One would think that the best days would be the ones with clear skies, abundant sunshine, and sweeping, jaw-dropping views. But as one experienced in the mountains soon realizes, everyday gives us something. Today’s guest, Roberta — led by Redline Guide Ken Hodges — can attest to this, and she’s an extremely experienced hiker. Today brought the duo temperatures in the forties and mostly pea soup […]
In the northeast our tallest summit is that of the 6288-foot Mt Washington, the White Mountain — which is the most prominent peak east of the Mississippi River. It’s a historic and iconic mountain, to say the least. Some Native American people used to call it “Kodaak Wadjo” while others like the Abenaki called it “Agiocochook” or “Agiochook” (there’s still a prominent point, a crag, northeast […]
We’ve experienced a number of trips this season that ended up coming up short of the intended Mt Washington summit — some of those ending up on completely different mountains thanks to such rotten weather we didn’t even attempt the Rock Pile — so we were ready for a win. Redline Guide Jeffrey Shutak delivered the goods leading two guests, Delia (who returned to us after […]
While Redline Guide Arlette Laan was taking her long walks with her husband, Rich, more of our guides were doing their own thing — this is why we need so many guides, half are always out playing. Specifically, Redline Guides Liz Wyman, Ken Hodges, and Jeffrey Shutak were off in three different directions having three distinct adventures of their own. Let’s start with Liz, since she […]
In the case of Redline Guide Arlette “Apple Pie” Laan, we really mean Guide’s Winter Off. In typical fashion, Arlette spent the winter crushing big miles with her husband, Rich “Greenleaf” Gambale. Specifically, from December 31st, 2017, to February 28th, 2018, the husband-wife thru-hikers clocked about 850 miles during two back-to-back hikes. The first was Benton-MacKaye Trail, a 550 mile figure-eight involving part of the AT […]
Another Mt Washington attempt, that is. As much as we’d like to say we always summit, in all honesty this season’s Mt Washington’s attempts have been for the most part falling short. Either the weather has been uncooperative or our guests haven’t been up to the task on the given day of their attempt due to illness, cramps, etc. All of this is normal in the […]
Nice weather is rare on Mt Washington so yesterday was special. Mild temperatures, full sun, and slight winds. It’s not often like that on the Rock Pile. Especially in winter. But that’s what Redline Guide Ken Hodges got to enjoy today as he led a single guest, Oleg from Brooklyn, on a summit attempt of our infamous mountain. Of course this wasn’t by accident. We offer […]
While the Baldfaces lack the stature and notoriety of Mt Washington and the Presidentials, the South and North peaks, 3570-feet and 3610-feet, respectively — located in Evan’s Notch just east of the Wild River Wilderness and tantalizingly close to Maine — are nonetheless stunning. And stunning sounded about right as it concerned the wants and needs of Dana and Doug from New Jersey. Dana approached us […]
Our Nordic and Alpine backcountry ski intro classes aren’t top sellers for us, but they are solid classes and a ton of fun. Today, thanks to lean, crusty snow conditions in the actual backcountry, we took it to Black Mountain Ski Area in Jackson, NH. There Redline Guide Mike Cherim and a single guest, Alex, purchased uphill skinning passes so they could ascend the snow covered […]
Monday was cold and breezy at higher elevations, but what a beautiful day it was. Clear under partly overcast skies, sun and blue skies in the distance, simply stunning. And what a great day to be hiking in the Southern Presidentials. That’s where Redline Guide Jeffrey Shutak was. He was leading one gentleman, Gary from West Virginia, to the summit of Mt Pierce (4312′). The plan […]
Friday returning guest, Alex from Pennsylivania, accompanied us on a tour up Mts Eisenhower and Pierce, hitting Ike first and breaking trail the whole way. A tough slog but they did it. Yesterday Alex was back out there again, this time being led by Redline Guide Álvaro Marques — the one and same Álvaro that was guiding [and feeding members of] a snowshoe hike up Mt […]
While we had a couple of guests skiing the north side of the Kancamaugus Highway on Nordic gear, Redline Guide Álvaro Marques was on the south side leading two more guests, a woman, Vinette, and her favorite outdoorsy nephew, John, on a snowshoe hike of the 2532-foot Hedgehog Moutain via the UNH Trail. While Vinette has a fair amount of experience, John is new to winter […]
