We climbed Mt. Washington on Friday and Saturday this past weekend. I guided with Jamie on Friday and Brett and Jamie went for it on Saturday. Since I wasn’t there on Saturday I cant really give any details, but Friday was an awesome day on the mountain! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, so I’m relying on the climbers to share their photos with me. Friday was the first time this season I climbed the Tuckerman Ravine trail in only a techwick shirt. The thermal was much too hot. The temperature at the base by 8AM was what seemed to be 45 or 50 degrees. We climbed the Lions Head Summer Route which meant we had to cross the notorious avalanche path, but there wasn’t quite enough snow to release. We crossed it one at a time and quickly to be safe. Thanks to the newly fallen 24″ of snow, the rocks were once again covered, which made for much better footing than the previous week. We hit Lions Head by 12PM. The traverse across the summit cone was really soft and whoever broke trail after the new snow, sent the trail about 100 ft low of the normal trail, so we broke some new trail to try to get it back on target. The summit was amazing with 360 degree views. For the first time since January, I got to see the northern presidentials and all of the southern presidentials too. There was a pretty consistent 30mph breeze blowing which chilled you while standing still, but with a wind breaker on, it was quite warm. We spent an hour on the summit and headed down. The descent was hindered by some painful knees, but nonetheless we descended without incident for a 10 hour round trip summit day! Friday was probably the best weather I have had since the start of the season. Send me pictures so I can post them!

The Southern Presidentials from Mt. Washington

A great shot from the top of New England

Hanging out on the summit!

Epic!

Saturday was even better weather than Friday but I’ll try to get Brett to blog about that.

We climbed rocks today with Jokee and Steph from Boston. It was an awesome day for it. The may flies are pretty terrible in the morning, but they went away as things heated up. We got a number of climbs in. They were a little weary of the whole rock climbing thing to start, but they completed routes that they never thought they could. What a great day to be outdoors and it makes it sweeter that we were climbing.

Jokee on "Pine Tree" 5.4 at Crow Hill.

Steph on "Pine Tree" 5.4 at Crow Hill

Jamie assisting Jokee with lowering a climber

Steph high on "Boardwalk" 5.5 at Crow Hill

On Friday April 6th, Jamie, Brett, and Myself climbed Pinnacle Gully in Huntington Ravine. We got an early start at 7:30AM and started the approach up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail. The trail was bare of snow for the first 20 minutes, and then it switched to very hard-packed snow and ice. Being too stubborn to put on crampons, we slipped and slided our way to the Huntington Ravine Fire Road, which was much easier going. We reached the start of the route around 10AM. Jamie led the first and second pitches, and I led the third pitch. Brett led the last little bit out of the gully. The weather was fantastic and it felt great to step into the sunlight after climbing in the shade for a few hours. All in all, a great day in Huntington Ravine! We are super happy to have been able to get another ice climb in this year.

The next day, we brought 5 climbers up Mt. Washington. We had another fairly nice day on the mountain. The day started out clear and warm and stayed that way until we reached the summit cone. We had a really fit group and were able to move quickly, reaching Lions Head by 11:30AM. The Lions Head Winter Route has been closed for a few weeks now, so we climbed the summer route, which was well packed but involved a lot of rock with crampons on. The summit cone was shrouded in clouds but visibility remained good and we pushed on to the summit. We spent about 35 minutes on top where we saw 5 kids in jeans and sneakers who had hiked up the cog. Despite things being warmer than mid-winter, it is far from being sneaker weather. They were definitely cutting their safety margin thin by being so ill-prepared. I expected the descent to be slow and tedious due to all of the exposed rock with crampons, but the group took it in stride and we descended rapidly, never taking our crampons off until the snow ran out on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail. We had a great day on the hill with a great bunch of climbers. We hope to see them on another climb soon!

Another awesome weekend on the mountain!

Corey following the second pitch on Pinnacle Gully

Leading Pinnacle's third pitch

The Alpine Garden Trail on a picture perfect day.

Jamie possibly performing a Tai Chi movement

The gang on top of Mt. Washington!!

Well, we have had the past two weekends off and I feel like we haven’t been on Mt. Washington in ages! We’ll be busy in April and May, though as we are running climbs just about every weekend. After a week or so of record breaking temps, the mountain has returned to a winter-like pattern of sub zero temperatures and high winds. Just in time for us to go back! Its a good thing too, as our last few climbs resembled summer, not winter.

In the meantime, we have kept ourselves busy on the rocks in Massachusetts. We have gotten out onto the cliffs several times in the past week and with mild temperatures and no rain, this week looks like climbing weather too! Come on out and see what rock climbing is all about, or improve your skills on the cliffs of Crow Hill or Rose Ledges.

We have also posted a trip to Ecuador this summer. This promises to be an amazing trip at an unbeatable price. Feel free to send us any questions you have regarding it. Hopefully our next post will be from the summit of Mt. Washington again!

Early Season Climbing