As promised I want to briefly recap the American Institute of Avalanche Research and Education Level 2 Course that concluded this past Monday. I really don’t have a lot to say about the course, other than the 6 participants stayed fully engaged during 4 long days of mentally demanding classroom time and physically demanding field sessions. Mother Nature was in attendance as we saw some of the coldest temperatures of the season. During the 2nd day of the course Ryan Knapp, a meteorologist stationed at the top of Mount Washington, pointed out we were the 2nd coldest place on the Earth:

Factor in our windchill, and we smoked Antarctica in terms of COLD. While the statistic is cool, the next day’s harsh weather above tree-line poised issues for our avalanche class since we were seeking a field location above tree-line. After a morning trip planning session we played it conservative and headed out for a ski tour of 4,055 foot Mt. Hale.

Our ski descent was a mix of short fun runs with some deep wallowing in powder to the next drop. Once we cut back out to the trail the descent was quick.

But before we reached Zealand Rd I intersected a steeper open north aspect around 3000 feet that I had eyeballed from across the drainage on our ascent. It looked loaded and open enough to avalanche. I approached it while the class watched from the other side. A very positive hand-shear test on the edge indicated a very thin wind slab was ready to pop. A few cameras came out and I ski cut the slope initiating a very small D1 avalanche. It was about as small and inconsequential as a slab avalanche can be but was cool to see none-the-less.

The rest of the descent was uneventful and we made our way back to the trail-head and debriefed our day.

While driving back through Crawford Notch I received an automated call from Mountain Rescue Service. A missing hiker was being searched for on nearby Mt. Adams. After reading countless news stories and articles posted the following day I wrote this blog piece about the incident.

The reaction of the post was quite unexpected. It seemed the media was filled with negative reports and stone-casting (mostly from commentators rather than reporters) who seemed to know everything about how “crazy” and “ir-responsible” this victim might be. The truth is not one commentator was with this person to witness her decision making process or level of preparedness (or even lack there of). Monday morning quarterbacking was running rampant online.

“Coulda shoulda woulda” was something I remember a cousin saying to me during my childhood when I complained, in hindsight, about something I did, but shouldn’t have, or hadn’t done and wished I had.

Hindsight is always 20/20. We won’t know definitely what happened, but we should help future aspiring climbers find success.

I don’t wish to harp more on this incident, at least not directly, but instead share what a great day I had today in the mountains, and talk a bit about the definition of success when it comes to climbing.

Today I had two great guys from Rhode Island come up for an attempt on Mt. Washington. For one of them, it was their first time on the mountain. For the other it was his second attempt having been turned back due to weather last year as part of a guided trip. He was eager for a second shot.

Very early in the morning the ground work for a positive trip was laid.

How we talk about objectives like climbing mountains is crucial to our ability to make better decisions while enjoying them. I am going to sum up some ideas I think all climbers need to keep in the forefront of their brains when heading out for an awesome day in the mountains;

1) It really is about the journey. NOT the destination. How many summits you have made is not as important as the friends and places you have traveled because of your love of the mountains. Do not fall for “summit fever”.

2) “Summiting is optional, getting down is mandatory.” – Ed Viesturs- Ed is a high-altitude mountaineer and corporate speaker. He is the only American to have climbed all fourteen of the world’s eight-thousander mountain peaks, and the fifth person to do so without using supplemental oxygen.

3) Be careful how you speak to parties coming down the mountain. All to often I see this exchange, in which, for example, a party has made a judicious decision to descend due to weather, fitness, timing, or whatever seemed prudent at the time. They meet an ascending party;

“Did you make the summit?” asks the ascending party

“No.” is the only reasonable answer to the question.

“Oh.” is the most common retort, and the conversation is over. The descending party is a bit brought down by the exchange, and the ascending party now starts doubting their own abilities. While asking if a party summit’d seems innocent enough, I would suggest this interaction instead;

“How far did you make it?” asks the ascending party. (Not a loaded question!)

“A few hundred yards beyond Lion’s Head, it was brutal up there!”

“Good job! Enjoy the rest of your descent!”

A much more positive exchange for both parties.

The descending party was actually successful. They were having fun, and made a good decision.

Stepping down off my soap box I want to say that this type of personal opinion in an otherwise trip report focused blog is new for me. I typically post brief trip reports or gear reviews, but the overall reaction to my last post was so positive I thought I might, from time to time, mix in some more thoughts rather than just a “we did this” and “I like this jacket” type blog. If that is something readers continue to respond to I will try to keep it up. If not I will continue to maintain this for clients to come and get their photos from our adventures together.

I leave you with some photos of some happy guys from Rhode Island today who reached tree-line in some nasty weather and are now driving home and contemplating taking a day off tomorrow.

See you in the mountains,

NEAlpineStart

I enjoyed a great day out today with my good friend Steve and sent a “new to me” climb I have thought about for years. Our original goal was Cocaine, one of the ephemeral South Face of Frankenstein Grade 4+’s that had seen quite a bit of traffic over the last couple weeks. Unfortunately when we got there it looked a bit like a giant slush puppy and we decided to fall back to plan B, First Ascent Gully.

