If you are a regular reader you will have noticed my last post indicated a speed ascent of the Northeast Ridge Pinnacle the following day, followed by two weeks of silence. The reason? My beautiful daughter decided to arrive a couple days early! Madalena Ann Lottmann was born at 7:56pm on August 28th. We are adjusting nicely to our new addition. Yesterday I returned to work with a Wilderness Navigation Course in Pinkham Notch.

I arrived a little before 8am to set up the classroom. Once I had the classroom set up I felt the pre-course excitement building up. I’m so grateful I get to share knowledge with outdoor minded students as a career and setting up this classroom has me stoked for this winter’s upcoming avalanche course season!

Once the 9 participents settled in we began our morning classroom session covering topics from Improvised “Survival” Navigation to solid map & compass work. After a very hearty lunch provided by the AMC we hiked up to Square Ledge to practice some Terrain Association and Single Point Resection/Triangulation.

We then set a bearing to bushwhack to a nearby ski trail on Wildcat Mountain.

We hit the ski trail with in a few meters of our target and set a course back to Square Ledge after gaining a small bit of altitude. We then jumped over to the cross country ski trail and followed fresh moose scat & tracks south to a point up above Lost Pond.

This bit of trail is not well marked and is probably much simpler to follow in the snowy months when it is in use (which was perfect for our purposes). After some group discussion as to where we were we plotted a descent down to Lost Pond reaching the northern end after scrambling down a moderately steep gully.

Feedback from the course was super positive and it was good fun bushwhacking in a new area. I’m watching the weather (and the day care schedule) closely to find another day to head up to Pinnacle, and planning reviews of both the Five Ten Guide Tennies and the Camp Four’s for this Fall so stay tuned, and thanks for reading!

See you in the mountains,

NEAlpineStart