3 Day Private Mountaineering Course

December 17, 2016December 17, 2016 David Lottmann Trip Reports

Yesterday wrapped up my first winter guiding assignment of the season, a custom private three day mountaineering course for the NYC based couple Karen and Paul. This was a surprise birthday present for Paul and I was very honored to be a part of it. This adventurous couple had experience trekking in Denali National Park and in Nepal and their objectives were bringing them further and further into the back-country and into steeper terrain so they were eager to start building their skill sets. After a couple emails with Karen we settled on a 3 day program that would make the most of their time with me.

Day 1

We met at the cozy Northeast Mountaineering Bunkhouse in Glen, NH. We’ve added a ceiling mounted projector and pull down screen here to accommodate our upcoming avalanche course season and this was a perfect opportunity to give it a test run. Karen and Paul were interested in upping their navigation skills so we started our program with my Wilderness Navigation course, a 3-4 hour classroom session followed by an afternoon field session to re-enforce learned skills.

Day 2-

A Washington attempt was on our bucket list so we picked the better of the two remaining days to work on our extreme cold weather skills. By extreme I mean the Higher Summits Forecast looked like this:

Some folks might ask why even bother heading up there with a forecast like this? The odds of making the summit are incredibly low. The way I justify it is this is the perfect opportunity to define what exactly “success” means in the mountains. For me, success is not reaching the summit, and it shouldn’t be for you either. Three things should define success in the mountains;

Did you have fun? Type 1 & type 2 are both quite acceptable on “successful” trips.
Did everyone return home uninjured?
Was everyone still friends?

If the answer to the above three questions is yes then you have had a successful climb regardless of where your “high-point” was. Pushing yourself a little, getting slightly outside your comfort zone, but turning around when it is prudent is the epitome of a successful trip in my opinion.

Sorry, got off on a tangent there, back to our day.

We left Pinkham Notch at 0815.

We made our way up the Tuckerman Ravine trail until the 4th cut and moved over to the Sherburne Ski Trail due to bridge work that still had an official detour sending people up the Huntington Ravine Trail. While walking on the Sherb is not ideal, the Huntington detour is a bit more complicated and definitely more time consuming. The good news is the closure has been lifted as of yesterday, so we do not need to put any more post holes up the ski trail (which is looking GREAT for mid-December BTW).

While we were out of the wind ambient air temps were around -8 so I was rocking a light puffy over my soft-shell jacket for the majority of ascent to Hermit Lake.

After a bit of a re-fueling and adjusting break at Hermit Lake we moved over to the Summer Lions Head Trail.

As we closed in on tree-line we started breaking trail across the avalanche prone slopes that were quite filled in. Hand-shear tests confirmed reactive slabs that were quite small in size.

The last section right before the summer trail turns north and joins the winter trail had the most reactive snow but the slope was only about 30 feet in size and the instabilities were close enough to the surface to observe. I took a minute to try to show this on video:

Thanks for the camera work Karen!

My prediction was timely as the USFS closed the summer trail today and the winter trail is now in use.

We rounded the corner to feel some of the 30-50mph gusts just above our heads. Combined with the air temps winch-chills were about -40 here. It was pretty clear we could turn back here, or suffer for another 200 yards and then turn back. We picked tree-line as a good place to turn back and I grabbed this pic of Karen before we started our descent.

We reversed our trip all the way back to Pinkham and high-fived in the parking lot. Karen and Paul were excited to have experienced hiking and climbing in those types of conditions and I was pretty amped up to see our winter off to such a phenomenal start!

Day 3-

For our last day together with valley temps hovering around -6 we spent some time inside discussing glacier travel and rope work. Many knots & hitches were reviewed along with equipment choices before we headed out to the North End of Cathedral Ledge for a quick rappel and some climbing.

It may have been the coldest three days of the season but spending it with these two left me feeling pretty warm. What a sweet birthday present for the man in Karen’s life! I enjoyed every minute with these two and I’m really looking forward to hearing of their future adventures and occasionally being part of them.

