Mount Washington

"This is close to the idea of God as I've ever been" - Chris
"Take a step to the right and you'll be a whole lot closer" - Eli


When Eli proposed a group hiking trip to Mount Washington, I was torn. My shoulder was feeling better, but still nowhere near fully healed - but having done nothing physical for 2 weeks, my mind and body were absolutely screaming for something to do. While I received quite a bit of unsolicited advice telling me "chill out" and "relax", I'm not about making up excuses to not have amazing adventures. I was totally bummed that I missed the last hike 2 weeks ago (right after I had my shoulder separated), so I simply couldn't pass up an opportunity to get out to New England for the weekend. If you've never been up there in the middle of October - you're missing out on the amazing colors of the trees, crisp clean air, and coffee shops every hundred feet.

Friday night was spent with friends in Rhode Island - a few games of Dominion followed by Thunderstone. We got to bed early, and woke up Saturday at 5:15. Eli and I were ready to go from the start, and after much wrangling of our crew of adventurers - we were headed up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a roughly 3.5 hour ride north. It was fun driving through Kingston, Warwick, Providence and Boston - places I haven't been to since college. I still miss New England, and after having left 5 years ago, part of me will always toy with the idea of moving back at some point.

We got to the foot of Mount Washington around 10:30 - and our crew of six geared up for the hike. The weather reports called for 1-3" of mixed precipitation, winter conditions, avg. winds at around 50 mph on the summit, gusting to high 60's, and a wind chill of -1 deg. F. I should note here form the start that this report was created my the Mount Washington Observatory (MWOBS), who monitor conditions constantly from a huge observatory at the summit.


We were well prepared with winter wear, snacks, and water - so onwards and upwards we went. Our plan was to tackle the Tuckerman Trail, a 4.2 mile hike each way to the summit, with about 4900 feet of elevation gain. The weather at the base was gorgeous, low 50's, and a light mist in the air. There were plenty of small waterfalls and steams at the start of the hike, and plenty of photos were taken. At this point, Eli and I decided that with the pace the crew was taking (admittedly slow), we would never make the summit in time, so we left our comrades and booked it up the mountain. It was a tricky hike, as we were basically navigating a ravine full of small boulders - so footing was very important. Gradually the weather got slightly colder, but it was fantastic in every way because you're heating up with all the hiking - so we were comfortable all the way up to the caretaker's cabin roughly halfway through the trail. We left word for our crew that they could drive home without us (as we took 2 cars up for this very reason), and set on.

The weather around this point started to get really interesting, as the snow started as just faint wisps in the air:


to light accumulation:


to pretty constant accumulation:


At this point we were reaching the top of the tree line, and we donned our winter gear. We were at the bottom of the mountains head wall, so we were still shielded by the winds. We were greeted to an awesome waterfall, courtesy of the melting snow and apparently not a regular sighting along the Tuckerman Trail. At this point all that lie ahead of us was rock, snow, ice and heavy wind. The ascent become increasingly difficult, as we had to navigate much slower and carefully - especially in my case as I could really only use one arm.


This video was taken at the bottom of the head wall we were about to tackle. At 10 seconds of the video, the plain white area is actually Mount Washington, it's covered in thick fog.

As we entered the Arctic Zone, the winds really picked up now, and the ground cover was anywhere from a few inches to a few feet, and it was a small victory to make it to each stone cairn - which served as our trail markings. At this point in the ascent, the wind was blowing fiercely into our faces, driving snow into our eyes, so each step became harder and harder. At the same time we were contending with poor footing. There were portions where we simply had to get on our hands and knees and crawl past some sections. And boy, did it get cold. However, Eli and I refused to give up even though our energy was getting sapped with each step. We refused to yield to whatever Mount Washington was throwing at us. If conditions had been any worse, we probably would be forced to head back down...but as we got about 0.6 miles from the summit, we realized it would be much safer to reach the summit, go into the observatory building to warm up and change into dry clothes than to turn around and head back freezing our butts off.

