From the Mt Wash log 1/5/07: Weather has taken a turn for the worse (and absurd) this morning. Low clouds have filled the sky, and rain and fog are threatening. The absurd…temperatures continue to rise, now in the upper 30s, threatening today’s record high of 42. Warm weather should hold tomorrow as well, and with a cooler record of only 37 for the date, midnight should make short work of that tonight!

It's time to throw in the towel fellows. Come to grips with the fact that we aren't going to have a real ice season in the North East. Areas like the Dacks or Smugglers Notch coming in for just a few days at a time, that's more like November conditions, or late season, certainly not January.

Now Now, don't give up yet! I was talking to a ski resort running type friend of mine... They're looking forward to making snow.

how warm was it there today?
we had 70's in southern NH

i think Huntington's Ravine is the best out here so far. i'm hoping to get out there on sunday, i'll report back if i do

anything nice up in quebec or ontario? i need to get my fix somehow, and a roadtrip might be worth it

73 degrees at 2pm in NYC. Masha and I went for a walk in tee shirts along Hudson River Park. There were men in shorts and shirtless. Women in tank tops. Everyone was grinning ear-to-ear. Passed by some cherry trees that were in bloom. The daffodils are coming up.

Kim

please do. Our objective is to now try mt wash via a gully route of some type.

Been doing some searching but can anyone tell me if stuff is in up there???

Did Pinnacle on Sunday. some holes and hollow sections, but reasonable ice and good climbing the whole way up. Odell's and the beginning of North looked fat.

The tuckerman trail was a bit icy by the end of the day, but there isn't enough snow to avoid trashing crampons if you wear them.

Maybe it will be a trip to the gunks?!?! lol

Honestly, if you can be flexible, might be worth keeping the Gunks an open option.

sadly i didn't make it. partner bailed so i sat at read about everest all day.
everything i'm seeing about washington says it's a go though. there's a report for sunday on neice.com


that's a great news all around. i was terrified because this weekend was so warm. i suspect dwalker may be confusing North and Damnnation though. i climbed Damnnation two weeks ago and it was nice, North didn't have a trickle though. the two seem to be easily confused
i can guarantee i'll be climbing next Monday. hopefully in Huntington. naturally i'll do an update when it happens.
let me know if you need a partner for washington or just want another group in the ravine. hell, even just to say hi

Hold that "LOL"! I was climbing in the Gunks on Saturday - it must've been 75. I was hot in a T shirt and long pants.

Honestly, if you can be flexible, might be worth keeping the Gunks an open option.

GO

you should know that right now huntington ravine is the ONLY place with ice in nh. you'll have a hard time justifying coming all the way out here for a few climbs. just wait a few weeks and hopefully it will get better. google the mount washington valley ice festival, that's early next month, and there should be some ice by then and lots of cool people are coming out for it. i would definitely hold out for better conditions if i were you.

This probably means there is going to be some traffic there but I don't care.

i doubt it. there might be a few other parties there, but the long-ass hike in and out seems to do a good job of keeping people out. start early!

Bring your rain gear if you plan on heading to the Gunks this Sunday. The forecasts I have checked are calling for rain, but then again, when are they ever correct?

When Basilisk says start early I would take it with some seriousness. It's an awesome feeling to descend escape hatch at 9AM just in time to see the first few parties staggering in there, and then look at each other and go "wanna go again?" I stay at Harvard cabin or leave the Notch parking around 3 or 4 am. Better yet you can be out of there in the glorious sunshine with smug grins on your face while everybody else is praying for the weather to hold. Yeaaahhh, it's worth the 3 am start.

I'm hoping to be in the GUnks Sunday morning (for my Sunday worship serviceWink)

It's dry under the overhangs.

have fun up there in any case

Oh, and just stand around and smoke for a while and you'll fit right in down here... You'll really look like you know what your doing if you can roll your own smokes and take 'em right down to the last mm. Seems to be the thing here these days.

well Kris, we never made it down to NH. We did get in some ice though in bancroft and quebec. I'll post up a TR sometime soon.


thanks everyone for all their help!


