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 […]
The 2800′ Mt Willard is one of the 52 With A View Peaks. Due to the fairly easy hike in and its stunning ledges, it’s a popular location for mountain top weddings, but it is a mountain so sometimes the weather can be rough. Not as rough as we’d seen it on Sunday, February 24, 2019, though. That was the wedding day of Kelsey and Norbert, […]
Skiing in the backcountry or snowshoeing, either was fine. Whichever, Sarah told us, as long as it was fun for her and her wife, Christy — whose recent birthday was the cause for this celebratory adventure. She didn’t want something too over the top in terms of being adrenaline-inducing. In other words, let’s stick to some “type one” fun that we can enjoy while we’re doing […]
Or perhaps should we write To Hale, with Wildcat A Added Two Days Later. The 4054′ Mt Hale and 4422′ Wildcat A were but two of the mountains that re-returning guest, Alex, needed for his still-in-progress quest to conquer New Hampshire’s 4000-footers. These were not this weekend’s intended targets, however, but the forecast for high winds and nastiness prompted both Redline Guide Ryan Mcguire and our […]
Clear skies yielded to clouds, calmness became the wind, and through it all a team of four persevered and made it to the cloud shrouded summit of the 6288′ Mount Washington. One climber, interviewed after the adventure, declared it to be the toughest thing they had ever done and that their muscles were very, very sore. They went on, however, to express that they felt no […]
Redlining — hiking all of the trails in the AMC’s White Mountain Guidebook — was one the objectives of a returning guest and ultrarunner Monday. The other objective was to winter summit the 6288′ Mt Washington and to do so via the classic Lion Head Trail’s “winter route” (the standard routing closes due to avalanche danger). The redlining part, initially, was to include needed sections of […]
It’s one thing to hike Mt Washington for your first time, let alone do it in winter, now you want me to do it during a blizzard?! —said one of ’em When people book a tour with us and the weather is crappy we can sometimes be flexible and change the hike to a better day. Sometimes. In other times the team we’re leading can’t be […]
On the day of New Year’s Eve Redline Guide Ken Hodges took a returning couple he had been training the day before. He led them up the Lion Head Trail — the quasi-technical winter route — on the 6288-foot Mt Washington. The idea was to summit this notorious mountain. While the weather was being cooperative, which is seldom on this peak that deservedly boasts having the […]