See you in the mountains,

Northeast Alpine Start

Hounds Hump, Franconia Notch State Park (10/6/16)

October 7, 2016October 8, 2016 David Lottmann Trip Reports

I have a special place in my heart for the climbing on Hounds Hump in Franconia Notch. This alpine crag across the street from Cannon Mountain has some of the most spectacular rock climbing in the region and one of the most iconic rock features in New Hampshire, The Eaglet spire.

Yesterday Tom and I headed up there in unseasonably warm weather for a 7 pitch trifecta of the best moderate routes around. I usually tag Route 66, Salt Packed Pig Sack, and The Eaglet when I head up this way but Tom wanted to do a bit of maintenance on a relatively new 2 pitch route below Route 66 so before we reached the talus field below the Flatiron we bushwhacked north for about 10 minutes and reached the edge of the slabs.

The bushwhack point is around the green arrow and is non-descript. When you think you’re getting close to the boulder field look closely for where people may have headed north through some semi-thick pine and moss. It would be a good spot for a small cairn or survey tape.

I’m not sure what the first route we climbed is called but it starts on mellow slab and works its way up to a steeper swell with great pro. Here a dead tree had fallen over the route and Tom’s mission was to saw it off so climbers wouldn’t have to scramble over it mid-climb. He left me with the saw as it would be easier to clean it while seconding.

With the security of a tight belay I was able to keep the saw in the pack and pull/kick the dead tree down and out of the way. It’s still up there but now it does not interfere with the climbing, which was pleasant 5.5-5.6ish crack & face.

dscn0566 — Following the first pitch, photo by Tom C.

After finishing the first pitch a quick thrash through the woods brought us up to the 2nd pitch. Tom grabbed this lead as well and I switched into climbing shoes as it’s definitely an edgy 5.7. A bit of a slabby start leads to a bolt, then some decent gear, then excellent climbing on an arete with a few bolts at decent intervals.

Tom finding some protection on the 2nd pitch

The top of this pitch is right near the original start of Route 66 so I took the rack and ran us up to the 1st pitch anchor.

I led the next pitch, which has a great move pulling over an awkward chock-stone followed by engaging climbing all the way to a new double bolt anchor just left of the corner. Using Tom’s new Sterling 7mm Tag Line we rapped down to the base of the bolted New Variation start (and our stashed packs). After grabbing our packs we made one single rope rap down through the brush to reach the start of Salt Packed Pig Sack.

Tom starts up the ultra-classic Salt Packed Pig Sack

This is by far one of my favorite routes in New Hampshire. Steep face climbing on mostly positive edges leads past a couple bolts, a pin, some good small gear, and more bolts. It’t a fantastic climb at the grade (5.8) and I fondly remember on-sighting it over ten years ago.

From a new bolted anchor about 15 feet right of the old anchor we double rope rapped back to the starting anchor then carefully trended down the right side of the buttress (some loose rock) and landed right on the approach trail for the Eaglet. There is a little drag when pulling the ropes when choosing this option but it’s nice to “cut the corner” when heading up to the Eaglet.

We reached the base of the Original Route and met Cole, a familiar canine I had seen on many 4000 Footer hiking forums.

Running short on time we skipped the first pitch by scrambling up the gully to the left and caught up to my friend Ben and Cole’s human counterpart Alton. They were starting the 2nd pitch chimneys and while we were considering our time line Ben graciously offered to let us play through. After I made those chimney chock-stone moves look less than graceful we topped out.

fullsizerender-1 — Ben leads the last bit of the Eaglet with Alton below

I rapped the spire and ran up the hill to grab a couple quick shots of Tom rapping and Ben and Alton summiting.

