On Friday March 16th, we climbed Mt. Washington with 8 climbers. We started out from Pinkham Notch in warm temperatures and cloudy skies. We hiked the hard packed Tux Trail and cut off onto the Lions Head Winter Route. The “Hillary Step” was bare of any ice or snow and was a pure rock step. The rest of the route below tree line was a mix of mud and snow. By the time we had reached Lions Head, those cloudy skies opened up to full on rain. The second time it rained on one of our Mt. Washington climbs this March. Luckily the temperature was warm and the winds were only about 20mph. The Alpine Garden traverse was also bare of snow which made walking in crampons awkward. The visibility began to diminish down to about 100 feet or so. We pushed on in soggy boots to the summit. All 8 climbers made it! Despite the temperature being above freezing, it still felt around zero degrees with all of the moisture in the air and in our clothing. We spent a good 35 minutes on the top and began our descent. At Lions Head one climber got a leg cramp and could hardly move her leg anymore. She made it down to Tux trail through a mix of roped glissades and limping on her own. Due to the leg cramps, we almost tied our record for longest climb.. 11.5 hours on the mountain! Everyone made it up and down safely, so we are super happy! Great Job everyone!

Climbing to Lions Head in Springlike conditions

Boot Spur from Lions Head with brush that should be under the snow

Climbing in between clouds layers. Looking out at Wildcat

The Crew at Lions Head minutes before the rain began

Our Two Day Skills Course started on Saturday. Similar to Friday, Saturday dawned cloudy and warm, however 2 hours into our climb up the Gulf of Slides Trail, the sun burned through and things quickly heated up. Sunglasses and Sunblock were the name of the game, as the sun turned to hard-packed trail to mush and we post-holed the remaining 2 hours to our campsite in the Gulf of Slides. This trail often takes much less than 3 hours, but with the conditions and the heavy packs, we made slow progress. After setting up camp, we headed 2/3 up Gully #1, where we could practice self arrest with an awesome view. We also practiced crampon techniques and traveling as a rope team. The sun began to dip behind the ridge so we headed back to camp but not before a fun glissade down the gully. Back in camp we made dinner and taught common knots to the group. We went to bed early.
We awoke on day two to a red ball rising over the mountains, and before we knew it things were heating up again. We decided to head down to Pinkham before the trail got too soft and the weather too hot. We post-holed again for 2 hours or so back to Pinkham. After a fresh pair of socks and shoes, we taught anchor construction, crevasse rescue, and avalanche rescue. It was a full weekend of climbing for sure, which is how we like it! We were lucky to have a such a great group of climbers this weekend.

We have the next two weekends off… what to do with ourselves…

Climbing Gully #1

Our tents (bottom) in the vast wilderness

Getting ready for the first attempt at Self Arrest

...and this is how it is done!

Burning red sunrise at our camp in the Gulf of Slides

As you all know, the weather last weekend was AMAZING and it wasn’t any different on Mt. Washington. Under blue bird skies Saturday and Sunday, Jamie and Brett were able to summit with all ten clients, they batted 1.000!

Saturday, the forecast predicted clear and sunny but cold. As it turned out, we stood a top New England, at the summit of Mt. Washington, around 1:30pm in temperatures in the single digits and 10 mph gusts of wind — it was fantastic! Our goal was summit or bust. We were attempting to redeem a failed summit bid [due to weather] earlier in the season. We set out of Pinkham Notch Visitor Center around 7:30am, 1/2 hour ahead of schedule, and set a tremendous pace all day. We cleared tree line around 11am, took a break atop Lions Head around 12pm and summited at 1:30! As we left the summit we had the honor of photographing a fellow climber spread the ashes of his friend on the summit of Mt. Washington; a very memorable moment. Instead of descending via Lions Head trail, we decided to drop in to Tuckerman’s Ravine via Right Gully. The avalanche forecast was lowered from considerable to low, we crossed paths with many skiers who ascended the route and decided that it was a nice, safe change of scenery. We stopped half way down the gully to watch a group of skiers descend the headwall. It looked like an awesome ride, except they forgot their dog at the top, too afraid to follow. We spent the next 45 minutes coaxing the dog away from the headwall and down right gully, as the dog’s owner was forced to climb the headwall after him. Once, he reached the dog, we proceeded down the gully and back to the visitors center. All in all, a great day on the hill!

The drive to the mountain Sunday was dark, because of day light savings time! The lost hour of sleep demanded a large coffee! The weather was more of the same. The forecast predicted winds of 45-60 mph with higher gusts. We broke tree line around 11:30am with eight climbers and there wasn’t a breath of wind. Jamie and Brett were pumped to guide everyone to a successful summit — two days in a row! At the summit, the winds picked up and gusts strong enough knock you off balance persisted. Even so, the wind chill was still above zero which allowed us to explore the summit and capture the 360 degree views from the top. It was magnificent. We descended via Lions Head Trail and returned to the visitors center with plenty of day light.

It was a very successful weekend on the mountain for NEM, the guides and ALL of the clients!
Looking forward to a climb on Friday and two-day skills seminar this weekend.

Don’t forget to check out the Special Climb: Summit at Sunrise – May 26th and our new course: Intro to Rock Climbing!

Get out and Climb!

Ice Climbing the "Hillary Step"

Summit under blue bird skies

Summit Cone: So Close!

Today was unseasonably warm so me and Jamie got out to Crow Hill in Leominster State Forest to do some rock climbing. EVerything was soaked as suspected, but we did find a couple dry climbs. Rock climbing in March!

Jamie climbing... sorry for the crummy photo quality. It was getting dark.