You’ll find the title of this post both extremely relevant to the day as well as being all too fleeting as it concerns the cool water Redline Guide Chase Hall mentions in his notes, below. The wonderful feeling of dipping those feet in that luxuriously cool water was very short lived, a tiny percentage of the day. It wouldn’t be mentioned, either, if it wasn’t so […]
Sometimes tough decisions need to be made in the mountains. Often for safety reasons, not just practicality. And it’s often when we’re thinking we’re closer to our goal than we are to our starting point… unless we factor in making it home. After all, summiting is really only being half done, unless you’re kicking off your boots and calling the top home. On lead for this […]
If we told you we led a couple hikes with four brothers — “four bros” as it was put on the phone — what would your mind’s eye see? You probably wouldn’t visualize four older fellows ages 69, 70, 71, and 74. We didn’t, then the forms came in. This was no joke. We had four birds of a feather still, after all those years, flocking […]
What a terrific day it was. Sunny skies, cool breezes, all-in-all just very pleasant to be out and about in it. That said, not all places are created equal. Sure, it was a nice day for the local park, and it might have been a nice day in the city, but neither of these compares to the notorious Huntington Ravine on Mt Washington. On lead for […]
Some people who Grid — to hike NH’s 48 4000-footers every month of the year — or have Gridded, will tell you there are times when it feels like Grinding instead of Gridding. It stands to reason as you can only encounter so many unique experiences chipping away at this finite list of peaks during this finite list of months. Hiking the White Mountains in different […]
Arrival happens only because a departure occurs. And to get there, as is so often the case, one must take a series of steps. And when arrival occurs in the mountain realm, the series are steps taken are both literal and often many. Our guests on this occasion are returning to us after having had one recent hike with us. We could call it Step 1 […]
Coming to us by way of the Hiking Buddies non-profit, we provided navigational and general oversight for a Scouting group hike. The general plan was to meet the young ladies and their leaders at the AMC’s Lonesome Lake Hut just after breakfast. From there we would lead them to the Kinsman Ridge Trail by way of the Fishin’ Jimmy Trail and then make our way south […]
An Introduction to Rock Climbing… plus, that’s what this educational class was all about. And what a day. They got a lot done and went the distance both in the area of learning and vertically. On point — leading — for this training was Redline Guide Glenn Van Neil. Glenn supplied the words and photos which follow: Our guest hadn’t climb outdoors (or really at all) […]
A returning guest working on his Grid — you know, those 48 peaks every month of the year — “needed” Mt Isolation for the month of May. So, on that last day of that month, our guest tagged that summit with Redline Guide Chase Hall by his side. Chase has been a companion to our guest on several of his hikes. This was yet another one. […]
Some trips get booked, scheduled, and carried out in a few days. Others not so much. This trip is one of those not so much ones in that it was booked almost a year ago, scheduled, re-scheduled, re-scheduled again, and then re-scheduled one more time for good measure as life kept getting in the way. But it was worth it in the end. According to Redline […]
The Carters. Some love them, others not so much. But when you’re Gridding (hiking those 48 4ks every month of the year), like this oft-returning guest is, affection, or a lack thereof, takes a back seat to just getting them done. Fortunately, on the right day, with the right kind of weather and less sucky trail conditions, the Carters can be fun. Especially with the right […]
A guest contacted us from New Jersey/New York City area. She was familiar with the White Mountain National Forest having once lived in North Conway. In fact she named off a number of awesome random hikes from her past including Avalon, the Moats, Nancy Pond Trail to Norcross Pond, Kearsarge North, the Presidentials, Baldfaces, and others. Since that time, the interest in such things still strong, […]