Tom about to rappel over the roof that makes the rest of this rappel free hanging

We hiked out at about 3:30pm, about 5.5 hours from leaving the car. Hounds Hump, and the greater Franconia Notch climbing area is a real mecca for climbing. From the easily accessed single pitch moderates at Echo Crag to the commiting and often scary routes on Cannon Cliff, this area has something for just about everyone!

See you in the mountains,

Northeast Alpine Start

http://classic.avantlink.com/affiliate_app_confirm.php?mode=js&authResponse=850aca0f08aec51a67d9627ab550c86c796b5792

Family Rock Climbing (8/21/16)

This past Saturday I had the privilege of taking the New Jersey based Schenck family out rock climbing at Whitehorse and Cathedral Ledge. Having spent the previous day kayaking the Saco River they were ready for some vertical fun.

Rock Climbing New Hampshire — On our way to the cliff

Super fun day with this outdoorsy family! I think a multi-pitch climbing day with Alexa & her dad may be in-store for the near future!

Hope everyone is enjoying this spectacular climbing weather!

See you in the mountains,

-Northeast Alpine Start

Wilderness Navigation Course (8/20/16)

August 23, 2016August 23, 2016 David Lottmann Land Navigation, Trip Reports, Wilderness Navigation eastern mountain sports, EMS Climbing School, EMS Schools, Land Navigation, Wilderness Navigation

This past Saturday I led an 8 hour Wilderness Navigation Course for EMS Schools North Conway. A few guides from a NYC outdoor adventure company and mountain enthusiasts from around New England met at 8:30am for some classroom discussion and exercises before we traveled to a field location to practice our newly acquired skills.

This is a great area to explore off trail. It is a fairly active site for rock collectors, or “rockhounding“, and we came across a lot of fresh piles of crushed rock and sand where intrepid collectors had found veins of rock in search of semi-precious stones. There is also some type of tree research nearby as we traveled through a stand of younger trees all tagged with metal numbered tags. I’m curious to their meaning.

After plotting a course back to our starting point we embarked on the well traveled Black Cap Trail. Before reaching the ledges we found a nice specimen of the edible and easy to recognize “Chicken of the Woods“. It was clear someone had foraged a bit of this specimen but there was plenty left for those inclined to gather some to cook later.

One we reached the first view point we stopped and practiced some terrain association, peak identification, and single point resection.

After looking at some glacial striations and some classic “flagging” in the trees (both can help with finding direction) we reached the small summit and made our way down to the Black Cap Connector Trail. We then looped back towards the Cranmore Trail.

Wilderness Navigation Course

Looping back on the connector trail

With a little bit of time left we decided to squeeze in one more bushwhack so we headed a short ways down the Red Tail Trail before plotting a course off trail with the goal of hitting the Black Cap Trail right at the info kiosk about .3 miles from the parking lot.

Everyone followed their own route and hit the Black Cap trail within sight of the kiosk. We returned to the parking lot for a quick debrief.

I really enjoy teaching this course. It’s especially fun to challenge yourself by not always following the beaten path and when you go off trail you’re much more likely to have wildlife encounters. By the end of the course most everyone was sold on the model of compass I’ve been using for almost 2 decades so I will plug it here for those shopping for a great quality compass.

Suunto Navigator MC-2DLIN Compass

While I might take the time to give this compass a full review soon for now I’ll briefly state the sighting mirror and long straight edge make taking and plotting bearings fast and intuitive. The clinometer is a great feature for winter/avalanche terrain but is also useful for determining if you are actually higher than that nearby peak. Unfortunately this model isn’t currently in-stock at EMS but is available on Amazon here.

Do you have a favorite compass model? Let me know in the comments below!