An hour later, we approached summit and the feeling was absolutely amazing. Eli and I were pretty jubilant, but at the same time - we both knew that we couldn't enjoy the moment for long. Winds at the top of the mountain were peaking at 70mph, and the snow was very significant and everything around us was caked in thick layers of ice. Visibility was extremely poor and we had a hard time finding the right building. After 10 minutes of searching frantically among the high winds - we found the right door - and entered to a the dimply lit ranger station. We were greeted by 2 other hikers, and some unfriendly rangers - who made it quite clear that what we did was a pretty poor idea all around - and we didn't look all that prepared. One guy in particular was pretty gruff about the whole idea - and wasn't afraid to put some fear into us - and to be honest I can't really fault him. I'm sure he's seen some pretty messed up stuff on the mountain - but that being said it didn't exactly help to imbue any confidence on those going to head back down the mountain.

After thawing out (Eli's beard was frozen solid), refilling our water and changing our socks, we looked over the topographical map of the mountain with the rangers. We had 2 problems - tackling the rough weather, and daylight. The ascent took us about 4.5 hours, and the late start means it was about 3:30 and we had about 3 hours of light left. The ranger presented us 2 options:

A) Go down the Mt. Washington car road.
This involved an extra 4 miles of hiking, then a 2.5 hour hike through the woods back to our car - in total darkness. In addition, the majority of the road was covered in thick ice and completely exposed to the 50 to 70mph winds we got blasted by on the summit. The advantage here was clearly on the ranger, who could search for us by car should we never get down to the cabin.

B) Go back down the way we came.
We thought about it, and realized it would be a trickier hike, but we could go down the steeper, shorter, but rougher Lion's Head Trail. It provided the quickest decent vertically, but would involve some very rough terrain. We decided to go down this route.

The first 0.4 miles of the way back involved the same route we took up the mountain, which took us around 45 minutes of intense effort. Luckily for us, going back down was WAY easier. The fact that there was a thick snow and ice cover allowed us to sled down big swaths of the route on our butts, as long as we were careful to take it kind of slow and avoid the rocks. It was actually a lot of fun, and it took us all of about 10-15 minutes to get to the cairn which marked the trailhead for the Lion's Head Trail. As an added bonus, all of the snow I accumulated on my frozen jeans from the sledding actually acted as an insulating layer and my legs warmed up. (Wearing jeans was not a good idea in general though)

The Lion's Head was amazing. As we were really moving as fast as we could (burning daylight, after all) - we took very few pictures after this one:


For part of the trail, we were actually walking the ridge line of the mountain, and the setting sun cast a gorgeous glow over the snow and ice. It was here where the quote from the start of this post came from. The weather was still windy and vicious, but we were in very high spirits and enjoying the journey. The path down involved a lot of tricky bouldering and poor footings - but we were able to make it back down to the end of the trail just as dark enveloped the mountain.

It was an epic journey - and definitely one of the most arduous things I've ever done. Physically I was sore, but my shoulder, and the remnants of the cold I'd had for weeks were significantly healed - something I credit to the energy of the mountain, and some well spent time in nature. It really beats the crap out of life in the city - and the trip helped to solidify the notion that I should be spending far more time out of it.

- Chris

A Weekend in Rhode Island

"There are a thousand reasons for failure, but not a single excuse." - Rudyard Kipling

It had certainly been a strange couple of weeks leading up to this past weekend. Something was most certainly off - and I found myself becoming more and more disconnected, regardless of what I tried to do to "jump start" myself. While I was certainly being very productive, I was finding myself being very insular and at times short with people. I get like that sometimes, but never really for a protracted period of time.

Anyway, I took this "funk" (for lack of a better term) with me on a road trip to Rhode Island - to visit with friends. After a brutal 5 1/2 hour bus ride to New London, CT (thanks to traffic on I-95, it wasn't Greyhound's fault) - I met up with Gabe, who had a softball game. I started watching the game, and then some friends met up with me to take me to go play some beach volleyball - which was completely unexpected. I hadn't played since goofing around in college, but it's one of those sports I seem to play pretty well. I think it's got a lot to do with my willingness to flail myself at any ball within a 100 foot radius without any permanent damage.

It was perfect weather that night, and we had a blast. Gabe and I went back to play plenty of board games - and went to bed knowing we were going to go climbing @ Lantern Hill the next morning! We met up with Eli early in the morning, and you couldn't have asked for better weather to climb - maybe 80 degrees, a slight breeze, not a cloud in the sky...yet I was still feeling...off.

