Restored a bit of faith. With all that’s going on in the world it’s easy to see how something like this could have been pushed to the President’s back burner. But he was there — not checking his BlackBerry as I would be. There’s lot that needs work, but lots that right and something to be said for sliding back from the desk and celebrating what’s right. For a day. Or a couple of hours.

So the trip details are almost superfluous; was raining, sun came out, guides from Outdoor Bound fantastic, 9 mile hike, and getting to know some folks (or not) on a trail is always a special kind of perfect. The trail, the people and the destination all find a balance depending on where your heads at. Taking a step back to someplace more elemental is always a reminder that there are other places without subways and desks. Longer and farther would be ideal, but I will take what I can get.

Heading up Mt. Washington, in winter, has been a vague goal for a long time. Last week, something snapped, and on Monday I made plans to be there by Friday. (Pictured Above: Lake of the Clouds Hut as we descended).

I booked the trip through REI, though the actual guiding was courtesy Mooney Mountain Guides and they were fantastic. Highly recommend them. They have a blog here. Saturday, our itinerary had us climb two smaller peaks (Welsh and Dickey). Sunday it was Mt. Washington.

Sunday started at 4AM to be on the road at 5AM and at the base of Mt. Washington as the sun was coming up (7:30ish). For anyone who is interested in Mt. Washington you’ve heard all the cliche’s about the weather and the wind and from my perspective is was everything I could have imagined plus some (a significant “some”). The official day’s statistics were (1/29/2012 — http://www.mountwashington.org/weather/summit.php):

Maximum Temperature: 25°F

Minimum Temperature: 8°F

Peak Wind Gust: W 122 mph

Average Wind Speed: 54.5 mph

Liquid Precipitation: 0.02″

Snowfall: 0.6″

We made it to the summit, I believe at 12;30ish. So not bad. Coming up above the tree-line is something I will never forget, and those footsteps were by far the most challenging with the wind, the cold, and the unfortunately foggy goggles. The experience reminded me of diving in cold water with so much neoprene that you can’t easily move, and such limited visibility that you’re brain desperately wants you to be somewhere else. Same effect. Attempting to change my glove liners quickly (20 seconds) showed me how fast something could go wrong cause when I spilled my water and saw that it froze instantaneously I realized that I had about 10 more seconds to get gloves back on as my fingers quickly turned numb. Really numb, not numb ha ha.

After that I really did switch to a scuba-learned mind-frame of being very deliberate and breathing and thinking. Then doing. What worked:

1. Mitts/hands

Brenig – definitely really worked well. Arrived via post the day I was leaving and am very glad we didn’t miss one another as that could have been painful. Had several glove option and even a Black Diamond mitt-option (was going to use their Access Mitt over Patagonia gloves) but wouldn’t have been the same. In picture below, I’m wearing Patagonia Liners, and Brenig mitt-liners without the over-mitt. The mitt’s with all layers are big and that takes getting used to, and unless you have really burley zipper pulls you’ll need to adjust everything first and then put on the over-mitts. Significant hassle at 10 degrees and 50 mph winds to take off your mittens to fix anything. Brenig is in the UK so ordering is a bit tricky and more expensive than say REI, but well worth it.

2. Jacket

Montane Flux Jacket was perfect. Ordered from UK as well at OutdoorGB. Have ordered a good amount of gear from them and all has been good so far — very good. So the jacket is Primaloft and was warm with an Icebreaker wool shirt as a base, and a very warm Helly Hansen Verglas Top which is one of the best pieces of kit I have. The HH top is impossibly warm. So those were the three layers and added Marmot Cervino which worked better than I thought it would above the tree-line. I never used a Montane Anti-Freeze down jacket in my pack even while stopped. Fantastic jacket, though would buy the NorthStar with the hood if I had it to do over again. Cold, other than hands just wasn’t an issue. Backpack is an old Marmot Shooting Star.

That said, I did rock a Fjallraven throwback hat and it really worked well – by this time I had two balaclava’s on — a Patagonia and a Helly Hansen ninja-style near full-face that was actually needed since I didn’t have a true face-mask.

