New Hampshire Climbing Guide -- Mountaineering Instructor -- Member of The North Face Climbing Team

Last night I finally got around to writing another blog with some updates on the local ice conditions. Unfortunately, I'm new to this whole thing, and when I was in putting be taxed in to my website. I didn't realize that it needed to be saved as I went. I spent about an hour on it and was working to attach the photo. I look back at the screen and the blog was gone by this point. It was about 11 p.m., so I just turned off the computer and called it a night. Here I am back at my desk. It's 6:30 a.m., and the temperature is -6°F with the wind chill they're telling me that were at -20. And I have to say that this all makes me very happy. So here's something you might find interesting. I'm actually doing this blog with some new voice recognition software that I just picked up. Its called Dragon, and it is absolutely amazing. Have a small headphone hard over my head, and I just speak into the microphone and the verge turn into taxed on my screen. It doesn't work perfectly, but I figured I'd give it a test and see if possibly this blog was a good application for the new software as an aside, I can tell you that the software was designed by a guy named Ray Kurzweil. Not everyone has heard of gray, but Ray is one of the world's leading experts on artificial intelligence and a futurist with an incredible track record of predicting technical logical trends and technological trends. He also has a best-selling book out right now called the singularity is near. I think I can safely say that it is one of the most influential books that I have ever read. I'm not to go into any details, but if you are at all interested. Perhaps you'd like to check out the interview and article I wrote about Ray for hemispheres Magazine, which is the in-flight magazine of United airlines go to hemispheres Magazine.com and look for the back issues to find it in the December issue in the inner views department. So let's talk about what's happening up here in the North country with the ice climbing conditions. I just finished up a busy three day Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. And as such, I got to do a relatively extensive tour of both mount Washington Valley and mount Washington. I climbed into Tuckerman surveyed on Saturday, and I can tell you that the conditions of their are absolutely perfect. Normally at this time of year. There is a lot of snow and talker mints which fills in the ice and makes it on exciting as a climbing destination. But this year because we've had so little snow. Even now in mid-January ice climbing conditions are beautiful and talker mints. We did a line up the center had wall. It was three pitches with a mix of some steep net day and then some very nice grade 3 ice. One thing I noticed wall climbing was an absolutely beautiful ice cave in the middle of the had wall literally went back in a solid 20 feet when the ice curtain blocking the entrance. I have to imagine that it would be absolutely completely sheltered in their unfortunately. You're not allowed to bid the anywhere in Tuckerman surveyed because it is part of the Cotler River drainage. But man it would make one heck of a bit lack. We climb to the summit of Mount Washington on Sunday, and although the weather was quite blustery, with winds from 30 to 40 miles an hour and visibility of about 100 feet with snow falling I saw more people going to the summit that day than I ever have before in my life on our way back down from the summit we passed about a hundred people. Heading up, we had spent the night in the Harvard cabin, which is something I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't done it. I know some people don't like the Harvard cabin, but personally, I love it on Monday we went to Frankenstein Cliff. I had spoken to a friend who told me that standard route was in and knowing that there wouldn't be all lot of clients to choose from. We got an early start and ended up being the first car pulling into the parking lot. The last time I had been by Frankenstein the place was basically wiped out from the ball that we had. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that lots of the ice is coming back in the amphitheater is still looking pretty sketchy, but based on the fact that it's minus six right now. I would say by the time this cold snap breaks at the end of this week. There should be some climbing in the amphitheater. I will predict that the smear will be in by tomorrow hauled couloir looked like it was climb a wall. It also looked like you could start up all but couloir and in fear off onto Pegasus for the rock finished Shia looked a little sketchy but the pillars that form on the left side look like they're coming in well. I also think you could climb to me through it right now, but Tressel is also looking good. There is plenty of ice in this area for a fun day of top roping. I would recommend climbing the first flow on the left to get up into the trees to set up the top rope. Unfortunately, the Tressel slab still appears to be too thin or nonexistent continuing down the tracks. I noticed that walk in the forest has come back in, which is good, because I just heard from Al Hospers that a group from the AMC will be up there on Saturday. Apparently, they will have about 