Here at Northeast Mountaineering, we are always trying to find ways to make it more feasible for our climbers to enjoy the outdoors with us without breaking the bank! First, we started with The Bunkhouse at NEM, which saves our climbers countless dollars by offering cheap and convenient lodging. The Bunkhouse was only the start and again we have been brainstorming. We are very excited to launch The Climbing Club at NEM! Membership of this exclusive club allows you to climb with us for as low as $33/day! This is obviously an outrageous deal. This kind of discount just doesn’t happen in our industry. We are putting YOU first, and we can’t wait to start guiding you as soon as possible. Check out the details on our website…
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Huge News Coming…
Howdy friends! This past weekend I got to spend some time with Myron from the not so mountainous state of Ohio! He flew in on Friday for a modified two day skills course. He wanted to do some skills, some ice climbing, and a climb of Mt. Washington. It made sense to pack the days full of climbing seeming he traveled about 1000 miles to get here. Saturday we headed up to Crawford Notch to do some ice climbing and skills. There are very few climbs left at this time of year but we found fat, brittle ice in Left Hand Monkey Wrench.
The climbing went very smooth and Myron was a natural climber. We practiced some skills for the rest of the day on the small snowfield above LHMW. We covered crampon technique, self arrest, rappelling, and anchors.
We then rappelled down the way we ascended and headed back to the bunkhouse for dinner and a fresh start in the morning. Sunday we woke up early and headed out for Mt. Washington with 7 others who were part of a Boy Scout Troop from Arlington, MA. The day was warm and it wasn’t long before we were sweating up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail, hitting our first break in 45 minutes. The Lions Head Winter Route is still open and the Boy Scouts were loving every minute of the steep snow climbing. 
We broke treeline to a beautiful day although everyone we saw descending reported high winds, which is a relative term I suppose. The wind below Lions Head was merely a breeze of 20mph. Above Lions Head we were hit with sustained 40mph with gusts of close to 60. The forecast called for increasing winds and clouds throughout the afternoon. We crossed the Alpine Garden and made the decision to turn back due to fatigue within the group. 
We descended quickly and another successful weekend came to an end. I was happy to get in yet another last ice climb in the lower elevations after thinking the previous weekend would be my last. Now I am sure, if you want to ice climb, you have to go up. Perhaps there will be some photos from the Ravine in our next post…
Since I teased you with huge news in the headline.. I’ll now tease you some more. As you know we are now offering a Wilderness First Aid Course and a Wilderness First Responder Course. We also have two new things brewing that are really big and we can’t wait to launch them. Want to climb often with minimal cash? We may have the answer for you. Stay tuned..
Second Time’s A Charm!
Last Saturday, Brett and team set out from The Bunkhouse at 8:30am for a climb of Mt. Washington. The weather forecast we perfect with sunny skies and 25-35mph winds. In the Valley, the birds were chirping and it felt like spring.
We hit the trail head at 9am and set a ramped pace. We reached the Huntington Ravine cutoff trail at 9:30 and were feeling great! By 10:15 we were at Lion’s head winter route, had a snack, water, crampons on and ice axes out! Onward and upward. The trail had been hard packed snow and icy in spots, which made for great walking. Assuming that the snow was melting out, I expected the “hillary step” to be the same, long, and rocky. When we got to the bottom, it was a short ice step about 30 inches high, a rope handrail wasn’t necessary. Few steps with great hand holds on the trees was all it took. Everyone crushed it with ease. Again, onward and upward!
Tree line was delightful with visibility forever, or so it seemed. There was one small cloud in the sky, I guess the weather men were wrong. We took a long break there and ate some food and enjoyed the sun. As we looked up the trail you could see the snow blowing which told me that we were soon to be in the wind. We added a layer, got our goggles and buffs ready and started out for Lion’s Head. Not long later, we were battling the 20mph winds. The air temperature was close to 40 degrees so the wind chill was still well above zero.
The traverse across the alpine garden, up to split rock and to the summit were fantastic. Great trail conditions allowed the group to arrive at the crowded summit in great style. There were many skiers and snowboarders at the top as well as the snow cat loading up and getting ready to descend with some edu-tour participants. We tagged the summit and then descended. We stopped a few times on the descent to watch the skiers in Tuckerman’s Ravine and on the Snowfields.
This climb was about redemption and overcoming short-comings. Two of the six climbers had reached Lion’s head last year. They spent all year training and climbing stairs…they were determined to summit. They Did! Nice job guys!
We are proud to work with the Department of Agriculture, the White Mountain National Forest and the Androscoggin Ranger District where we are authorized outfitter guides.