This was the last Wilderness Navigation Course we had planned at EMS Schools this summer but I think there might be interest in running another one this Fall. I will update this post if we put another one on the calendar and send out a quick post if one is scheduled. As always you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

See you in the mountains,

-Northeast Alpine Start

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Mt. Forist, Berlin NH

August 10, 2016 David Lottmann Rock Climbing, Trip Reports climbNH, rock climbing, rock climbing NH, rockclimbnh

I’ve been hearing about the climbing out at Mt. Forist for a couple years now. One can’t drive through Berlin and not notice the prominent looking 500 foot cliff on its northern outskirt. I only had time to today to jump on 5 of the 20+ routes listed in the new mini-guide published by Matt Bowman “matt@whitemountaincafe.com” but I will definitely be heading back there soon to explore some more. I’ll keep this post super short and share a video I threw together, largely with the help of some cool new cell phone tech I am reviewing for The Gear Institute (and will also publish here).

See you in the mountains!

NEAlpineStart

Family Rock Climbing 8/7/16

August 8, 2016 David Lottmann Rock Climbing, Trip Reports cathedral ledge, climbing, climbNH, eastern mountain sports, eastern mountain sports schools, EMS Climbing School, EMS Schools, family rock climbing, rock climbing, rock climbing NH, rockclimbnh, whitehorse ledge

Really fun day today climbing with this family from Austin, Texas! The Weaver’s are adventurers extraordinaire and were wrapping up a 3 week trip in New England before heading back south. Fresh off some intense downhill mountain biking the day before they were ready to rock. We started out day over at Whitehorse Ledge under the giant Echo Roof.

After climbing “Holy Land” 5.6 and “Relic Hunter” 5.7 we had some lunch then headed over to the North End of Cathedral Ledge.

Everyone took a spin on Child’s Play, then we headed for the top for some rappelling to round out our day.

Thank you guys for another fun day in the mountains! See you next time for another adventure!

Plenty of great climbing days ahead and the forecast looks great! Come climb with EMS Schools before the summer slips away!

http://www.emsoutdoors.com/north-conway/rock-climbing/

See you in the mountains,

NEAlpineStart

Cathedral & Whitehorse, Rumney & Huntington Ravine

July 8, 2016 David Lottmann Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, Self-Rescue, Trip Reports alpine rock climbing, cathedral ledge, climbing, climbNH, eastern mountain sports, eastern mountain sports schools, EMS Climbing School, EMS Schools, mount washington, mountaineering, private instruction, rock climbing, Rock Climbing Instruction, whitehorse ledge

This past 3 day holiday weekend had me guiding Yu Chih Chieh from Taiwan as he finished up 8 days of climbing instruction. Yu Chih, who goes by Brendan in the US, is in doctorate level program at Brown University in Rhode Island and is a die-hard botanist (and motivated aspiring alpinist).

Anchor building clinic — Cathedral Ledge

We started the morning with a brief anchor clinic and I show’d Brendan a couple options for extending top-rope anchor setups. Anchor theory is a hot topic with this guy’s scientific mind! We then hiked down to the Barber Wall for a quick rappel and discussed some of the finer points of the process.

Cathedral Ledge Rock Climbing — Rappelling the Barber Wall, Cathedral Ledge, Echo Lake State Park, NH

We then took a quick trip up Upper Refuse with a focus on seconding proficiently and transition efficiency.

After we got a little heckled by the tourists at the top (the frat party was a bit offended I declined the beer they offered me for climbing the cliff, but I was working, and I do not drink Bud Lite) we made our way over to the quieter Airation Buttress for some lunch. Then a quick drive over to Whitehorse Ledge for 600 feet of slab ascent/descent.

Whitehorse Ledge Rock Climbing — Whitehorse Ledge

After 4 pitches of Beginner’s Route we headed back to the shop to look at a quick demo/practice of a belay escape.

For Sunday, July 3rd, the weather forecast was the same as the whole weekend. Bluebird. Knowing every cliff would probably be a bit of a zoo I decided to do something rash and head to the biggest zoo of them all. Rumney.

