Two Runs and Done

Our first ski day of the season - Jan 3rd 2009 - was a total bust. It was about -19 degrees at the top of Wildcat but that includes wind chill. We managed two runs and that was it. Fortunately, we got back in under the hour limit and got vouchers for another day. Hopefully, that day will have a lot more snow and less of a wind chill factor.

Tales of a Mount Washington Day Hike

Caution. So begins the description of Huntington Ravine trail in the AMC’s Guide to the White Mountains. I know this because I read it the night before I and a few other intrepid (read: naïve) hikers embarked on what’s known as the most difficult hike in the White Mountains. I went to bed that night with the image of a sheer, steep, foreboding, blood-thirsty granite headwall looming in front of me and certain of one thing only: my imminent demise the next day. Surely, I would either be crushed by an avalanche of falling rocks or swallowed up by a bottomless crevasse never to be seen again (as my mother is always warning me). I awoke hours before the alarm went off, drenched in a cold sweat, wondering how I could get out of this gracefully without appearing as though I was scared out of my mind. But it was too late. Gerry, known as “Danger Boy” to his friends (and with good reason), was up early and ready to roll. He assured me and our friend Joanne in his irrepressibly optimistic manner that it wasn’t all that hard. The guidebook, he reasoned, was trying to scare people off so they wouldn’t be tempted to bring their kids and dogs and other household items up that trail. All I can say is god help them if they did.

After a hearty breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs and train fries, Joanne, Gerry and I met up with the rest of the gang at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center. Besides us, there were three software engineers from Bose – Masood, Kyle from Cleveland, and John – and John’s girlfriend Deb, who is also a trained AMC leader and has more common sense than the rest of us put together. Thank god. I mean someone had to make sure we didn’t dally at the top of the mountain and got back before sunset.

Masood, me, Joanne, Deb (in background), John, and Kyle with big stick:

They spent the night at the AMC’s Joe Dodge Lodge, where I’m fairly certain they don’t serve train fries for breakfast. Even so, everyone looked well rested and ready for a big day on the mountain. Kyle from Cleveland even brought a big walking stick with him. I was impressed. Maybe he could use it to deflect the falling rocks or fish me out of the crevasse? Kyle eventually confessed somewhere along the hard scramble up Huntington that he’d never actually hiked before. This was a revelation to me. I had no idea. At this point, big walking stick aside, I was in complete awe of Kyle who scrambled up the sheer rock face (also known as The Fan) without even the slightest sign that perhaps, maybe, he was in over his head.

Deb, hiking up The Fan:

Hiking up Huntington Ravine is as technical as it gets for any hiker, let alone a newbie. It’s like going from a bunny slope to a double black diamond in one day. Slightly unnerving, and a bit crazy, to say the least.

Was Huntington Ravine everything I dreamed (literally) it would be? Yes and no. It was looming and craggy and ominous-looking for sure...

...with a big boulder field at the bottom and lots of vertical, hand over hand climbing on the way up, but I was expecting a 5.12 route without the benefit of a harness and ropes. It wasn’t that. We did see real rock climbers to the left of the trail on what’s known as The Pinnacle. For most of us, though, the hardest part was the aforementioned Fan, which was about a hundred feet of sheer rock face, but there were enough hand and foot holds to securely make our way up, and we all felt hugely relieved when we did. The magnificent views of the ravine below and mountains in the distance made it worth all the effort.

A view of Wildcat ("a man's mountain"):

Once we reached the top (high-fives all around) we could either take the Alpine Garden trail which circumvents the summit or take Nelson Crag all the way to the top. Since the winds were a mere class 1 hurricane force (um, that’s about 70 MPH), we opted to go all the way to the top. Other than The Fan, this was the most difficult part of the hike. The wind was so strong we struggled to stay on two feet. I literally crawled my way to the summit. I was sure that everyone who saw me from the safety of their cars on the auto road was thankful they weren’t me, that crazy lady in the light blue fleece being blown around mercilessly like a plastic grocery bag in a Shaw’s parking lot. I actually contemplated hitching a ride up the last hundred yards or so to the top, but that would have been cheating (and practical), so I didn’t.