The view from the top of Lantern Hill is amazing, albeit there's a few man-made eyesores. The hawks and vultures soaring right around you makes up for it though. We setup top ropes and began climbing. For all the reasons mentioned earlier, I just kept freezing on the wall. I found myself coming up with so many lame excuses for barely being able to stay on the wall - simply put, I felt weak.

Typical of my feelings then: The heights are causing me to feel sick to my stomach, my fingers scream in agony just placing them on rocks, I'm not comfortable with the ropes, my shoes aren't sticking very well, my shoulder's bothering me, I don't want to look like a schmuck, I climbed this rock better in sneakers 3 months ago!

I was so down on myself then, but I kept trying to hack away at the frustration and just fucking enjoy myself. The company was good enough (another group joined up with us), and then I just got on the easy wall - and was urged on by Gabe and Eli to get to the top of the wall come hell of high water. I got setup at the bottom of the wall and just said to myself "Stop feeling fucking sorry for yourself and get your ass up that wall"

So I started to climb. I took a slightly awkward route, which was proving to be pretty fun for the first 40-feet or so, till I got to a point where I had to navigate a traverse that earlier in the day I bailed on because it was making me feel very vulnerable to the heights. Eli continued to urge me on while belaying for me - and the confidence he showed in my ability (which I didn't feel was warranted by my previous attempts to ascend the wall) pushed me right through the traverse! This put me on a very large comfy ledge about 75% up the climb, where I took a minute, turned around and sat on a rock outcrop and took in the view. A peaceful calm washed over my body - and for the first time in weeks I felt simple and at peace. At that moment, a hawk flew past very majestically. It's just one of those moments that will always stay with me.

It didn't matter that this was the "easy" climb, or that I was struggling and needed prodding to get to this point - I was just present in the place I found myself - connected to the reality of it in a way I'd missed lately. I was happy.

Eli urged me to continue the climb, and to my surprise I finished it strong and came back down. I proceeded to climb pretty well the rest of the day - with my mind and body much more co-ordinated and elated. The rest of the weekend was awesome, and I got home feeling much more at peace with things.

I'm pretty grateful I've got friends who push me to always get better - and the ability to kick my own ass when I truly need it.

- Chris

Caviar into Steroids

If you've never played the hit new game Telestrations, you're doing yourself a disservice. I picked up in anticipation of Game Night @ Gabe & Auren's place in Rhode Island this past weekend. It ended up being played pretty much throughout the day, and near the end of the night it started getting particularly hilarious.

For those who've never played, the premise is everyone draws a card with 6 possible words, and a die roll decides which word everyone draws on their multi-paged whiteboard book. Then you pass the sketches to your left/right, and those players write a guess as to what the drawing depicts (not knowing the original word). Then players pass the word guess and have to sketch that. Then the books get passed, and another guess..etc until the book gets back to its original owner.

We decided to play one last game at the end of the night, and Lisa draw the word "Caviar". Without further ado, I present a perfectly fine sketch to represent Caviar:



Lisa passed her book to Eli, who started chuckling - writes a word - and then passes the book to Gabe, trying not to burst out in laughter. His guess: Menopause

Gabe gets the book, and starts bursting out in laughter and was joined by Eli to the point where Eli fell off the couch in tears...and nobody really knew wise. So Gabe did his best to convey the word:



I am the lucky soul to get this hilarious sketch, and now I start laughing to the point of tears, and I end up with barely enough sand left in the timer to make a guess. While I think I could have come up with a much better guess, I was laughing so hard and in a rush, so my guess was Female Hormone Suppressant

Alexandra gets the book, laughter naturally ensues and she sketches the following:



Alex passed the book to Nate (laughter of course ensues), who guesses Testosterone, and chuckles profusely as he hands the book to his wife Beth. Beth does her best to contain herself as she sketches this gem:



Yes, that is an injection directly into a penis...

Mike then gets the book, practically wets himself with laughter and makes the final guess: Steroids

Upon Lisa's revealing of the book, we were all in stiches as everyone was in on the whole joke. The quote of the night came from Gabe to Eli: "You made me draw menopause!!!"

What a fun time, and the closing game was absolutely epic.

- Chris