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November 30, 2023
Hi Folks,
COLD! Yup, that's what it was this morning. It was 18 degrees from about 10:30 last night through to 6AM this morning! That's indeed some good ice-making conditions. The overall weather has been pretty all over the place. We've had white slush, a dusting of snow and 2 gorgeous warm-ish days! At least it's mostly been chilly at night, and cold the past few days.
While ice season is on the way, overall it's not quite here yet. What's out there is pretty dribbly and scratchy and not great. That's of course not to say you can't find ice to climb. The better stuff is up in the higher elevations right now. I've seen pictures of pretty good, and protectable, ice up in Tucks and Huntington. But of course that's really not unexpected. After all it's not even December, tho it will be tomorrow. And actually the ice this year is better right now than it was 12/1 last year. Here's a picture of Standard Route from 12/1 last year:
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20221201/standardRoute.jpg
And here is today:
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/standardRoute.jpg
Go figure...
WOWSER I saw some pix of a bold new route on Cannon right near Fafnir put up by Justin Guarino and Peter Doucette. It really looks like it was very entertaining at the least. If you are on Instagram you can see what peter posted. It looks very very cool.
I've heard from a couple of folks in the last day or 2 that the Scenic RR has been running some test train rides through the Notch this week. There is no schedule for these, so if you are climbing up in Crawford Notch and walking the tracks, please be cautious. Remember that you can access the Amphitheater via the Frankenstein Ravine Trail, not that it has ice to climb at this point.
This morning I banged out the trail up to the far-right side of Frankenstein from the road. You can park at the pulloff on the left side of the road just before the little bridge about 1/2 mile past the Dry River Campground. Walk across the bridge over the river and look for my tracks. It goes in the flat section for a bit, angles up and sidehill and then straight up for the last 50 or so feet to the tracks. You come out just left of the far-right slab. You still have to walk about 600 yards along the tracks to Standard Route. I probably could have stayed down in the woods somewhat further, but there are a bunch of gullys along there that I didn't want to deal with. Coming back from the Dracula decent trail you go past the 80 granite post and then one more unmarked post with a metal thingy coming out of it. It probably takes under 15 minutes to get from the road up to the tracks.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/trail_1.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/trail_2.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/trail_3.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/trail_4.jpg
On the way back from taking pictures I stopped at the snowmobile rental shop in Bartlett to chat with Bob & Katy. Bob said that the owner has been in talk with the RR owner. Apparently they will be allowed to groom the tracks and run rides from Jan 15-March 15 THIS YEYAR ONLY. Starting next year there will be no snow machines allowed on the tracks! That means that they will no longer be allowed to do the big and very popular loop around Bear Notch Road & Experimental Forest, across the Meadowbrook Connector, then Sawyer RR to cross 302 and to Bartlett via the RR tracks. It's hard for me to imagine this being written in stone, considering how big a lobby the snowmobile community has, but who knows.
PS - in case you didn't get the side-reference in the header...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX9muArmeFg
Wanna learn how to climb ice and safely recreate in the cold? Wanna build a community with others who love to do just that? The AMC Boston Ice Program is a volunteer-run instructional program designed to teach waterfall ice climbing to students with outdoor rock climbing and winter sports experience. The Ice Program is a fun, inclusive, community-oriented experience that enables students to learn safe, efficient ice climbing skills and techniques in a supportive environment.
Interested in learning more and want to apply for the program? Please visit https://www.amcbostonclimbers.com/ice-program for more information and to fill out the online application. The online application is open now and closes on Friday, December 10 2022. Please contact ice@amcbostonclimbers.com if you have any questions.
Friends of the Ledges is excited to announce that Janet Wilkinson will be presenting at Ledge Brewing Company on December 14th, from 6-8 p.m. Janet Wilkinson is a long time local and accomplished all around climber. She's digging through a couple decades of mountain adventure stories to find some fun and funny ones to share with us. Expect shenanigans ranging from our local hills to places like Cuba, Newfoundland, Patagonia, Nepal and India, with a mix of first ascents, failed ascents, unplanned bivies and big wall climbing. Janet is a mom of two young wildlings, works as an organizational development consultant, and advocates for inclusion and belonging in the outdoor community.
This is a fundraiser and we will be accepting donations in the form of entrance ticket.
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/MtWillard.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/Frankenstein_Right.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/Shoestring.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/CathedralLedge.jpg
http://www.neclimbs.com/wmr_pix/20231130/Unicorn.jpg
The donor total has hit 80, so I'm going to call it for this season. You can check to see if your donation has been received by looking here:
Donation List
I got the fat tire bike setup for winter riding. While I've poked around a little, I'm just waiting for the snow machines to pack things out or some of my fave places to get groomed. I'm sure it will happen soon.
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
| Vy can't ve chust climb ! |
| John Salathé |
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