They knew that the forecast wasn’t calling for ideal conditions for their half-day afternoon snowshoe hike, but they were resigned to love it no matter what. With a great attitude like that one can’t go wrong, right? And that describes the general attitude of the extended family referred to us by Bretton Woods for a mountain snowshoeing adventure. Bring it, they exclaimed, ice rain, rain rain, […]
Adam and Alessandra, being long time visitors to the White Mountains — often mountain running — and having tested various options in local dining and lodging, keep coming back over and over again to Jackson, NH. Most notably to the Eagle Mountain House on Carter Notch Road. This fabulous inn is so high on their list, in fact, they decided to make it the venue for […]
Our second winter trip up the 6288′ Mt Washington took place this weekend. This sentence in of itself is unremarkable, until one considers we are still several days from the start of actual winter. Moreover, it’s not a typo, because on the mountain, it’s been full-on winter for weeks. Apparently Mt Washington didn’t receive or read the memo. Maybe it landed in the Junk folder. The […]
It was a long, burly, windy, snow-filled day, but damn was it fun. Mountain running in December is not something we advertise, but it is apparently what we can do. In snowshoes, if needed. At least that’s what Redline Guide Erik Samia did, along with an ultrarunner from Massachusetts! And not only does she run, our guest is also a “redliner” — meaning she is hiking […]
The team successfully summited the mountain and our guests had an amazing experience […] Visiting from Connecticut guests Laura and Mike, a husband-wife team, wanted to experience our tallest peak, the grandest of the “4000-Footers,” the 6288-foot Mt Washington — in winter conditions. And right now, trust us when we say winter is in full swing on the mountain. It’s not far behind in the Valley, […]
Safety is No Accident As a general rule, people don’t venture forth into the woods on a hike looking for trouble. Trouble, in fact — if you ask many if not most victims of trips gone awry — is the furthest thing from their minds. And that is a problem in the mountains. Or can be. Ignorance may be bliss, as the saying goes, but in […]
That’s what this weekend felt like. Beginning Friday we instructed four pretty diverse wilderness education courses. First up we ran a River Skills Course. Much to our surprise this was much less painful and far more enjoyable than we had envisioned, despite having to traverse shore ice getting to the river. Next up was our very popular Wilderness Navigation Course. This was doable thanks to limited […]
Today is “Black Friday” and we are here to save you from it if you’ll let us. Here’s the idea: Instead of getting trampled to death in some mall, spend a few minutes on our site, order a gift certificate for someone you love, then take the rest of the day off. Maybe go hiking. It’s a perfect gift. A gift certificate from us is good […]
Originally our plans for the day included a foray into the Northern Presidentials, as was requested by our returning guest, Oleg. Mts Adams or Madison would surely fit the bill as a training hike for bigger things later in the winter. The plan was to push hard for this, to earn it, but what with the recent early-season snow and the difficulty of unbroken trails, it […]
Being the “world’s best…” is what they say about newly minted Wilderness First Responder (WFR) and Wilderness First Aid (WFA) students as they walk out the door with their credentials in hand, minds brimming with the latest and greatest wilderness medical knowledge. The honor of the title doesn’t last as these are highly perishable skills to learn. We quickly tuck them away into our memories (we […]
IMPORTANT NOTE: This page was updated in 2020 to reflect list modifications made by its creators. If you are looking for something less, something different, something under four-thousand feet in elevation, look no further. Though trust us when we add that sometimes less is actually more. In other words, some of the mountains on this list, while under 4000-feet, are really quite challenging featuring long hikes […]
We expected a little early season dusting, but we ended up with a considerable amount of snow. As of Wednesday morning’s MWOBS’ report the summit of the 6288′ (1917m) Mt Washington had collected 15″ (38cm) of snow and rime ice with deeper drifts. Meanwhile down in North Conway itself the conditions were rainy. We will admit, this affected our gearing-up decision-making prior to Redline Guide Jeffrey […]
