I had the excellent fortune of guiding 17 Boy Scouts from Connecticut up Mt. Washington with an overnight stay at the AMC Lakes of The Clouds hut. The Scouts and Scout Leaders where great fun to hike with and I hope we see them next year for another trip! Enjoy the video, be sure to select HD for best quality…

Ray came up from vacationing in Southern New Hampshire to try rock climbing outside after getting a taste of it on an indoor wall. While the temps went over 90 we found a nice shady top-rope on the Thin Air face of Cathedral Ledge.

Ray, thanks for coming up and climbing with me today. It was a pleasure despite the hottest day of the summer! Hope to see you and Dad up here again for some more climbing!

This is the 5th year the Koury’s have come up to climb with us and it is always such a great time! Joe and Holli have 3 great boys who have improved their climbing skills dramatically over the years climbing with us. We started our 1st day with some warm up rappelling and top-roping at Jockey Cap.

Later that afternoon we started hearing the tell-tale “boomers” of a gathering thunderstorm in the distance. We pulled our ropes and made it back to the car minutes before the 1st rain drops. During the short drive back to the school we got some very heavy rain, winds, and even a little hail! Good adventure to be sure!

Two days later we met up again, this time for a longer “multi-pitch” day of climbing on Cathedral Ledge.

Between trout fishing in the northern woods to rock climbing in the White Mountains, it sounds like you guys had a great family vacation this summer! It is great climbing with you all and joining you for breakfast at The Nereledge Inn. Thank you for continuing to climb with Conrad and I and we both hope to see you this winter to try your hand at ice climbing! Be well Koury’s!

Today I met Ilona, originally a climber in Czech Republic 20 years ago she decided to come up from her current Boston residence and get back onto the rock. Since she had a long distance bike ride planned for the afternoon we just did a half day, top-roping on the Thin Air Face and at the North End of Cathedral.

Thanks for coming up for the morning Ilona. Perhaps we’ll see you again with your daughter next time! I hear she is quite the gym climber!

No photos for this trip but it was a pleasure to teach David Katz some map & compass skills along with some trip planning info. He’s taking this info back to his soldiers in the US Army. Good luck on the Sergeants Course!

Lydia and Caitlin came up from the Kittery ME, Dover NH area for a taste of outdoor rock climbing after trying it in the gym. This was a great graduation present from Lydia’s parents!

The two of you were a pleasure to climb with. Very supportive of each other and full of positive energy. I am certain going to separate colleges will not strain your friendship in the least bit! Enjoy the rest of your summer vacation and good luck starting college next year (with a new hobby)!

While this wasn’t technically a “guiding day” it was a very fun hike on Mt. Washington with my fiancee and some great friends during the annual “Seek The Peak” fundraiser to benefit the Mount Washington Observatory. This is a great organization that I am proud to support. I get my weather forecast for guiding everyday from http://www.mountwashington.org. Take a look at the video and their website and perhaps next year I’ll see you on the mountain!

We got another government contract to take 9 highly trained special forces guys climbing for 6 days. This is a very intensive 6-7 days where we take incredibly fit soldiers and teach them to lead rock climb with adaptations for a tactical environment.

Frank and Sara discussed some simple anchoring concepts;

These were some of the most hard-core special forces folks I have ever seen. They are dedicating their lives to our freedoms and I couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you all for your selfless service and come home safe!

The Wolfeboro Rec Group Camp came back for their 3rd summer to climb with us. It is always fun with these guys as they motivate each other and this time brought us some oreos!

Today I got the opportunity to teach an entirely new subject, land navigation. While I have taught map & compass skills casually as part of overnight winter camping trips I felt there was a need for a dedicated one day course with classroom and field learning. To that end I created my 1st ever “power-point” presentation and a few EMS employees from our Manhattan store and 3 other outdoor minded folks came up to North Conway for the course.

I want to thank each of you for taking our very 1st Land Navigation 101 course, but most importantly for the excellent feedback each of you provided regarding the course. I am already implanting suggested changes and you are all to thank for what will continue to be a fun and educational experience!