Could have used better goggles (a requirement to have all skin covered), face-mask so breathing out doesn’t fog goggles and that’s about it. Made it. Appreciate the trip end-to-end; really good group of guides, great group of climbers from as far away as Houston (and heading on to Ranier later this year) and lots of learning about what I can accomplish, about climbing generally, and great to see people doing what they love. Why else would you climb a mountain.

]]> http://www.very.fm/mt-washington/feed 0 http://www.very.fm/short-pyramid http://www.very.fm/short-pyramid#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:58:58 +0000 John Pasmore http://www.very.fm/?p=1457

Quick hike, got out of City with good friend (@nimanyc) to Pyramid Mountain (hill). Was looking for something fast and this fit. It’s sometimes a challenge to get good info on hikes though a stop at EMS, Tent Trails or REI can add helpful human perspective. I went with the Web.

I like the App Oh Ranger that certainly shows what’s close and a couple of sites like MountainZone.com and LocalHikes.com can give some color on what to expect. In any event, the goal was/is simply to get out more. Will find the “perfect” hike at some point I’m sure. A step in that direction is to head out with the good folks at OutdoorBound.com who making getting out of the City easy, pushing the whole experience toward perfection. Yesterday we Zip-car’d it to Pyramid and that cost about the same as an Outdoor Bound day trip.

Not a big gear-fest type hike — day hike/small mis-named hill was not very demanding. Got to break in an old pair of Raichle boots (now a part of Mammut) that I don’t use much. Went out to CES and picked up the simple phone solution SmartSleeves that’s an easy way to keep your smart-phone smart and dry. But didn’t need those as we saw only very occasional flurry.

My iPhone GPS app of choice, iTopoMaps, was replaced by Google Earth for the day as their Topo quad/map for this one section of the country had a “hole” in it so was useless though not needed. Was probably in the 20’s temp-wise so we didn’t stop for lunch — did the loop in about 3 hours — probably 5-6 miles (with a few wrong turns).

For a 40 minute drive was good to get out and is one way to have extended uninterrupted conversation while replacing crowds and cabs with trees. For a few hours.

Some experiences seem to have happened in someone else’s life. Sailing across the Caribbean Sea was monotonous and I tried to put that to video with long slices of rolling waves across thirteen or so days.

That we were passing by the grace of the planet was obvious as both the propellor shaft followed by the generator broke (preceded by the Spinaker and VHF antenna). I wasn’t really happy about that at the time and I gained a much better understanding of the word “mutiny” as my faith in the leadership (there were three of us) was sorely tested.

In any case, I probably thought someday I would be sitting at some desk, like now, needing a reminder that there are other places.

Day hike is a good chance to shake-out the gear closet for the new season. We headed to Harriman on Sunday, but the NorthEast suffered through a freak snowstorm on Saturday — there was 10 inches of snow on the ground. Was in the 40’s so comfortable given the effort — but here’s what worked or didn’t:

Marmot Cervino Jacket:

Was fine — no issues — am a little down on Gore-Tex at the moment, but this was not that wet. Fine.

Garmont Vetta Light Boots

Better than fine. Gore-Tex lined but I think boots are a better spot than a rain-coat. Gore will wet-out at some point — fellow hiker had these and was pretty pleased: http://www.sealskinz.com/

OverBoard Pack

Got this for water/sailing — wasn’t sure if it would really work as a “daypack” did fine – wouldn’t ask much more from it, but have a NYC apartment and my wife doesn’t really support the level of gear in the house as is — not getting separate packs for each effort. Pack worked well.

Nothing critical missing. Above are the big things and they’re good to go. Probably 25 pieces of stuff if you count each/every thing carried or worn. Good start — looking to pry myself out and away as much as possible across the winter. Soft circled Mt Washington if I can’t get way North.

Executive Retreat for 7 days on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.  Cruising is a special experience and I understand what people love about it.

Sailing is all about self-reliance. Using your experience and judgement to keep you, your crew and your hull on top of the waves. With cruising that’s pretty much covered for you. In fact, cruising has to be one of the most safe and secure ways to travel. That is what some would love about the experience, that it’s a self contained adventure — perfect for large groups where you just need to decide what time to get up, where to eat (there are 25 choices), and what activity fits your mood.

At VoyageTV cruising is going to become a larger part of our travel offers and we’re testing a 30 second “interactive” spot on Cablevision this coming week. For all those cruisers out there we’ll have some very impressive offers.