It had been a few years since I last visited this mecca of sport climbing. We pulled into the lot right at 9:30am and spaces were starting to fill up. The Meadows wall wasn’t too busy and we grabbed “False Modesty” and “Rose Garden” while discussing sport climbing issues that crop up every year (rigging to lower, closed systems, belayer placement, clear communication, etc).

Rumney Rock Climbing — Brendan cleans “Rose Garden” at The Meadows

We then headed down the road and up the hill to the Main Cliff to check out some of the new 2 pitch moderates that have been getting talked up on Mountain Project lately. “Crowd Pleaser” had quite a long queue on it but an obvious local regular pointed out the nearby 2 pitch 5.8 called “Tipping Point” with no line on it. We hopped right on and greatly enjoyed this fun little route.

The next pitch was super fun 5.8 with a solid crux right at the end… felt a bit closer to 5.9 to me but I’m not that well calibrated to Rumney grades ATM.

We then headed across and up the hill once again passing hordes of climbers on the wildly overhanging and popular crags like Darth Vader & Waimea making our way up to the highest bluff, the Jimmy Cliff. Up here we did two 2 pitch cruiser routes and enjoyed a steady fresh breeze the whole time.

Brendan had quite a bit of lead climbing experience in the gym and no “second belaying” experience so we covered some of the multitude of ways to properly belay the second while enjoying the cool breeze and lack of crowds.

We stopped by the Black Crack Boulder on our hike out for yet another anchor building session (a critical trad climbing skill), then headed back across the Kanc to Mount Washington Valley. Despite some concerns about hitting the busiest cliffs on what might have been the busiest weekend we managed 5 climbs at 3 areas with 8 pitches total (plus that whole area is a botanist dream according to Brendan, who would often disappear while hiking behind me only to be found crouched at ground level camera in hand).

For July 4th, the last day of Brendan’s 8 day excursion, I picked an objective that I thought would be a suitable way to finish and also prepare him for his home country objective, Mount Yu Shan, the highest point in Taiwan!

Mount Yu Shan, highest point in Taiwan: 3,952 metres (12,966 ft)

We headed to Mount Washington with sights set on the Henderson Ridge. I had never climbed this route and found it to be fun outing. It took us 3.5 hours car to car with a leisurely pace and many stops to examine the unique flora that exists on Mount Washington (Alpine Garden Trail). We only saw one other climbing party of two on Pinnacle Ridge, and greatly enjoyed the cooler than valley temps!

Electronics

After three days with Yu Chih Chieh I know he is well on his way to accomplishing whatever goals he sets for himself. An inquisitive scientific mind and desire will take him far in all aspects of his life and I look forward to the next time I share a rope with him.

Hope you all had a great Fourth of July weekend and spent a little time contemplating how lucky we are to have our freedoms!

Did you get out this past weekend? Let me know what you got on in the comments below!

See you in the mountains,

NEAlpineStart

Group Rock Climbing- Marianopolis

May 16, 2016 David Lottmann Rock Climbing, Trip Reports cathedral ledge, climbing, climbNH, eastern mountain sports, eastern mountain sports schools, EMS Climbing School, EMS Schools

This is the 2nd year in a row I’ve gotten to work with the kids & faculty of the Connecticut based Marianopolis Preparatory School. These motivated teens loaded into a bus in the wee morning hours yesterday for a four hour ride up to Mount Washington Valley for their first taste of rock climbing. Keith & I took the group to the Thin Air Face and the kids & chaperons climbed the routes we set up as many times as their motivation and strength allowed them.

EMS Climbing School — A student attentively belays

Ortovox Trad 25 Pack — My first day testing the Ortovox Trad 25 pack, review coming next month

After everyone had their fill of climbing we had a little time to spare before the bus would return so we decided to bushwhack over to Diana’s Baths. It’s really a short walk over to this beautiful area and the kids had a blast.

After the bus arrived a quick trip to the top of the cliff rewarded them with a nice rainbow over the valley.

