What a great start we were off to this year for both skiing & ice climbing! Hard to believe that the ice climbing season started for many of us a month and a half ago! Apparently Santa didn’t get my letter though for instead of a few feet of powder we were all delivered many inches of rain over a very warm three days which pretty much pushed the “reset” button on our winter playground.

Hope is on the horizon for 2015 though! Arctic cold has dropped our daytime temps about 50 degrees in just the last two days! On Monday I guided two young guys from New York up a very thin Willey’s Slide in Crawford Notch. I have never been on it in such lean conditions and it was actually pretty fun, though I could have left the ice screws at home. We hugged climber’s left the whole way and got a couple half pitches of actual ice climbing towards the top. The gushing waterfall 2/3 of the way up was pretty impressive, especially when the winds kicked up and sent the water sideways!

The next day Erin, Brandon, Travis, and Matt all joined me for an assault on Mount Washington. The weather forecast spoke of “coldest air of the season” and wind chills down to around -48. Sounded like it may be a challenging day on the hill, but the winds died down early enough in the day and with careful moisture management and pacing we summit-ed at about 12:40 then descended back down the Summer Lion’s Head Trail to the cars in only 2.5 hours. The entire trip was done in micro-spikes (with crampons in reserve) and a short arm-wrap rappel on the most technical step of the route.

So despite the disappointing thaw it looks like it will be a distant memory soon. Continued cold is on tap for the first few days of 2015 and snow is likely for Saturday & Sunday. That is especially welcome as our second avalanche course of the season starts Friday! So ciao 2014, you were a pretty decent year for climbing conditions. Let’s usher in some great skiing & climbing for the start of 2015!

Happy New Year & See You in the Mountains!

Old man Winter has established his foothold here in the Whites. Intrepid climbers have been out sniffing out early season ice for almost a month. I got out before Thanksgiving to climb Pinnacle Gully in great early season conditions. I also grabbed my first two ski days of the 2014/15 season, opening day (Nov 9th) at Wildcat and a couple weeks later at Bretton Woods. Even with 2 days already ticked I was a bit envious of some Facebook friends Thanksgiving Day powder skiing shots but time spent down south with family was well worth it!

Today wraps up a trifecta of guide related workshops and round-tables and I wanted to share a quick recap of each.

On November 8th the 3rd Annual Eastern Snow Avalanche Workshop was held at the new venue in Bartlett, NH. Attendance was strong with over 100 snow-minded folks from recreational to professional listening in on a diverse amount of topics. If you are really bummed you missed it (and you should be if you like playing in snow), you can get quite a bit of info from the presentations thanks to a Tetons Gravity forum member taking (and sharing) extremely detailed notes of the proceedings. You can find them here.

Yesterday the American Mountain Guide Association held a round table discussion at the Eastern Mountain Sports North Conway Climbing School location. You probably have heard of the AMGA at some point if you are reading this blog. Long story short, their mission is “To inspire and support a culture of American mountain craft.” It goes much deeper than that, but the gist of this gathering of 43 instructors, guides, aspiring guides, etc. was to solicit feedback on how the AMGA could better represent the Northeastern “guide” who is trying to balance the demands of seasonal work, the expense of certification, and the potential ROI “Return On Investment”. This is of particular interest to those who practice the art of guiding in a state with almost no regulation, “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire!

A significant portion of the evening was spent in 7 “break out” groups trying to answer 3 questions all related to how the AMGA can better help the Northeastern guide or guide business.

Finally, today, EMS Schools had an internal guide meeting with 12 guides who operate out of Connecticut, New Paltz, NY, Lake Placid NY, and of course North Conway, NH. A new polished “Guides Manual” was distributed and covered operating protocols from accident response and AMGA endorsed terrain use guidelines to continued education and training based incentives. It provoked some positive discussion and was a solid primer for scheduled field training coming up over the next few weeks.

So all in all what does this mean? I can’t wait for the winter season to go full swing! Snow is in the forecast (1 to 3 inches this Friday, more in long range forecast), which is great, as our first avalanche course of the season is only 15 days away! Almost half of our scheduled courses for this season have already sold out! If you were thinking about taking an avalanche course this winter do not put signing up off any longer! You can see what dates are available and reserve your spot right here.

