EAST COAST ROLL CALL #8 14/15 A NEW HOPE

[dark_star]

Agreed, scary as hell. This will definitely make me think even more carefully about the conditions next time before dropping in...

[Boreas]

Anyone get stung by bees in the notch before?

Nope, where in the notch were you?

I did pick up a couple of deer ticks after thrashing my way around the bean stalker buttress around this time last year.

[ex-powderbroker]

Speaking of that, I saw a dog tick on the cliff at Dunmore.... is there anyplace in VT where Lyme/ticks may be still avoidable?

And of Dunmore, a couple of pics:





Really great local crag, especially for beginners with easy anchor possibilities and quality climbs starting in the 3 range.

The Reptilian Wall is kind of mossy and nasty (and where a couple of harder short TR / highball boulder problems live), but everything on the main wall was clean and awesome. We did 6+ climbs there on the way back from the bush, and my friend K added one that was not in the book -- a very slabby no hands 10ish that I did not have the balance for. Apparently on the north side of the cliff you need a 70m rope, I was pleased that my 60 fell to the ground with a couple of feet to spare, a perfect use of resources.

I'd hate to see it in the heat of summer, by the time the kooks were showing up with glass bottles we were getting out of there, but fuck your glass bottles on the rock.

Otto and Moby Grape next weekend would continue a strong run of fun fun fun for me.....

[ex-powderbroker]

Also, hiking trails are closed in the Catskills presently because of fire danger, there's a huge one going on right now just east of Hunter.

[east or bust]

Nope, where in the notch were you?

I did pick up a couple of deer ticks after thrashing my way around the bean stalker buttress around this time last year.

I didn't get stung but plan to do a fair amount bushwhacking this summer. There are a couple rock fall areas in particular that I'd like to scope for lurkers. As a kid I wasn't allergic but I have had reactions to the last couple stings, me thinks high in the notch off a marked trail would be a pretty bad place to find out the allergy worsened.


Forgot the tunes




that whole album is off the charts awesome

[Vt-Freeheel]

^^^ Get an Epipen if you think you might die. We were on Toads birthday ride when he got stung by a hornet and whipped out his epipen and stabbed himself. We were riding again after a small break. Funniest part of it was he had dosed for his b-day ride and swore he saw the hornet fly in, grab his face and sting him.

55` degrees last Saturday bob and 82.3` today, WTF!

Skiing last Saturday on Steins, ML photo of my "free" side



How it looks this afternoon



Gone in a flash.


Riding on Ridgie this morning, millions of tiny flowers carpeting the ground. Some bumbly bees collecting nectar



This looks cool

http://beerlabelsinmotion.tumblr.com...9/focal-banger

[buttahflake]

who all is going to be at Kmart, tomorrow?

shit-ton of those flowers at STAB today.

[Jonathan S.]

Executive Summary, by the numbers:

9 = thousands of vertical ascended/descended
15+ = miles of horizontal traveled
8 = hours of car-to-car time, projected beforehand
11.5 = hours of car-to-car time, actual
55 = summit high temp
82 = temperature the prior day in Ludlow during an Okemo driveby, which was about how warm it often felt during the tour
not enough = energy gel packets and Odwalla bars consumed
off-the-charts = tree pollen count
many = times I was about to blow the whistle on my pack strap to indicate my position ahead of my partner in the trees, but instead the reverberations of my explosive pollen-induced sneezes were multi-function


Details:

Yesterday (Friday, May 8) was pretty much the last time this season we could get away with a tour like this, and even then, just barely (as indicated by the time:vertical ratio in the executive summary):






After a short walk, skinned up the ART the entire way (with only a few very short portages), with CTSmith at least for now enjoying the warm weather:






... and then continued to the Monroe summit ridgeline, from which we skied all the way down to the flats to cross the Dry River after playing connect-the-snow-ribbons up high:






Skinned up and over to the other side and dropped into GoS #2, which skied very nicely (although the snow was dirtier down low from the lack of any recent traffic in that line, with only two people heading up anywhere in GoS that day even by noon):






The GoS trail became increasingly desperate, although we made it all the way to the Graham Trail with only a few short portages.
But then the Graham Trail was severely burnt out in many sections.
And the only good part about the section that is always swampy is that by then my climbing skins were so soaked that I no longer cared:






Skinning up the Sherburne reacquainted us with humanity (having seen only those two people in GoS since we left the Cog), with the sun-soaked deck railing at HoJo’s perfect to drying out our skins and rejuvenating skin glue.