It was a pleasure introducing this diverse group of students to rock climbing (and bushwhacking for that matter). One of the students texted her mom in China to show her what she was doing and it was comical to see her mother text back so quickly with “put the phone away and pay attention!” I’m looking forward to the next time they come and climb with us.

See you in the mountains,

NEAlpineStart

Classic Backcountry Rock- Pine Mountain

April 11, 2016 David Lottmann Trip Reports climbing, rock climb nh, rock climbing, white mountain rock climbing

Twenty four years ago I was a 14 year old teenager at a week long overnight summer camp on Pine Mt. in Gorham, NH. On a small 40 foot crag somewhere else on this mountain I was introduced to rock climbing and it became one of the defining moments of my life. I’ll save that self reflection for later and share my initial impressions of this cool cliff which I am currently scouting for inclusion in an article I am writing for a northeast adventure magazine launching this summer.

Pine Mountain Gorham NH — Pine Mountain just outside of Gorham, NH

This outback cliff is actually quite accessible. From Route 16 take Pinkham B Road almost exactly 2 miles to a trailhead parking lot on the left directly across from Pine Mountain Road (restricted to camp vehicles, foot traffic welcome). The Pine Link Trail heads south from here up to Howker Ridge and Mt. Madison but we head Northeast on this camp road soon passing the gate and in exactly .9 miles come to the “Ledge Trail” on the right.

Follow this for a few hundred yards until you get to this boulder:

Here the bush whack begins. Head east off trail and contour around to the southeast side of Pine Mt. You’ll cross two rather distinct drainage’s before reaching the far left side of the cliff proper, about 20+ minutes or so. As far as bushwhacks go this one is quite nice. If you really keep you eyes open you’ll pick up signs of a few others passing through. Total time to the base of the cliff from parking lot took us about 40 minutes.

The far left side of the cliff has a shorter bit of slab capped by a very impressive overhanging head wall.

This is the vicinity of:

“Pope on a Rope“- 5.7 climbs the slabs past a few bolts and gear right to the base of the headwall, to a 2 bolt ring anchor. A 60 meter will get you to the tree ledge and from there either hike down or rap back to the base. FA Matt and Kathy Barker– from description posted on NEClimbs.com

Moving right along the cliff we reached the attractive clean toe of the slab.

At the left hand margin of the above photo is:

It’s a Pinkham Thing– 5.8 A great 3 pitch route!! Pull an overlap at the base and climb up to a stance on the slab. At this point a pink tri cam is slotted in a perfect pocket. Now commit to the slab past 4 more more bolts to a big overlap. Pull throughout this (bolt) to a ring anchor. The next pitch goes up and right to the large pine tree, all on natural gear pulling many overlaps along the way. The 3rd pitch is a scramble over some really cool rock. 1 60 will get you back to the ground. FA Matt Barker and Ben Smith- from NEClimbs.com

Center of photo:

Old Route Direct– 5.7 The 1st pitch starts on lowest point of slab. You climb straight up to an overlap (protect here) then climb up and clip a bolt. From here commit to some great slab climbing passing a couple bolts. Build an anchor 30 feet to the left of the anchor of Contact under and overlap. ( Small cams) 2 more fantastic overlap climbing. You will need to build an anchor along the way and you will pass 1 pin on the last pitch. To get off go to a tree anchor above the contact headwall. 2 ropes will get you to the contact ring anchor and then to the ground. FA Ben Smith Matt Barker 1st pitch– from NEClimbs.com

About 10 feet to the right you find the start of Contact:

Contact- 5.6 30 feet right of the previous route and slightly up hill you will see a left facing corner. Climb up the slab corner 30 feet to a giant detached flake trending up and left. From a stance on the top of the flake look right into the crazy looking rock. You will see a bolt. Climb up to the bolt threw the headwall just to the right of the fine grained granite. Pull a steep move on a great door knob hold clipping another bolt and the up to the ring anchors. Next climb straight up on the pegmatite on gear to a comfortable point and build an anchor. Now up threw the final head wall to a tree anchor. FA Matt and Kathy Barker– from NEclimbs.com

We liked the look of the furthest right line, which follows a band of “pegmatite” up almost the entire length of the cliff.