Here’s to a great Holiday Season and a rewarding winter season! See you on the mountain!

For years I’ve wanted to give this blog a make-over. A more creative name than… firstnamelastname at WordPress… a better Product Review Page (check out the new Guide Tested page), a connection to other great climbing websites out there (page under construction), and today I finally had the time & motivation to get it to a point where I felt I could push “publish”.

In the past this blog has mostly been a place where I could summarize days guiding and upload photos for clients to access the fun we had in the mountains. It will still be that, but will also be more focused on something every climber & skier is passionate about. Gear.

Also a “how-to-guides-tips-and-tricks” section is in the making. While tying a one-handed clove-hitch might not help you break into 5.11 it definitely looks cool.

NEAlpineStart is also now on Facebook so please give us a Like there. If you are into gear then definitely subscribe, here’s a quick list of what I’ll be reviewing over the next couple of months;

Dynafit Denali Skis

Black Diamond Dawn Patrol Pants

Black Diamond Convergent Shell Jacket

KINCOS Gloves <- so in love with these thanks to NEClimbs Review

Ortovox Avalanche Beacons, S1, S1+, Zoom

And a LOT more… so please Subscribe, Like, Share, Comment, etc… I am stoked to get this blog out there to more people who tear it up in the North East, whether on rock, ice, or snow, we’re all enjoying the ride!

Reports of climbable ice in the ravines has motivated Bob & I to head up the mountain and see what’s what. It has been a few years since I have climbed ice this early and we left our options open, not knowing if we would head into Tuckerman Ravine for a more mellow alpine cragging type day or commit to something more in Huntington Ravine.

(7:30AM) We left Pinkham Notch Visitor Center and made our way up to the Huntington Ravine Trail. The weather appeared better than the forecast so we opted to head over to Huntington. While I have climbed in Huntington Ravine dozens of times I have rarely taken the trail that breaks off from the Tuckerman Ravine Trail at 1.3 miles. It is usually faster to stay on the Tuckerman Trail until the “fire road”, then cut over towards Huntington, but today Bob and I relished the chance to enjoy a section of trail that we are not so familiar with it. We soon reached one of the river crossings that makes this option less preferable to the fire road choice.

It took a minute to pick a line through the rocks and keep our feet dry. Someone got wet recently based on that hole in the above photo… careful on those early season crossings! We continued until we reached the fire road and followed that to the base of “The Fan”. It must have took 40 minutes to work our way up to Pinnacle. With almost no snow in the ravine and a half inch of verglas ice on every bus sized boulder the going was quite slow. Under and over and through we picked a line up through the Fan while a party of three followed suit.

(10:10AM) I took the first lead and must say it felt great to swing the tools again. I could tell I wasn’t in the shape I usually am for climbing ice but felt quite solid… like riding a bike, you don’t forget. I placed 4-5 screws in 230 feet before reaching the 3 pin anchor above the steeper start of the route and put Bob on belay. He had to simul-solo about 30 feet for me to reach the anchor.

I was amp’d to go again on the more mellow 2nd pitch and we fired that 220 foot pitch off before I stopped to bring Bob up. Bob took the last 100 feet and we were at the top of the gully by 12:30. After coiling the rope and “de-gearing” we starting picking our way up 300 feet to the rim of the ravine. Again, conditions are slow going this early in the season.

(1:05PM), Alpine Garden Trail. I realize what a huge mistake not bringing micro-spikes was as Bob cruises along and I am stuck between bare-booting or technical crampons. Bare-booting works till the Lions Head where I put my technical crampons back on. The trail is nothing but rock and half an inch of glaze… really hard to move quick this time of year.

We make it back to Pinkham by 3:30PM, 8 hours car to car, not too bad given the conditions. All I can say is I am amp’d up for this ice/ski season. I think it is going to be a stellar year, despite the warmth & rain that will hit us right before Thanksgiving the long range forecast is favorable for Thanksgiving Weekend and will hopefully set us up for a great December.

Editor’s Note: This blog is getting a make-over! New URL, new theme, LOTS of product reviews, check out the new “Guide Tested” page, links to awesome climbing & back-country skiing websites, and more… so… if any of this type of stuff interests you maybe you subscribe at the top tight of the website? Maybe?

See you in the mountains,

NEAlpineStart