After a while the snow, rocks, and ice no longer look all the same. After a while every minor nuance on the mountain is a known thing, an old friend we recognize by their shape. We become very, very familiar. This is good, during a whiteout this familiarity can be super useful. The recognition of a lowly ice-encrusted mass of talus can keep us on the right path by presenting us with a cairn between the cairns, so to speak.
We mention this because Redline Guide Ryan Mcguire led his fiftieth trip up our tallest 4000-footer in the While Mountains: 6288′ Mount Washington, a.k.a. the Rock Pile — home to crap weather. This means that between just some of our guides we can count up to 250 successful trips under our collective belt. In other words, we really know this mountain.
Our most recent trip wasn’t a test of navigational ability, however. The familiarity was less important, less needed. Like many trips, the roaring lion stayed in its cage. By the photos it looked like this worked out great as they had a wonderful climb surrounded by the awe and beauty of our grand mountains.
Training day.
Approaching treeline.
The “summer route” is still open.
A great weather day on the mountain.
Pretty stunning.
Our guests on the summit.
Ryan’s 50th summit. Woohoo!
It’s a spectacular place to just hang out and relax on such a day.
Congratulations on 50, Ryan, and to the rest of the team, good job. Thanks for choosing Redline Guiding.