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If you're going to deal with the weight and bulk of a winter bag, make it a real winter bag. You can always unzip if you get hot. I definitely wouldn't go lighter than a -10 bag for winters in Maine, and even then I'd be watching the forecast. In my experience, you take the bag's rating and...

As rocks go, limestone is downright soft. I suspect your friend just got unlucky with bad quality control on the batch of rubber that went into his boots. For me, the best lightweight hiking boot is usually a trail runner -- but it depends where you hike. Lots of rain or wet grass? Chance...

Yeah, the slopes are pretty bad in the area. I drew circles on the map and it is legal to camp 200 ft due north of the galehead summit, where the slopes are as good as you'll get (but not exactly good for tents). There's also a lot dense evergreens in that area. You might be better off with a...

The north trailhead has a big parking lot on Totten Pond Rd, across from Veterans Memorial skating rink. Google Maps shows the north end of the park road at "Prospect Hill Park", the parking lot is alongside it; you can also search for "Prospect Hill Playground." There are several other trails...

You've already named most of the obvious hills around Boston. I would add Prospect Hill in Waltham. I like to start from the north parking lot, cross the grassy field and follow the (somewhat eroded) trail up the middle of what was once a ski slope. At the top of that slope, rejoin the road...

Where in Vermont? What size and shape of shell? Did it seem to have been there long? Are you confident there were no others nearby? I can't think of an explanation for a single, intact shell that makes much sense. It's not a fossil (I did some fun diving into Vermont geology - there's more...

PS Excellent job telling the story. One of the hardest jobs for a writer is knowing when the narrator can keep quiet to let suspense build or to allow other points of view to be heard. Adding the radio reports without any comment was masterful.

Nothing changed except the herd path and the placement of some unofficial markers. The summit was known all along, it was a question of which bump matched the map. Not easy before GPS, especially as the woods have gotten thicker over the years. It was not uncommon for hikers (myself included)...

It's not clear to me that the rules *have* changed. The lists were originally made based on the best available maps. It's been quite a while since I paid any attention, but the rules as I recall them went something like this: *above 4000' based on USGS maps. * at least 200' prominence based...

I gotta say I have mixed feelings about the guides. Granted you weren't completely forthcoming about your symptoms, and at some point they did overrule you and get you down, but they could have done more, earlier. Short-roping a stumbling client on a traverse is some cowboy ****, and I about...

It was news to me too, source was an in-person conversation with the ranger inside the tower. He was quite relieved about the helicopter, as opposed to backpacking steel beams up the trail. I didn't ask for details about the new tower's design (though other parts of the conversation implied...

The current tower was built in 1923, so it'll be exactly a hundred years old. Get your selfies while it's here. The ranger on duty in the tower told me the new tower will be brought up by helicopter in a single piece. They're also bringing in a new watchman's cabin.

Nothing impressive in terms of quantity, but they're coming ripe about now. In the past week or so I've had nibbles on Mt Washington, Cannon, Mt Cardigan, and the Blue Hills. Alpine cranberries will be ready soon, and I've seen a few bunchberries starting to turn red as well. Last year I...

If somebody has a severe anaphylactic reaction on top of Eisenhower, or anywhere else that's not right on the road near a town, it's likely not going to be a rescue. Those who die of bee sting usually die in about fifteen minutes. A less severe reaction may take up to thirty minutes to...

Gas is not high on my list of worries. I no longer commute to work, so my car expenses generally are very low. (Or were, until my car died over the weekend. Bad time to be looking for a replacement. I've been putting it off for months, hoping the pandemic supply chain issues would go away.)...

"Huge"? It's beefier than a Blackhawk, smaller than a Pave Low. It's a quarter the weight of an Mi-6.

Trail work involves a lot of manual labor, most of it from volunteers. $1.1M over five years -> $220K per year. Granted most of the work is seasonal, let's say six months. Purely for illustrative purchases, if you paid New Hampshire's median wage you'd get about seven people for your $1.1M...

I bought a Mountain Hardwear down jacket in January of 2007. It's been slowly losing down (mostly through the lining of the pockets, but sometimes during krummholz-induced trauma). I'm thinking it's time to start looking at a replacement. Key features: 1) thick down - maximum warmth 2)...

There are a few waterfalls that don't require much of a detour from the ridge road, this is the best time of year to visit them. Gould trail goes right past one of them and is a nice straightforward hike.

Lei was a VFTT member before moving to Washington a few years ago. I just heard she was released from the hospital. https://www.koin.com/news/oregon/mt-hood-climbers-identified-after-accident/amp/