We made it, but where's Masood?

Here he is:

Once we all got to the top, we ate our carbo-loaded lunch in the building that houses a museum, a gift shop (where else would you buy your commemorative t-shirt and shot glass?), a cafeteria, the famed weather station, and a few other amenities I was glad to see (like flushing toilets and tp!). There’s also a plaque that lists all of the people who’ve died on Mount Washington for one reason or another. Quite a few of the deaths could have been avoided, I guess, if the people who met their fates on the peak had decided to stay home or go to the mall rather than attempt to climb to the summit in the middle of January. C’est la vie (or “mort”), as the French would say. By the way, there were quite a few French-speaking visitors on the summit that day. But I digress.

After snapping a few souvenir (French, again) photos of us on the summit cone and a quick visit to the “Tip Top House” (a replica of a stone hotel that operated atop Mt. Washington in the mid-1800s), we made our way back down via Tuckerman Ravine trail on the other side – a much easier, but no less spectacular, hike down than Huntington.

Coming down Tuckerman:

We took a short break at the shelter at the foot of the ravine (where you can also buy a t-shirt) and then headed out for our final, gradual descent to Pinkham Notch. Near the end, there’s a short stairway that leads to an overlook of a waterfall. If my toes weren’t painfully jammed into the front of my boots and my knees ready to buckle, I probably would’ve taken the little detour to see it. But I was in serious pain, so I limped on to the finish. We finally reached the parking lot at 5:51 PM (according to Gerry’s watch), so a 9-hour hike from beginning to end, including breaks. Not too bad. Oh, and we all survived! Yippee! I’m not sure how many of us are eager to do it again next week, but I’m sure that we’ll find new, if not so challenging, trails to conquer in the future.

Until then, happy hiking!

TB and SP Climb Mount Washington

With the summits of Mt's Adams and Jefferson behind us this summer, of course we had to go for the big guy. So, on an overcast morning after spending the night at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center's Joe Dodge Lodge we began the trek up to the summit of Mt Washington via the Tuckerman Ravine trail. Despite the lack of views due to the cloud cover, the hiking temps were ideal and the bugs were few. There was still some snow in the Ravine and a few folks to ski it (not us). The final summit push began with the crossing of the anti-climactic auto-road, followed by the perplexing two sets of man-made wooden stairs and then up the last few rocks to the proclaimed "summit". Sorry young kids with ice cream cones in hand for pushing you out of the way so we could celebrate our reaching the summit with a picture... you were taking too damn long and your parents were yelling for you to get back in the car anyway! (ok, this actually happened on another hike some years ago) And thank you old German couple for taking our picture even though I have no idea what you were trying to tell me. I'll assume it was something about how much you like my new Canon PowerShot SD1100 IS with 8 megapixels... it is ubercool! Unfortunately, the visibility was not good enough to take any worth while pictures of the view... oh, well... next time! After a cup of hot chocolate and a yummie PB&J, we headed back down to Pinkham Notch via the Lion Head trail. Our first time on this trail and I have to say that it was kind of fun. Glad we decided to take it. I dedicate this one day summit loop to my Dad who first took me on it when I was about 9 years old (although that one was up and down TUX)... he would have been proud of me for not having another I-don't-want-to-go-any-further hissy fit at the base of the Mt Washington cone (.6 miles to go!). And to TB - you are a great hiking companion!

Carter Notch Hut Hike

Some of the Freshies gang along with other friends hooked up at the trail head in Pinkham Notch on Sat 4/26 to begin the trek to the Carter Notch Hut via the Nineteen Mile Brook Trail where we would spend the night. The plan was to travel the 3.8 mile distance to the hut, drop packs and then continue on to the summits of Carter Dome and Mount Hight. We bare-booted the first half of the trail, but it was slow going on the upper half where snowshoes had to be donned to safely navigate the monorail of snow that snaked up the trail. Consequently, time and lack of energy (or fitness) would not permit a summit bid on this first day. We were hoping to bag them the following day before the descent, but the weather Gods did not cooperate. Rain and ice were not a good combo for hiking the steep trail to the top.