Brent

well Kris, we never made it down to NH.

This is great. Everyone's going to be asking in 50 years;

"How'd you get thtough the Non-Winter if 2007?"

"It was terrrible, we walked our dogs in our T shirts, then went ice climbing in NH, then put our T shirts back on and went rock climbing, then sent emergency rations to snow bound cows in CO, then the smell from the NJ swamps covered Manhattan so we went back up to the Catskills to go Ice Climbing, and then stopped at the Gunks on the way back to do some bouldering, then read on RC.com that Ray Jardine kyaked to the north pole, and at the end of the day I saw on the news that Battery Park was under water and as I looked out my window a huge tidal wave smashed over top of the the Statue of Liberty and next thing I knew we were in the next ice age. So I got my tools out and...."

Brent, Nathan and I were thinking about you this morning, and looking at the freezing rain. We were hoping that you didn't end up having to deal with it on your drive home.

Glad you got on some ice. I'll try the harness hang test again in another coulpe of weeks and hopefully I'll get the chance to get on some ice this year!

Too bad man, it looks like you missed a nice day in the ravines.

Saturday, January 13, 2007
5:10 AM
Conditions at 5:10 AM

Weather: Freezing drizzle/Ice pellets
Temperature: 28°F
Wind: W 60 gusting 68mph
Visibility: 200 feet
Relative Humidity: 100%
Station Pressue: 23.73" falling slowly
Ground Conditions: 5" snow and glaze ice


24 Hour Statistics

Maximum Temperature: 28°F
Minimum Temperature: 14°F
Peak Wind Gust: W 87mph
Average Wind Speed: 65.6 mph
Liquid Precipitation: .08"
Snowfall: .3

Thanks for thinking of me, Rebecca. Thankfully we got home before all that rubbish started, although my sister drove through Buffalo (hopefully safely) in it today.


get in that harness and see how it feels! it would be nice to see you out on some ice again!!!

Todd,
so that's a good day, eh??? LOL nice. I regret that we didn't try the mountain, but we also had an awesome time up north. There will be a trip report in a couple hours or so.

Brent

Yeah, that is pretty good conditions for Huntingtons, actually. The wind is often nasty bad once you get out of the bowl into the Alpine Garden (basically a ridgeline, and unsheltered from the wind), which is why most parties go down from there, as opposed to hiking up the extra hour to the actual summit.

They don't call it the worst weather in the world for nothin', you know!

Aye, temps are down, my hopes are up for ice. I've gotta try that harness again. I may not be able to walk very far to get to ice, or climb very well on the ice, but it would still be nice to get out.

BTW - There are a bunch of ACC icedays/weekends coming up. I'd like to actually get out to one or two of them this year. Tiffany Falls is enither coming up, or just past.

get er done!! it would be nice to see you out, too. Swayze will be coming along right now, I think.

an ACC day at tiffany would be nice. Where do i find info? climbers.org??? I don't think they would have got to climb tiffany yet as I don't think it has formed. This is speculation, though.


As of now there is some ice up in bancroft and with the weather it's probably getting pretty fat. There was also ice in quebec north of gattineau at Lac Poisson Blanc. There is a trip report from our outings there in the TR forum.

wow. I thought he was joking!!! Maybe i'll get to go down there later this year, i don't know. Thanks for the info.

Check out the conditions on Mount Washington today. Yeah baby, that's brisk!!! Should finally be good for growing some ice at the lower elevations.


Wednesday, January 17, 2007
5:43 AM

Cold Temperatures and Extreme wind chills -60 to -80 below

Conditions at 5:43 AM

Weather: Broken Fog
Temperature: -28°F
Wind: NW 92mph
Visibility: 1/8 mile
Relative Humidity: 100%
Station Pressue: 23.44" rising
Ground Conditions: 7" Snow


24 Hour Statistics

Maximum Temperature: 23°F
Minimum Temperature: -31°F
Peak Wind Gust: NW 103mph
Average Wind Speed: 65.8 mph
Liquid Precipitation: .06"
Snowfall: .4"