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1-9-13 When I last hiked this mountain I had parked at Equinox Inn. This time I drove past it, took the first right onto Taconic Rd, and at the end took a right onto Prospect. Take a left onto Union and there's a nice parking area at the trailhead. Equinox looks to get tons of activity...

1-8-13 Parked at the Ellen ski area. I started up to the climbers right of the double chair (sugar run) to lower crackerjack/tumbler to the top of the express quad (map: http://www.sugarbush.com/images/skiandride/trailmap0910large.jpg). Here a couple of ski patrollers recommended I take...

1-7-13 Parked at the plowed area at the end of the road to Underhill State Park--pretty tricky with 2WD and no snow tires! There's another parking area a mile or two down the road if you struggle up the big hill. Laura Cowles looked to be broken out a few days before but there was a few inches...

12-23-12 A few inches of light snow fell overnight and there wasn't much more than that on the ground down low. We weren't paying attention as we cruised along the logging road and missed the uphill turn for the standard route. Despite this we continued until we got to a small stream crossing...

12-22-12 Originally we had planned on a traverse from Unknown Pond thru Starr King but we had a few people drop out and only had 2 of us to break trail (though from Bunnel Notch Trail jct to the summit a couple pairs of snowshoes had been through before the freeze which helped for that mile or...

Thanks for posting. The text alone is incredibly moving. With the visuals, personal videos, diagrams, interviews it's a must read. I came across Saugstad's review by chance on backcountry this summer when looking into avy gear. Powerful stuff.

I'm looking to snag a few NEHH-winter peaks this weekend while staying in Gorham before some of these peaks become the inevitable spruce trap heaven. saturday 12-22-12 a small group of us are doing horn/bulge/cabot/weeks/waumbek, open invitation if you're up for the ~20 miles of light...

I'm sure many of us have read the classic Annapurna. Sad to hear Maurice Herzog passed today: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/maurice-herzog-dead_n_2302747.html

Being a big fan of type 2 fun, I like the Mark Twight quote. Along the lines of Tom_Murphy's post when faced with dangerous exposure or something especially taxing I'll remind myself, "I'm having a good time." But more in a facetious tone, reminding myself hey a**hole you love this stuff...

Yikes, that sounds pretty rough and I suspect there's a great many others with similar experiences. Some of the AAI guides I talked to this summer told stories about a good number of winter courses that never left Paradise due to high avi forecasts. But despite all that you can pull up the...

I have abundant free time beginning in January hence the slightly early-season plan but I'm planning on flying out to Sea-Tac to meet a friend and head down to attempt Shasta via Casaval Ridge mid to late Jan. I figured while I was out there it'd be nice to see if conditions and weather were...

12/1/12-12/2/12 One of my few goals for this upcoming winter is to do a single day pemi loop so I figured breaking a loop up into 2 days and staying at the Garfield lean-to would be a good training hike and a pseudo-leisurely way of going about it. Everything's relative I suppose cuz it was far...

12/1/12-12/2/12 Light snow fell all day on Saturday. A couple inches covered the trail until working up Bondcliff, where microspikes helped a little bit with traction as the snow depth grew to maybe 3-6". No ice/snow drift issues on Bondcliff. Some deep drifts heading up into treeline en...

I don't mean to thread drift since Beth has reiterated the desire to take a course. I've taken a 5 day mountaineering course as well and the points the guides made I could easily point out as I walked back upslope watching other people work on self-arrest, but it certainly helped having read...

Good suggestion. In fact I would go so far as to say skip the course and go with a friend to a good spot and just practice, bringing along a copy of the aforementioned passage. An instructor can coach you and tell you you're doing it wrong but so can a friend who's watching and working on the...

I hadn't seen any recent reports for the Osceolas from the north (Tripoli approach conditions: http://trailsnh.com/redirect.php?report=41555). As others have mentioned there's a few crawl under blowdowns by the summit of the east peak on the Kanc side. The climbers right variation in the...

I only needed OH, Zealand and the Bonds but I decided this would be a good, challenging way to finish. I definitely wasn't going for efficiency, mostly looking to rack up the mileage and elevation gain but also for it to be a hike that could be done in about 24h or less. Thanks natron! Give me...

Ha! I didn't think I was that old. Thanks though, it actually was a lot of fun especially given the great weather. Great sights, hours of good conversation and laughs, and a plethora of exercise-induced endorphins...not to mention the sympathetic looks we got heading up Owl's Head when we said...

Last weekend (10-26-12) I set out with a buddy to attempt to finish off my 4 seasons list with a brutal 'day-hike' to finish: LW-->franconia ridge-->garfield-->owl's head-->galehead/twins-->FWT up hale-->zealand-->bonds to LW. On paper it would be 56+ miles, with ~18,000 feet vertical gain...

11-3/4-12 -Headed up Hale Brook late on Sat night, light snow and mud on the lower section. A few inches deep higher up but microspikes not necessary. -Lend-a-hand to twinway had one blowdown, was expecting much worse. The trail was pretty snowy/muddy/sloppy. A couple of drifts of snow...