It should be known that this was the first time using snowshoes for most of the group which offered plenty of comedic moments for us as we watched each other lumber along and occasionally cross tips/tails and perform face plants and headers into the snow. Apparently a 35 pound pack on ones back does not make one more stable… hmmm. Anyway, there was one snowshoe holdout who en”joy”ed running by everyone else up the trail as fast as can be in her fancy-dancy microspikes (made by Kahtoola and can be ordered on-line for $60)… thank goodness for the great equalizer, “post-holing” - being stopped dead in your tracks by slipping off the monorail and having one leg sink down into the snow up to your knee or hip... let it be known that SpiderPig was offering a helping hand the first time this happened to TinyBoarder until DangerBoy barked out the order, “don’t help her, take a picture”… and thus she was on her own for the rest of the hike.

In the end we all ended up arriving at the Hut approximately 4hrs after departure, exhausted and hungry. Once there, we met the hut Caretaker, JB who gave us the low down on bunks, cooking meals and trekking for water. We had great views of Carter Dome which was nice considering the lack of visibility the next day. The evening consisted of the traditional hearts game while sipping wine that we shlepped and preparing dinner. Many thanks to all that brought the Whooley-provided risotto recipe to life, and to Kiwi and Laff for their amazing salad and homemade breads. Also, thanks to Kristen, Eric and Trader Giotto's for dessert – a giant Rice Krispy Treat and a Chocolate Almond Tort. What a meal! Finally, after a few more hands of cards it was off to bed with a full belly and a comfortable buzz from the vino.

The next morning got off to a bang with DangerBoys’ signature banana-chocolate-chip pancakes, LuckyJeans’ perfectly cooked turkey-bacon and Kiwi’s fabulous Hazelnut coffee by the cup. YUMMO! It should also be noted that DangerBoy was up at the crack of dawn to fetch some real maple syrup from the woods – at least that is what he was telling everyone… ok, I was telling that to everyone.

So it was off down the trail which moved along very fast now that we were experts in snowshoeing and microspiking. We reached the trail head in about 2.5 hours had a victory beer and headed to The Moat for the traditional after hiking yam fries. All in all I think everybody had a great time and great experience… I personally can’t wait for the next time.

JW Says Goodbye to Another Ski Season

This guy knows how to get around...

John Wayne Visits Tony

John Wayne had been cooped up for most of the winter, guarding the fireplace and living quarters with a knowing eye. But, alas, season's end arrived and he was ready to hit north conway with loads of playful energy and a zest for mischief!!

J.W.'s chaperones, Speed Racer, Spider Pig, Private Dancer, and Danger Boy, went to their new fav pub, the Wild Boar Tavern to have some dinner (awesome!) and say hi to mr. bartender, Tony, and gang. The highly spirited Tony invited the ski gang to his place for a semiformal party later that evening. huh? semiformal?? Ski gang: "Tony, aren't you working here until the bar closes?" Tony: "Yep, the party started without me - just come on over whenever." Ski gang: "We're wearing longsleeve t-shirts and jeans - is it really a semi-formal?!" Tony: "Yes, it is! Don't worry, I have some extra ties you can wear!" hah hah! All true.

There was no question about the decision. John Wayne was rearing and ready to go!! J.W. was super social, working the crowd like no other can. And Tony was a truly gracious host with a good working knowledge of how to party - a nice mix, indeed. Thanks, Tony!

Spring is Here!

How is the beginning of spring defined by you? Romantics may think that its signaled by the first sprout of tulip in their yard. Rationalists will say that its defined as the day of the spring equinox, independent of weather and flowers! Optimists will proclaim that spring is upon us after a string of two 50+ degree days. But for me.... It was defined this weekend by watching a large man in a purple dinosaur costume make his best attempt at the pond skim contest at Wildcat!! Yeahhhh! Spring is finally here!