When they leave the house, when the nest empties — sometimes to move off and finish school on the other side of the country — a lot of parents quickly start to miss their kids. To many it suddenly feels like their children’s growing up went by way too fast. Often times the realization hits too late, but other times parents know to savor those last […]
This past weekend we provided leadership to an important Team In Training event raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). We found ourselves doing this thanks to North Ridge Mountain Guides (NRMG) who sought us out for leadership assistance. (Mike and the owner there, Jamie, used to guide together and are friends.) The leadership provided came from Redline Guides Ken Hodges, Jeffrey Shutak, and […]
Enjoying a small break in the weather, Redline Guide Ryan Mcguire led a Rhode Island couple up to the 6288′ (1917m) summit of Mt Washington. It was bucket list item for the missus, something she always wanted to do. Once Ryan got them up there, he simply left them there! Of course, when he did so they were safely aboard the Cog. This was their plan […]
While most the people visiting the White Mountain National Forest could spot patches of snow on the distant mountains over this Memorial Day weekend, very few of them set foot on them. Most, probably — aside from the backcountry and slackcountry skiers — couldn’t care less about the snow wanting nothing to do with the white stuff until next Christmas. Not even the hikers who have […]
When Redline Guide Ken Hodges reported that this hike was the toughest he had ever done, our hearts immediately went out to both he and our guest. We empathized with them all day starting that morning knowing they were setting out to do what is already respected as one of the tougher bushwhacks in the state — Scar Ridge (one of the New England Hundred Highest) […]
Franconia Ridge, that is, and assigned with hiking it was Redline Guide Ryan Mcguire. His goal was to lead one young lady from Massachusetts around the classic loop — bagging four mountains, two of which count as 4000-footers — going up Falling Waters trail to Little Haystack (elv. 4760′), across the ridge hitting Lincoln (elv. 5089′), North Lincoln (a.k.a. Truman, elv. 5020′), then finally Mt Lafayette […]
“First Class” is used in two ways in the title of this post. First it means that quite literally this was the first class held at our new location. The second way we mean it is in that the members of the New Hampshire Women’s Hiking Group — the “Purple Army” who served as our students, were a first class group. We rarely post about our […]
Both sides of Mt Washington had Redline Guides doing their thing. On the west side was Jeffrey Shutak who was leading two fellows from Connecticut on a hiking tour with Rachel Ryan shadowing. On the east side Ryan Mcguire was leading two fellows from Massachusetts on a backcountry (AT) ski tour, earning their turns and testing their mettle in Tuckerman Ravine. The west side team hiked […]
A long-returning guest of Mike’s who had climbed with him on Mt Washington on two prior occasions had come back for more. But this time was going to be different. On previous trips, he said, he always had an agenda, some hard rules and objectives. This time he wanted to simply relax. Not to embrace lethargy over the course, not by a long shot, but to […]
Simply put, that’s what these two returning guests were after, are after, and asked for it by name. There’s more in store for them, still. We’ll be chasing the snow up the flanks of Mt Washington near the end of May, in fact, with some late season Mountaineering Skills training plans in the works. For now, though, the goal of the day was to attempt Mt […]
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 […]