There’s a saying that goes something like, “A bad day on the water beats a good day in the office.”

What Worked

(in order of critical need)

- Window seat + sound sleeper seated directly in front who won’t object to seat being kicked

- Def check main bag — don’t want to chase the small person and leave bag unattended – u should be able to “run” with all bags and small person if needed.

- Computer with hours of favorite programs + DVD player

- External battery for computer (I have one of these and we arrived in London with juice: https://www.hypershop.com/)

- Well timed bathroom breaks (before leaving house (5am), before boarding (8am), mid-flight (11am), before landing) – had complete change of clothes in carry-on but that nightmare scenario never ran

- Snacks he likes

- iPad (with planning iPad could replace computer – but i needed it for work anyway)

- Water

- Couple DVD’s that he can watch over and over (Lotte from Gadgetville worked great) – only brought 5 DVD’s as opposed to his library

- Sanitizing wipes (http://ow.ly/6oeWx)

- Bring extra headphones as failure could be an issue (lost one pair to biting wire)

- Sweatshirt was key

What was Unnecessary

- Blanket from home (def more hygienic, but was at bottom of bag, and the seats on plane are just as bad as blanket)

What I Could Have Used More Of

- Properly charged battery on return flight (could have been critical error as UK power adapter didn’t really charge battery at same rate – saved by Virgin’s movie selection)

- More snacks on return flight (and juice – UK juice tastes different) – familiar snacks are critical – for the whole trip really, my parents used to travel with peanut butter and jelly

- Sanitizing wipes (http://ow.ly/6oeWx)

- Could have used some normal wipes as well (not critical – napkins r fine)

- Graphic books (book on way home was engaging, better than video, but short)

What I Would Do Different

- Not sure I would take Paddington Express from Heathrow — if you know a car service (as opposed to a Cab) the financial result is about the same 35 pounds one way via car.

We both would have appreciated his mom’s presence.  I’m sure he was slightly concerned for his own well-being as usually I have some assistance to insure certain levels of discomfort aren’t breached. We did good.

I was looking forward to my first day-trip with Outdoor Bound this weekend. A quick trip up to Lake Skenonto. Busier work gets, the greater the challenge to get out so I was looking forward to even a quick trip upstate. Then there’s the weather. Irene. Interrupted.

In retrospect we could not really have pulled off the day-hike. Even though the storm was scheduled for Sunday, the rain arrived Saturday and the drive and the hike would have been more hell than it would have been worth.

The weather turned and instead of hiking we were camping — urban camping. My kit is more complete than it probably needs to be due to my never ending adoration of good gear. My gear motivates me out the door at times, just because I want to see it work. This would be indoors.

The drill was pretty simple, be prepared for 3 days of camping. As a sometimes sailor, I wasn’t focused on weather reports like The Weather Channel, instead I like the NOAA reports and Jeff Masters Blog. I understood the high tide scenario in Lower Manhattan (use Aye Tides), but a Cat 1, hitting North Carolina seemed like it would be a bit spent after its interaction with land and then the colder waters after. Having ducked a North Carolina low thanks to a weather router in a 55 foot piece of land (Tayana) en route to St. Martin from New York, I just get the sense that we were safer by many degrees here in NYC in a building built in 1890 with enough steel to create a battleship.

Irene kept her Cat 1 intensity, was certainly no joke and I know many businesses and families have been seriously affected by the storm.  Again, Irene was no joke and for some deadly. In any case, I was thinking one-day of camping. We were ready with food, water, batteries, and light(s). Lately I’m a little less focused on cell/communication — sure we should be ready to make an emergency call, but between my wife and I we have three phones (2 iPhones, 1 Blackberry), 2 computers, and an iPad. In NYC you can pretty much always assume you’re within 100 yards of a person, unlike sailing where you can get very lonely and I always rent a Sat Phone off-shore.

But camping was pretty posh as the lights stayed on and very little gear was actually put to use. My 4 year-old was very impressed with a head-lamp with a red filter which he thought could zap any alien hiding under the bed. But dusting off the gear has me wanting to get out for a some quick trip.

Think I’ll squeeze in an overnight with Outdoor Bound end-of-September. Till then, be at my desk, running over the bridge in the morning, and maybe kayaking in the river if it clears up. And looking at gear…could use a new dive light….