Have you ever been scared on a mountain? Frightened for your life — or for your fingers or toes? Have you ever wondered frantically which way to run from an alpine thunderstorm? Have the winds ever knocked you flat? Has the cold ever invaded your body so deeply that you had extraordinary difficulty with the most mundane tasks? These conditions and more can consume your mind […]
Somewhere near the beginning of our Winter Skills course we discuss the “three systems” we rely on as hikers, backcountry skiers, climbers, and mountaineers. This triad of systems of which we speak refers to us, what we wear, and what we carry. Let’s discuss these systems, starting with the one we should know best: us. System One: We The Hiker… US This is the most important […]
Brides and grooms, we have good news: you can do no wrong. If you’ve been worried, stressing about how your non-denominational wedding ceremony will proceed or the vows that you’ll recite, you cannot screw this up. Seriously. We offer a simple standard ceremony and vows, and most folks are okay with that, but we are here to tell you that you can have it basically however […]
Around town we prepare ourselves pretty well to meet the challenges of day-to-day life. If the weatherman says it’s going to rain we bring an umbrella, and we do check. Our day is structured by time so we usually know when it is, and we also know where we’re at and where we’re going almost all of the time. We mostly have our acts together. Even […]
Six Fall Hazards Hikers Need to Know Hiking is a great sport at any time of year, and each season has something wonderful to offer. Winter offers up its easier-to-stay-cool temperatures, thinner crowds, and diamond quality views. It’s less forgiving, but worth it to many. Spring gives us its new growth greens as nature’s baby… it’s a lovely time to hike. Summer is the carefree time, […]
One of the most popular 4000-footers in New Hampshire is the 4700-foot Mt Carrigain. The reason for its popularity is two-fold: first of all the summit features a raised steel and wood observation deck; and second, from that lofty perch hikers can enjoy simply stunning 360-degree views. Moreover, according to Redline Guide Howard Aronson — today’s hike leader — 44 of the 48 4000-footers are visible […]
Knowing how to find one’s way to the top of all of New Hampshire’s 4000-footers is one thing (and a fine accomplishment, to be clear), but here at Redline Guiding the knowledgebase we draw from goes well above and beyond the norm. We’ve got a kick-butt team… hiking machines. Two of the team have hiked all the trails. We mean that literally. At heart we’re all […]
“Redlining” in this context means to hike all of the trails described in the AMC’s White Mountain Guidebook. That’s 1440.4 miles based on the book’s 29th Edition, but since the most basic out-and-back trail requires two trips — out and back — it adds up to a whole lot of hiking and exploring when it’s all said and done. Redlining is a novel, rewarding pursuit that […]
The Latest Adventure: People Love Slide and Gully Hikes Social media is to blame. Record numbers of people are taking to the backcountry to enjoy the out-of-the-ordinary experiences their friends and peers are sharing on Facebook and Instagram. And in doing so, they expose themselves to a different set of challenges and dangers. Some obvious, others not so much. One situation we’d like to single out, […]
Compared to other national parks and forests, the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) is small. Smaller still are the Wilderness areas within its confines. They’re there, though. Six of them! And they are likewise small. Of the 107 million acres of designated Wilderness across the country — the bulk of which are, logically, located in untamed Alaska — only about 153,052 acres are located within the […]
We enjoy reading the profiles on our Guides page. Seriously. They’re impressive reads by and large. If ever lacking inspiration, reading a few of those reminds us of what’s possible. In the hiker world, some of these people are rock stars. Even the humble beings who think otherwise, compared to most ordinary non-hiking mortals, they stand extraordinary. We’re proud they chose us and to be associated […]
That is the question. It’s a question all hikers ask themselves before ever setting foot on trail. Or they should be asking, anyway. We didn’t hike yesterday for weather reasons — which is but just one of the things we consider. We were scheduled to guide a hiking trip through Huntington Ravine. Our guest had flexibility and so did we so we are working with him […]