Hank Chinos– 5.6 this route starts to the right of contact by 15 feet. It climbs entirely in the pegmatite for 3 pitches. Threw a steep headwall on the first pitch on great gear. The second pitch gear anchor is near a big loose block so please use caution. The third pitch is threw the same headwall as Contact to the tree anchor. FA Jon Garlough and Hank Tracy.– from NEClimbs.com

It wasn’t clear from the description exactly where the first pitch ended so I think we wandered a bit left and stopped at the bolted anchor on Contact. Either way the climbing was really enjoyable and the pegmatite was amazing. I regret not getting a close up picture of it.

On the 2nd pitch I wandered us back right and reached the “second pitch gear anchor near the big loose block”. The block is easily avoided but the gear anchor may take some ingenuity.

From here Bob climbed through a couple fun overlaps to a tree anchor at the top. It was 1pm so we grabbed some lunch and got ready for an on-sight bushwhack off (we only brought 1 60m rope). Studying the topo & satellite imagery on my ViewRanger App I felt the fastest way back to the cold beers in the car would be to scramble up another 100 feet or so bypassing a short wall on the left, then turning southwest and following a slowly descending bearing back towards the Ledge Trail. Interestingly after scrambling up above this bluff and turning southwest we came across a couple bearing markers. I didn’t take a picture of them but they had some data on them and were on a perfect line of where we wanted to descend. This route worked perfectly and dumped us out on the trail 50 feet away from the boulder where we left the trail originally. The GPS track really shows the full loop.

Car to car for us was exactly 4 hours. I plan on returning soon to climb the rest of the established routes and poke around a bit more. I need to visit some other “out there” places first though while researching this article. On my “soon” list are a return trip to North Bald Cap, a first time trip out to North Percy Peak, and a handful of other deserving locales. Be sure to follow if you want to hear about it!

Contest Update:

About 3 weeks left to a give away of the VSSL Supplies Kit. You can enter just by commenting about footwear on my review of the LaSportiva Batura’s. Nothing to loose and a very cool little kit to gain!

Thanks for reading! See you in the mountains,

-NEAlpineStart

Washington From the West 3/26/15

March 29, 2016March 29, 2016 David Lottmann Mountaineering, Trip Reports climbNH, eastern mountain sports, eastern mountain sports schools, EMS Climbing School, EMS Schools, mount washington, mountaineering

Kevin, Rebecca, and Jennifer had attempted Mount Washington with us twice already this winter. I was with Kevin back in early January when we made it to Lion’s Head in some of the worst conditions I’ve seen. The hike down the lower half of a washed out Tuckerman Ravine Trail in a torrential downpour was one I won’t soon forget. Rebecca & Jennifer were with another group that day that made it a few hundred yards further before wisely retreating. As luck would have it the three would meet again on another attempt the following month, this time the coldest day of the season with air temps on the summit hitting -40 and wind chills far surpassing that. Again, they made a valiant effort, then wisely turned back.

They were not, however, discouraged. And the third time, as they say, was definitely the charm!

As I rolled out of bed around 5am this past Saturday I pulled up the Higher Summits Forecast on my phone (a pretty much daily morning ritual in this household). Light winds 5-10mph, north shifting east, blue skies, temps around 30 degrees. How fortunate to get to climb “the rockpile” again in conditions like these after just having a bluebird windless day a week prior!

Having logged over 50+ winter ascents from the East via Tuckerman Ravine, Huntington Ravine, and Lion’s Head, I realized a trip up the west side would be a welcome change for both me, and my clients who had slogged up and down the first two miles of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail twice that winter. It turned out to be a great choice!

