A returning guest and student reached out looking for a wilderness navigation refresher. It’d been a year since her last class and while she remembered a lot, she also felt more training was needed. This was a custom offering and by the end of the day our student felt fairly comfortable with many of the trickier, more perishable bits. Now she has to complete her homework […]
We had a fellow reach out looking to really get a grip on the fine art of map and compass land navigation, or “Wilderness Navigation” as we call it. He opted for our two-day offering. Day one was broken into two main parts: classroom and field with most of time and focus going to class time. Day two was devoted to a multi-part, multi-discipline bushwhack. The […]
It’s that time of the year… our educational offerings begin a seasonal change. Mountaineering, Winter Skills, Ice Climbing, and even Backcountry Skiing are beginning to get replaced with more seasonal offerings like River Skills, Wilderness Navigation, Rock Climbing, Hike Intro (spring version), Camp Craft, and others. In fact, just this week Redline Guide Debra McCown ran a Camp Craft course while Mike Cherim introduced three students […]
At this time of year the Lion Head Winter Route on Mt Washington either closes or it just falls apart and becomes something we’d rather avoid. This doesn’t close the doors on our mountaineering programs, though. For training we head on over to visit our friends at Black Mountain Ski Area in Jackson, and for getting on steep snow we have a bunch of climbable couloirs […]
Some folks, inquisitive as they may be, will pick up a new hobby and run with it during which they’ll potentially make every mistake in the book — some innocuous, some not so much. This is pretty common, too, if one pays attention to folks meeting at trailheads — water bottles in hand, shenanigans afoot. This phase of embracing the sport of hiking can take months […]
This was one of those last minute requests. An Ohio family are up to ski the backcountry but wanted to take our basic Mountaineering Skills course so as to better know how to use crampons, an ice axe, and to get a handle on the basics of self arrest. As we do at this time of the year, we went to visit our friends at Black […]
The weather, especially Mt Washington’s Weather, can and does factor into our decision making process. The recent weather, the current observations, and the forecast including the weather trend. It all has the ability to shape our days. Sometimes we really have to shake things up in an effort to get it done and let it be fun. That’s what happened concerning a Two-Day Mt Washington Winter […]
We love that we are able to extended the season down here in the Mt Washington Valley as it concerns Mountaineering Skills training. This is perfect for those who want to do this in the spring — perhaps preparing for some big climbs elsewhere in the world or maybe just hoping to avoid the cold of winter. While we still have good, climbable snow on Mt […]
Several guests have come to us over the years looking for some help getting them up to speed on certain topics related to thru-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). In particular are our River Crossing Skills and Basic Mountaineering courses. This day was no different as we taught both half day courses back-to-back (charging as a full day versus two half days). Leading both classes was […]
A returning mountaineering guest came to us looking to broaden her already impressive skills to include ice climbing (taking our intro course). And according to Redline Guide Glenn Van Neil, she was a natural. He added that she’ll be back noting the glimmer in her eye on the final top-out. Decent ice was found in Kinsman Notch. Of course the proof is in the photos… Great […]
A stretch of warm weather and some rain really had a number of people concerned that the season was over, even though it’s Spring, it’s not quite over in the mountains, though the melting and rain did do some serious damage. For example, the Lion Head Winter Route on Mt Washington is more like an ice climb than the steep snow climb we’re more accustomed to. […]
We don’t always make it to the actual Mt Washington summit. Sometimes it’s just out of reach. This can be for a variety of reasons. Weather/weather trend is one. It can be wicked up there so that stands to reason. Another issue can be conditioning — it’s a tough mountain for most folks. And sometimes illness or injury may stop the progress. Take leg cramps, for […]