The hike>skin>climb>skin to the top of the NE Snowfield felt great after all the prior inefficient travel, and the skiing felt great too:






CTSmith might have some pics of skiing the Lip, but of course I abstain from posting pics of such well-traveled places.
Fortunately Left Gully had a wonderfully well-traveled bootpack, so we didn’t even need our boot crampons, let alone our ice axes.
From there a very short walk took us back to Oakes Gulf, dropping into Airplane Bowl:






We skinned up the other side to the Lakes hut with some apprehension, given the uncertainty of how quickly and easily we could enter Monroe Brook.
Please please please let this snow ribbon continue all the way (and yes, we did have a matching fourth ski, just outside the picture frame):






Although of course that particular snow ribbon did not continue all the way, the lateral hiking was relatively trivial, and then another snow ribbon did indeed continue all the way to the top of the line, as I proclaimed Mission Accomplished based on our GPS position.

Unfortunately my GPS does not incorporate real-time snow coverage data, so we then endured a combination of awkward sideslipping, awkward sidestepping, awkward traversing, and generalized at-large awkwardness for what was probably only around fifty vertical feet through manky snow and annoying shrubbery.

Fortunately once in the line the snow conditions were now the best of the day (and the proto-moguls I’d read about in another TR were actually fairly trivial):






Down low the open water holes demanded caution and respect but did not yet inspire terror, and the glade exit was reasonably nice:






After some adventure nordic skiing on snow that probably isn’t even there at all by now only a day later, we had to walk only four-tenths of a mile out on the trail.

Overall, a fine outing, but that’s about it for anything like that this season.

[mtl_ripper]

Yeah Jon! Once Again!

[powbmps]

Is that a new bi-cycle?

[ex-powderbroker]

88 and sunny in New Paltz tomorrow, going to see a lot of burns in the gym this week!

[zartagen]

I posted up a TR in the TR forum, but here are some highlights:



Hiking up Chute Variation


Lunch on top


Dodge's




Saturday


The rest: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...-TR-Vail-to-NH

[buttahflake]

looks some wizardry and whatnot, well played sir.

heading to Kmart, red pants, long hair, 'picture of necter', tee.
safety first

[surface whore]

It's over bike time

[surface whore]

[vt_ski]

It's still going, even at the closed spots

[mtl_ripper]

Nice one, zartagen.
Good to vt_ski until it's all gone, hey!

[Vt-Freeheel]

Is that a new bi-cycle?

Yup, first ride.

[Peruvian]

The MTB trails are as dry as they usually are in mid-September, so the skis are being replaced after yet another season of skiing over 8 calendar months. Just shy of 80 days this winter. I'm not at all disappointed to start pedaling.

[From_the_NEK]

Bump for Spring...
Flowers are finally out here:

[mtl_ripper]

Nice floral Stoke!

[robrox]

2015 Mount Washington Memorial Day BBQ and Slackfest-

If the road is open and I can draw breath, I am there. Slacking all of Memorial Day Weekend: Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Mostly on the East Snowfields but sometimes Airplane too.

10th Mountain Memorial Day Slalom on Monday is always on the East Snowfield if the road is open...sometimes there are only 6 gates, but usually we get to put out all 30 gates. If the road is closed, we anti-slack to Tuckerman Ravine for the 10th Mountain Memorial Day Slalom (only happened once since 2008). I bring a back packer grill for the hot dogs when anti-slacking.

[Jonathan S.]

^ Slackfest is starting way earlier than that this year.

[robrox]

^ Slackfest is starting way earlier than that this year.

It sure looks that way, for those with the time. The Auto Road staff and crew are getting after it.

[Fenris]

It sure looks that way, for those with the time. The Auto Road staff and crew are getting after it.

I've heard Thursday.