1.25.2009

Cold Days

tMail and The PM spent Saturday in the Blue Hills testing viper venom and scorpion juice over rice. I banged around Jay Peak w/ my brother and did a little xc action while the cold descended. No other field agents have reported back so we suspect a conspiracy is afoot.

Tonight we're to hit -20F again (or thereabouts) and then it's the long, slow, slog to The Bad Boy 2009. I still have no feeling in the back of my right hand. It's pretty weird. It's a naturally insensitive part of the body, but it feel like dead skin. If we're ever attacked by mosquitos, I'll distract them with my hand while everyone else quickly dons gloves.

I'm going to keep tabs on the USFS avi bulletin over the couse of the week. Things are slowly stabilizing and with the warming temps over the next five days I'm hoping that we can consider a Hillman's ascent. (Hillman's Photo at right was taken on 1/19, courtesy of Tuckerman.Org. In the meantime, here's a lovely thought from today's report:

Bitter air is still creating challenging conditions on Mt. Washington. A fair amount of people were Summit bound yesterday as temperatures plummeted to -22 F (-30 C) and winds gusted over 100 mph (161 kph). I'm not sure how everyone made out but seeing as my pager didn't go off last night, I commend everyone for their ability to deal.

9 comments:

  1. Looks like we could have a Nor'easter moving in on Wednesday depending on track and speed could determine amount of snowfall.

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  2. The next 24 hours will determine the snowfall. Looks like you guys in the boston area will get the brunt of it...

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  3. I have assumed the grab ankle position...PM will be stranded in Chicago...

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  4. ouch. but in a way it would be pretty cool if we were dumped on by the storm (on the summits). i'd like an extremely deep snow and high-wind day on the bad boy. we've had almost every other combination of conditions.

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  5. MZ if we do a Hillmans ascent I think we need to have a clear day on the summits. If we are in the soup people are not familiar with that route and it may get dicey if people need to turn around and retreat...some may end up in the bowl, some in a avalance, some in the avalance on a tree top and some with poop in their pants.

    Where is the change point on Hillmans and shelter?

    Food update...

    The outsourcing of Lasagna went extremely well (all approved by FDA) and for an additional fee I was able to get the following for Friday and Saturday:

    2 Lasagna's total
    2 pounds of sausage
    16 meatballs

    Tmail The Outsourcer

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  6. I want Darth Maul to come out of Lions Head and breath fire on us?

    http://www.ice.org/unzipped/2001/10/to-Darth-Maul.jpg

    MD please send all requests of what you would like me to carry for you by Wednesday night 6pm Easter Standard Time.

    For a small additional fee I will take stuffed animals, binky blankets and cement/stone tools.

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  7. with the winter storm coming for wednesday, it's unlikely that snowpack stability will return by saturday.

    but to address some of your valid concerns:

    * i don't think that the whole group should take the same route. i'm not even sure that splitting the group is a good idea, but we tend to split up anyway. i was just thinking that if conditions permitted, that i'd go via hillman's along with anybody else that wanted to.

    * last change of clothes is at the hermit lake cabin. the route is not particularly windy - it's pretty well protected for the entire ascent until you crest the ridge. the pace is slowed naturally due to calf-ache and you wouldn't need goggles until you crest the ridge so getting warm isn't a problem.

    * it's not a bad route in low visibility, believe it or not. the route is really obvious (esp if somebody is familiar with it) and once you crest, as long as you don't go steeply downhill, you're heading toward the summit cone (the route does descend gradually toward were you pick up the trail to the summit. the biggest (and only) issue as far as i'm concerned is snowpack stability.

    * good visiblity adds to the drama. in low visibility you just feel like you're climing the north slide of the tri's.

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  8. I was just reading NOAA we are getting 6 to 8 plus inches snow starting Tuesday late night and going through the day and night on Wednesday...Gorham, NH is saying 6+ I am sure the snowload will add to instability.

    Another interesting thing is the avalanche report still said Sunday and with everything showing Moderate Avalanche Danger. I am not sure they updated today because I would thing the verbiage would mention something about the upcoming storm but it doesn't say anything. Tomorrow may solidfy some things but with the approaching storm who knows what will happen.

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  9. I'm resigned into thinking that the bad boy weekend is a bad time to try and do a hillmans run....although I have full confidence in our usual clan, a few folks could easily get in over their head and the group too large for one or two leaders to effectively manage.

    Of course I've never been on Hillmans so what do I know but as much as I like evryone in the Bad Boy group, it quickly adds up to assuming a lot of responsibility for a group who likes to do things their way.

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