The mountain will be there another day is what they tell you, but will you be? Nobody’s getting any younger. The Seven Summits aren’t going to hike themselves, but you have to work. You have to feed your kids, you have a spouse, friends, family, co-workers. The time press is relentlessly squeezing. Just getting to the park to walk the dog is a thing nowadays. Here […]
The recent announcement from the Seasonality Division of the USDA made us panic, initially, until we realized nothing is really changing that affects us any more than we’re already being affected naturally. The reported change is simply a new naming convention which, according to the USDA/SD spokesperson, Rafael Maduro, “will better match our reality now that the effects of climate change become inarguable.” He also added, […]
Please note: this post was made in our fiction category. The details of the story are purely contrived for the purpose of conveying educational content to our readers. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Describing such an event is something we can all learn from. (Stock helicopter photo from Pexels.) The helicopter rising up and away, growing smaller in the distance, […]
When we talk about the Hillary Step, we mean THE Hillary Step! A natural progression might look something like this: 1. Conquer Mt Willard, cross the street to 2. Bag Mt Washington, then travel to the other side of the planet to 3. Grab the 29,032′ Mt Everest next. That’s our thinking anyway. It’s more than just thinking, actually, as we already made it up there […]
Realize, when growing cold, that you will never freeze to death no matter how often you claim that it is so. Hypothermia will readily claim you first. Hypothermia — an insidious cooling of the body’s core temperature — is measured in stages that may correspond to some degree to the numbers on your thermometer. What begins as the body’s simple fight for preservation, a body so […]
Their batteries fought hard but, sadly, in the end they died! The weather forecast called for colder-than-usual temperatures on the higher summits that day. Added to that were the near-constant winds dragging those temps down even further. The winds wouldn’t be blowing the clouds away, however. Not that day. The forecast stated the summits would remain in the clouds and that visibility on the ground was […]
You can’t tell anyone where we are… is this clear? The deal was I could share my discovery and describe what I saw in detail, but I was forbidden to supplement my dissertation with photos or video. Nor could I divulge — or even hint at — their general location. This deal was done on a handshake. A grimy but firm and trustworthy handshake. One that […]
The past few years have seen a sharp increase in the number of visitors to the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF). Inasmuch the number of black bear-related incidents has likewise skyrocketed, but at an even sharper rate. So much so, it’s concerning. “It’s just a matter of time before someone gets killed,” said one United States Forest Service (USFS) Ranger we spoke with. Due to the […]
[…] in which geneticists are experimentally crossing the coniferous Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) with the deciduous sugar maple (Acer saccharum). You may have seen signage at certain points of entry while driving, or noted boundary blazes or flagging while hiking in the woods if you like to bushwhack. Perhaps you have even come across warning signs posted along a high electrified fence crowned with razor wire […]
If you’re injured in the backcountry there are possible many scenarios with many outcomes, but most have one thing in common: Rescue will take longer than one may expect. To give a clearer understanding of why, this fictional tale describes a typical rescue from start to finish. Chapter 1: The Situation To begin our story, let’s consider this: It is early June and you’re hiking a […]
If this was correct, we would have a forty-ninth 4000-footer. We were having a conversation about a bushwhack with Steve Smith, owner of the Mountain Wanderer Bookstore in Lincoln, NH, and compiler and editor of the 30th Edition of the AMC’s White Mountain Guide. During our talk Steve broke out some maps as he’s been known to do, pointing out this or that to his customers. […]
Being involved with mountain search and rescue, we have noted some common ground of many misadventures in the White Mountain National Forest. Based purely on our own observations, it seems that those who get lost, become hypothermic, even those who perish, often found themselves in their predicament and unable to help themselves as a result of either being separated from their group or by simply going […]
