille's at Marshall. That left my fat bike pretty well covered in mud. I can usually brush it off before it goes back in the car, but this time it was wet sticky stuff. I had to leave it in the garage drying off for a couple of days before I could clean it off. Part of the problem is that I've also put away the hoses and turned off the spigots! [sigh] Time for a couple of buckets of warm water. It's almost time to get the studded tires on the bike. With the rain and it starting to get cold, there will be icy spots here & there.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/bike.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
| The Puking Gecko, Grand Wall, *** S9 5.12d/e 712m - An intimidating and salacious climb. The final pitch is so exposed, tricky, and continuously strenuous that it is impossible to even contact the rock at any point. Better than making passionate love on top of a Japanese Bullet Train. Superbly magnificent and grimly brilliant. |
| Andy Cairns |
|
