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 […]
Another group from Massachusetts reached out looking to do some mountain snowshoeing with us — lucky beneficiaries of the great timing of getting some recent cover like our last party did. On lead for this trip up the 2557′ Mt Pemigewasset located at the southern end of Franconia Notch was Redline Guide Ryan Mcguire. Ryan led the group of four up the mostly empty Mt Pemigewasset […]
They knew that the forecast wasn’t calling for ideal conditions for their half-day afternoon snowshoe hike, but they were resigned to love it no matter what. With a great attitude like that one can’t go wrong, right? And that describes the general attitude of the extended family referred to us by Bretton Woods for a mountain snowshoeing adventure. Bring it, they exclaimed, ice rain, rain rain, […]
Our second winter trip up the 6288′ Mt Washington took place this weekend. This sentence in of itself is unremarkable, until one considers we are still several days from the start of actual winter. Moreover, it’s not a typo, because on the mountain, it’s been full-on winter for weeks. Apparently Mt Washington didn’t receive or read the memo. Maybe it landed in the Junk folder. The […]
It was a long, burly, windy, snow-filled day, but damn was it fun. Mountain running in December is not something we advertise, but it is apparently what we can do. In snowshoes, if needed. At least that’s what Redline Guide Erik Samia did, along with an ultrarunner from Massachusetts! And not only does she run, our guest is also a “redliner” — meaning she is hiking […]
The team successfully summited the mountain and our guests had an amazing experience […] Visiting from Connecticut guests Laura and Mike, a husband-wife team, wanted to experience our tallest peak, the grandest of the “4000-Footers,” the 6288-foot Mt Washington — in winter conditions. And right now, trust us when we say winter is in full swing on the mountain. It’s not far behind in the Valley, […]
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 and in 2025 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 […]
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 […]