We hit the trail at Marshfield Station at 8:15am. The first half mile went quick and smooth with no traction needed. Soon after passing the intersection of the summer trail head spur we started encountering stretches of blue water ice where careful footwork alone would not suffice, so out came the micro-spikes.

I’ve only climbed this route 2-3 times, and only in summer, and I was reminded about how aesthetic this route is right out of the gate.

As we worked our way up along the river bits of blue came through the otherwise overcast sky.

We reached Gem Pool in just under an hour.

122

Here we switched Microspikes for crampons and started the steady climb up to treeline. The abundant amount of hard water ice on this trail ensures those without full crampons will be at a real disadvantage. As the angle decreased the view increased.

Under-cast spilled out to the west as far as we could see.

As we approached treeline we started encountering the first of many massive ice sheets, all by-products of the Lakes of the Clouds drainage.

I took a panoramic from the center of one of these huge ice sheets with the summit of Mt. Washington looming behind Kevin.

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Despite the abundant ice there was virtually zero wind and the climbing was very comfortable. Layers were adjusted accordingly (I could have left the long underwear in the pack).

We reached the Lakes in the Clouds AMC Hut (closed for the season) at about 11am. Since it was early, and conditions so prime, we opted for a quick side trip to tag Mt. Monroe.

I decided to take us off trail a bit to the east on a nice snowfield before scrambling up a short easy gully just below the summit.

The party we caught here offered to get a group shot of us on Monroe summit.

We then descended back to the Crawford Path and I went off trail again to save a small bit of mileage by wrapping around the higher of “the lakes”.

I had opted to transition back into my Micro-spikes at this point thinking any significant difficulty would be behind us. About 10 minutes later as we traversed onto one of the Crawford Path snowfields I started to regret my decision. This snowfield we were traversing was only about 15-20 degrees in pitch, but its western aspect meant it didn’t absorb much of the solar radiation that had been pouring over us all day. It was still a relative sheet of ice with nice looking granite cheese graters sticking out 100 feet below.

Half way across the 200 foot wide snowfield I found myself focusing on my steps a bit more than I should have in that terrain. Aggressive flat-footing got me to a nice mid-field island where I converted back to crampons and felt about 110% more secure than I had moments before. Chalk that one up to error recognition (albeit a bit late) and correction.

By 12:20 we were on the summit basking in mild temps, 100 mile visibility, and only a hint of a breeze. Rebecca found that rime ice had mysteriously grown on her arm.

After what was probably my longest stay on the summit during a day trip we started making out way down at 1:10pm. We headed north off the summit and I linked a few snowfields until we reached the tracks of the Cog railway. While this is not an official hiking trail, it does provide a somewhat fast descent of the west side that is non-technical compared to descending the water ice of the Ammo Trail.

Disclaimer: 90% of the time this is not a good “escape” off Mount Washington as bad weather is usually hitting us from the W-NW. Walking into high winds from this direction can literally be impossible and kill you. It is also considered trespassing by the Cog Railway when they are in season, so don’t do it in the summer!

Walking was easiest to the sides of the Cog linking snowfields where ever we could.

Just below the “Halfway House” we removed our crampons and booted our way back down to Marshfield Station, taking only an hour and 45 minutes to descend from the summit.

This appears to be my last guiding day of this winter. I couldn’t have asked for a better day weather wise or better people to spend it with. Quite a few laughs along the way and I really hope to cross paths with Kevin, Rebecca, and Jennifer again.

Higher Summits calling for 3-7 inches of snow through Tuesday with nice weather on Wednesday if you’re still looking to ski up there it might be really good Wednesday!

MWAC Update: Still some avalanche danger out there, don’t let your guard down

Review/Contest Update:

Review for the LaSportiva Batura’s coming this week along with gear giveaway contest! Subscribe at top right!

La Sportiva Batura Review- Photo by http://www.brentdoscher.com/

See you in the mountains!

NEAlpineStart