There is a lesson to be learned. Accomplishment leads to confidence, and that leads to greater comfort, and from there complacency is a close neighbor. It’s a neighbor we can stumble onto quite easily if we’re not careful. We want to respect this neighbor and give complacency a wide berth. To remain aware of ourselves and the fragility of human life. The story below was penned […]
She came to us from Connecticut with a goal of preparation and training for Denali in mind. Or re-training may be more apt since mountaineering wasn’t at all new to her. It had just been a while. In fact, as we learned, in spirit and attitude, she was already ready. She just needed to get used to wearing snowshoes while wearing a huge pack and refresh […]
We’ll call him John because, well, that’s his name. John is a Class 1 or All-Season Trip Leader for the Appalachian Mountain Club’s (AMC) distinguished New Hampshire Chapter. It’s a hard-earned and respected position, to be sure. John is also a “Gridder” — meaning he is hiking all of the 4000-footers of NH in every month of the year (48×12=576) — so, at being nearly 500 […]
No mistake was made in the ordering of this post’s title. They came, they conquered, then they saw. It’s not the prescribed order we’re all used to, but we’re talking about an April ascent of Mt Washington. Home to the world’s worst weather. Top dog of the region’s mountains, even at a squat 6288′ (1917m), but it does whatever the heck it wants. This is the […]
What a difference a day makes on the notorious 6288′ Mt Washington. Why just the other day one of our teams was stopped short of their goal due to high winds, wind loaded snow, and higher than acceptable avalanche conditions. Turn the clocks ahead 24 hours, though, and the same ravine, now sun kissed, is significantly less dangerous, with acceptable ground conditions for backcountry alpine touring, […]
While one of our mountaineering skills classes was happening in the sheltered valley, up on the windy mountain Redline Guide Ryan Mcguire was delivery the goods to two gentlemen from Connecticut looking for a backcountry ski adventure. Specifically they wanted to ski Tuckerman Ravine. That didn’t happen. They went to the ravine, as far as they could safely go, but excessive avalanche dangers precluded venturing further […]
We write these blog posts for the benefit of anyone interested, sure, but it’s mostly for our guests — and of which some parts will only have meaning to them. We think of them as keepsakes for what are hopefully terrific times. Though in this case, maybe we should write terrifying times. Maybe a little bit of both sums it up best for this tour. This […]
As Redline Guide Ryan Mcguire would probably prefer, we’ll skip the mundane details about finding the Cranmore Mountain Lodge, renting backcountry touring gear at Ski the Whites, and skinning up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail, and instead jump right into the action. So, after some back and forth deliberation, Ryan decided to guide our visiting mother and teenage son from Massachusetts on a classic “Sherbie” tour. The […]
“The first ten feet,” he said, “the view is beautiful, but after that who the [expletive] knows.” These were the words were humorously spoken by a many-time returning guest during his recent training trip up to the summit of the 5384′ Mt Monroe — fourth highest of the 4000-footers of NH. Words like that might speak of beauty but hint at disappointment, but there was no […]
[…] knowing that the mountain would always be there another day. The 6288′ Mt Washington is infamous for its winds — winds reaching over 100 miles-per-hour is fairly common. These are the sorts of winds that will lift you up and slam you back down on the ground. The kind of winds that will turn you around. And by that we mean willingly turning around, not […]
We had a couple of recent trips where the conditions were far less than favorable, which is an important safety consideration for an exposed peak like that of the 6288′ Mt Washington — top dog of the NH 4000-footers and tallest mountain in the northeast. Being that this mountain is also home to the world’s worst weather, none of these awful winter conditions are much of […]
While Mike was helping a couple tie the knot on the 2800′ Mt Willard, Redline Guide Ken Hodges was leading one returning guest across the street on an attempt of the 4310′ Mt Pierce — one of New Hampshire’s 48* 4000-footers (*subject to change). If you read that other article, you know the wind was howling. The temperatures weren’t very cold, though, but the windchill greatly […]
