| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2005-03-27 23:51:23 UTC-0500 |
| Description |
Spring Break on Mt. Washington March 24-27, 2005 Dan Walker, Max Cohen, James Denedy-Frank, Christiaan Adams, Polly Anikeeva It all started so innocently: --------------- Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:27:21 -0500 From: Daniel Walker To: MITOC BOD, mitoc-winter-leaders Subject: one last shot at winter Max and I will be giving the Presidentials the full treatment for the second half of spring break. Anyone with nothing better to do is invited to join us, with the following in mind. We both love teaching, but not this week. This means you should be able to climb hard without falling, hike fast without stopping, ski death without killing yourself, and under no circumstances require our disinterested medical care. If we think you are full of shit, you will not get the correct location of our secret basecamp. And you will need transportation. In addition, all efforts will be conducted in good style and without planning earlier than 6 hours. All meals must be gourmet (2 course minimum). walker --------------- Craziness ensued... Ice Climbing, Hiking, Skiing, Sledding, Camping, Falling Snow, Sunburns, Sushi, Cocktails, Tropical Fruit, and othe Full Moon madness... ------ Max's Trip Report: Dan and I took off from Boston a little past 8pm on Wednesday, headed north on 93. We made a not so quick stop at the Hannaford in Manchester, NH for food, and picked up some quality supplies, such as a pineapple, two coconuts, sapporo, and sushi-making stuff. Then we went up to Intervale and crashed for the night. the next morning, we headed up to Pinkham Notch (along with James, who had seperatly come up to Intervale the night before) of course stopping at Dunkin' Donuts along the way for Duncachino filled thermoses. We arrived at the trailhead and took off around 10am. Packs were heavy; Dan's was probably 90-100 pounds, mine around 70, and James' wasn't too light either. It took all three of us to get Dan's pack on him, and we barely could at that - check out the pictures of it. lets just say that none of us packed the most balanced bags we've ever seen... Once we got up to the Harvard Cabin, we quickly set up camp and then headed up to Huntington's Ravine for some action. Getting up there in the early afternoon, we looked at a beautiful bowl of ice and snow filled routes. spirits were high as we chose the Yale Gully for our first climb of the trip, and started up. it was probably around 2pm or just after. The climbing went well. due to our not-so-early start, we stuck to the snow whenever possible, avoiding the slower travel on ice, and made decent progress. at many points we found ourselves climbing 'polish' style (moss cover rock), and those parts sucked. it was steep enough, and we weren't roped up, so no one wanted to fall. Eventually we roped up, and started up with a running belay. I lead initially, and once i had no more pro, found a spot to belay them up and Dan took off leading. At about this point it got really dark out, so headlamps came out. Right at the start of his lead, Dan hit an ice bulge, and then a steep mixed section. With his awsome custom built 12W LED headlamp, routefinding wasn't a problem. Later we found out that they could see us high up on the route all the way down at Pinkham Notch by the light of Dan's headlamp. Anyway, the three of us eventually topped out to a BEAUTIFUL alpine garden. it was a full moon, so headlamps weren't needed, with no wind and even warm temps. we made our way over to the lions head trail and descended back to camp, satisfied with a good day's activity. friday, dan and i went up Pinnacle Gully. Good 'ol fashioned grade 3 ice climbing, with snow drifts coming down on us the whole time... Saturday, Dan and I were joined by Polly and Christiaan for Central Gully and then a trip up to the Summit (my first time!). okey i have to get back to lab now...but i'll write more of what actually happened later... |