That’s what this weekend felt like. Beginning Friday we instructed four pretty diverse wilderness education courses. First up we ran a River Skills Course. Much to our surprise this was much less painful and far more enjoyable than we had envisioned, despite having to traverse shore ice getting to the river. Next up was our very popular Wilderness Navigation Course. This was doable thanks to limited […]
Originally our plans for the day included a foray into the Northern Presidentials, as was requested by our returning guest, Oleg. Mts Adams or Madison would surely fit the bill as a training hike for bigger things later in the winter. The plan was to push hard for this, to earn it, but what with the recent early-season snow and the difficulty of unbroken trails, it […]
IMPORTANT NOTE: This page was updated in 2020 to reflect list modifications made by its creators. If you are looking for something less, something different, something under four-thousand feet in elevation, look no further. Though trust us when we add that sometimes less is actually more. In other words, some of the mountains on this list, while under 4000-feet, are really quite challenging featuring long hikes […]
We expected a little early season dusting, but we ended up with a considerable amount of snow. As of Wednesday morning’s MWOBS’ report the summit of the 6288′ (1917m) Mt Washington had collected 15″ (38cm) of snow and rime ice with deeper drifts. Meanwhile down in North Conway itself the conditions were rainy. We will admit, this affected our gearing-up decision-making prior to Redline Guide Jeffrey […]
We were honored to be contacted by an organizer with the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) seeking hiking guides for a half day. We quickly formulated a plan for a hike and put things into motion, the organizer reaching out to his members and alumni, and we on our end preparing gear and taking other necessary steps. The WWP “serves veterans and service members who incurred a […]
That’s how Redline Guide Ken Hodges described the 5260-foot Mt Lafayette — a NH 4000-footer — Saturday when he was leading a couple on a special tour. We say “special” because the day actually stemmed from a postponed exploration adventure of Lincoln Slide. This slide exploration was supposed to happen today. Finally. But, as was the case in the wedding we had the same day, the […]
A recent guest from sunny California, Nancy, was staying at Loon Mountain and wanted to hike with us for a day. We decided the conveniently located 5260-foot Mt Lafayette would be a nice mountain for her to experience and enjoy. It is, after all, the crowning jewel of the world-renowned Franconia Ridge. Running the show on this hike, so to speak, was Redline Guide Ryan Mcguire. […]
Not too much, not too little, something just right. Just like Goldilocks would like. This was the order of the day. Moreover, our guest, Kathleen from New Jersey, wanted some views, but no real exposure or scrambles. No problem, custom requests is what we’re all about. Redline Guide Jeffrey Shutak and owner Mike discussed it and decided that the Boulder Loop Trail just off the Kancamagus […]
It’s that time of year. The leaves are changing. It’s crisp, cool, and… well, it’s raining. Thankfully our guests were okay with that. Hikers understand these things and the matriarch, Mary, from Colorado, was a bit of a hiker. As were her southern New Hampshire-based daughter and granddaughter, Molly and Caroline. They were all accustomed to a little mountain weather and ready to make the most […]
What we call “companionship hikes” are those where our guests want to hike a specific hike, and are quite capable of doing so, but for safety or perhaps other reasons they just don’t want to go it alone. Or, we find, they don’t want to bother dealing with the logistics, research, and planning sometimes necessary — they may be on vacation in some cases. For these […]
Hailing from Connecticut, our most recent guest, Juliane, requested multiple days of hiking starting with a classic Franconia Ridge loop. On assignment for this — now that he’s back from his trip to France and Italy — was Redline Guide Jeffery Shutak. Jeffrey wanted to make a good impression on Juliane’s first tour with us and first visit to the state so naturally he found a […]
The 2726′ Iron Mountain in Jackson, NH, is unlike many of the other “smaller” mountains so close to the floor of the Mt Washington Valley. It’s rugged, severely eroded in places exposing many rocks and roots, it has some steep bits, and it’s seemingly wild; it feels very remote. It’s a rustic, quiet mountain, and that quiet heightens the experience. It’s a great mountain — one […]