I have been looking at First Ascent Gully since I started climbing at Frankenstein 12 years ago. If you study the south face as you approach the parking lot from the south on Rt 302 you’ll easily recognize routes (from right to left) like The Fang, Wrath of Valkyrie, and Cocaine… If you look just a bit further to the left, around a large buttress, up in a drainage high above the rail road tracks, you’ll spot the top of First Ascent Gully. It is the farthest left ice climb in the guidebook at Frankenstein.

The approach currently is pretty straight forward. Leave the upper parking lot and walk north along the tracks for about 2 minutes. Take the first obvious trail up the slope you come to. A moderate pace will get you to the base of the south face in about 20-25 minutes. Traverse left following the path of least resistance through a nice open hardwood forest. Start working up hill as you enter a major drainage. You should be able to see the route through the trees within about 10 minutes of traversing from the Cocaine area.

We doubted we would run into anyone in this rarely visited area but wouldn’t you know we ran into our good friend Bob A. and his partner David just before reaching the route.

The climb has great belay spots on the right and a bit of a recessed cave on that side. The business starts right away with about a 30 foot grade 4 section before it eases up considerably.

Once Bob joined David at the top of the first pitch they waited while we got on route. The sticks were solid but the ice was a bit soft to the point where my feet did not feel quite as solid as I would have liked. Regardless I got through the business without any shenanigans and enjoyed the mellower terrain above reaching the birch tree anchor 100 feet up on the left and joining Bob & David. They decided they would rap and explore the area a bit more so down they went, then I belayed Steve on up.

From this anchor we could have just barely rapped with our 60m rope, but I had an assumption that the Frankenstein Cliff Trail, a usually well packed hiking trail, would not be far from the top out. A quick check on my iPhone Topo App seemed to confirm that a horrendous bushwhack did not await us, so Steve took off up the 140 foot “2nd pitch” which was pretty much Class 3 “steep tree swimming”. I followed with just one axe hooking from tree to tree, and when I arrived at his selected anchor I spotted a mileage trail sign only 50 feet away.

We coiled our rope and checked the trail, which was packed and not slick, so off came the crampons and down we hustled out to a few very nice outlooks and then into the Amphitheater. While we were not “running” per say we were moving at a good clip, and I was stoked to see we could make it from our top-out to the bottom of the Amphitheater in just 20 minutes!

Steve had not lead the Pegasus ice finish before, so we went over to look at that. It was fat, but was also extremely wet, soft, and “showery”. We opted for the Rock Finish via the beginning of a much drier Hobbit Couliour.

After topping out we headed back down the descent trail and saw a couple guys climbing the upper pitch of Hard Rain. The first pitch was not in so they had moved into it from Chia.

We got back to the car at 3pm, 5.5 hours from when we left. Felt like a pretty solid day so we were off to the Moat for those ridiculous Longhorn Nachos and a pint of Imperial Stout.

Days like this, moving through the mountains in fair weather with good friends around… well… we all need more of days like this!

Hope you got out today or have plans to get out this weekend!

See you in the mountains,

NEAlpineStart

P.S. 9 more days left to enter the contest to win two brand new ice screws. One entry for liking North East Alpine Start on Facebook, and one entry for following/subscribing to the blog (link at the top right of website)

Excellent day on Mt. Willard today! Andrew & Matt had quite a bit of experience already so we really were able to cover some ground.

We arrived at the base of Hitchcock Gully around 9:30. The lower half had some great water ice so we geared up and short-pitched our way up to the lower cliff band. Here we broke right and made our way over to Left Hand Monkey Wrench. I have always approached LHMW directly from the tracks so I was into checking this option out. The Lower Hitchcock approach is definitely faster, and easier to find, so I don’t think I’ll be bushwhacking up to LHMW ever again. Learning never stops!

LHMW was in great shape, and we climbed the left hand start on mostly plastic wet ice. I was practicing a “para-pillar” rope technique to keep us moving and it worked quite well, though a 70m would have been handy as I was on a bi-pattern 60 and it didn’t quite reach the anchor while doubled.

A short shwack brought us to the base of a very juicy looking East Face Slab Right. The sun was out, the wind was down, and we took a moment to hydrate & eat before I set a rope up on the route so we could work on some steeper ice technique.

After a couple of burns on this route we moved over to Upper Hitchcock and finished up 2 great pitches to the top.

The trail to the summit was not packed out but it only took us 20 minutes to reach the summit.

Definitely an A+ day, we got about 6 pitches in and just about 1,000 feet of climbing, car to car in 6 hours, and it was not as cold as expected. Tomorrow, however, these two brave gents will be attempting Willey’s Slide together. After looking at the forecast for North Conway I advised them to dress quite warm:

Mostly clear, with a low around -17. Wind chill values as low as -36. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Mount Washington Summit attempt on Friday, stay tuned!