30 people, so if you are thinking about climbing at Frankenstein on Saturday. You should stay away from walk in the forest. The waterfall route also looks like it is now in, although it looks like the top out might be interesting. Of course all climbers should carry a fee thread tool. If you have this. You can always put in a threat or and wrap off from below the lap this is how we got down from the top of the talker mints ravine had wall. Instead of continuing up and over. I put in a double fee thread where you put into fee thread side by side. I undid the court let Senate through the two different threads and equalized for an absolutely bomber anchor. It's a good thing to keep in mind right now because a lot of the top out at Frankenstein are bare rock, and in fact often told now that Earth has not even been frozen. And it's been hard to get good sticks in the vegetation standard route is looking very good and is fully climb all right now. We climb the left side, stopping for a belay in the cave and at the same time some climbers were doing the right side one thing to note on the right side of standard route is that there is a big icicle hanging down by the case. I personally think it looks a little bit sketchy, and it is hanging directly above the right side first pitch. Of course it would be really bad if it happened to break off when you are climbing up. Think about this before you go for it. That said two parties climb the right side while we were there, one of whom continued up all the way to the top pulling out through a roof at the very top of standard route. It's a beautiful line for an experienced climber. The left side climbed well the first pitch up to the cave the ice was a little bit hollow and difficult to protect, but it was fun climbing. The second pitch was beautiful, as was the third at the top of where to you have to crawl across a small river. Normally I like to finish up the pillars at the top bought. They weren't in quite thick enough for me so I went around and climbed a 15 foot veg wall. And again the top out was rocky and thin our way down we passed someone who had just climb Dracula on the left side. He said he climb well and took good screws the whole way. So more good news, Dracula is in, you may also be interested to hear that drop line is coming in very nicely. I am thinking that by the end of this cold snap it should be ready to go to climb or rap down drop line while we were there to scope it and said that the top part will take screws but that the bottom below the break is very thin. One final report, the hanging Garden is in it there is ice hanging all over it. And that the current cold temperatures or having think should solidify and by the end of this week should be good to go. I would also like to report that we are now experiencing midseason made winter ski conditions. I can't report on the other ski areas got that wildcat Mountain. Things are looking really good. I got up there for a few runs yesterday and was very pleased to see that they have started up the clawed for the season. I actually was hoping to get in a little bit of powder left over from the storm but heavy rains had hit overnight literally blowing away every single suspect that and there was a period of freezing rain at the end of the storm, which froze into a hard ice layer, so everything that wasn't groomed had a glaze of ice over it. This might seem like a bomber, but actually, I think the glaze is a good thing because it sealed the snow onto the slope and kept it from getting blown away in the heavy winds and we've had for the past two days. I came home and spent some time with the family but then I got a little bit stir crazy by late afternoon and asked Lauren if I could go for a cross-country ski. She said yes. And since it was 4 p.m. and getting dark soon, I grab my ski gear and headed down to the golf course. The track was set up, very hard, but I was able to get a nice edge and after doing one lap around the golf course. I headed up the real little to Eagle Mountain House. It was my first time on ski gear for. I think two years because last season, the cross-country skiing was so poor they never got out skating one time. Let me just say it is really really really fun were supposed to get a little more snow this week and all we need now is a little bit of powder on top of this solid base and things will be absolutely beautiful. So all in all, yesterday was a great day for me because I got to go skiing twice. My goal in the winter appear is to get out climbing or skiing at least once every single day and so far I'm doing pretty well of course you have to have snow. So let's all keep our fingers crossed that things stay cold that January continues to be a real month of winter. So the good news is that we are now experiencing midwinter conditions. The ice is back in the skiing is great. So if you're thinking about a trip to the North country now is the time. I hope to see you out on the trails. One final note, I'm going to leave this blog with the spellings and typos. Just so that you can see how the voice dictation software actually works. I think it's interesting to see how it deals with punctuation and spelling of words that it doesn't know. So for the record, I never touch this or edited it in anyway I just spoken into the microphone and that's it.