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, […]
That’s what they call themselves, Schwabbies, and if you hadn’t guessed already, they work for the Charles Schwab company. In the area for other reasons, and staying at the Omni Mt Washington Resort, they had a half day to let loose and wanted us to hike them up something, together, as a team. Redline Guides Ken Hodges and Chase Hall decided to lead them up Mt […]
Guides are often hired because the clients (we call them guests) have a lack of experience. In other times quite the opposite is true. Some folks just know and value what a guide brings to the table — based on years of their personal experiences. In this case the couple had time in their lives to gain experience hiking in Italy and Europe — once even […]
The other day an oft-returning guest told us during a phone call that he really enjoyed hiking with Redline Guide Chase Hall. Also a “Gridder” like Chase — hiking all of the 48 every month of the year — our guest feels that Chase gets him, he’s taking the same medication, so to speak, making him an ideal companion on such an enormous undertaking. Chase provided […]
