Recent content by hikerbrian

We did Mansfield from Underhill a few months ago, on Memorial Day weekend, up Cowles, down Sunset Ridge, as others have suggested. It was a GREAT route for that mountain, you're above the trees for a lot of the route. Memorial Day was a beautiful weekend this year, and we expected heavy crowds...

Thanks both - that's really helpful info, Lone Stranger.

Well that's what I would have thought, but there's no field or drop down for 'number of days' or anything like that. All you can do is add a site that is available to your cart, and then checkout. So if I reserve Abol 16 for 8/2, I add that to the cart, but 8/3, 8/4 etc say 'not available...' I...

How do you reserve a Baxter campsite (at Roaring Brook, for example) for more than 1 day? Reservations are on 4-month rolling basis, so today I can reserve a site for August 2. But what if I want to stay for a few nights? It looks like you can only reserve one day at a time. Do I have to try and...

I had the opportunity to take out the TSL snowshoes last weekend. A 3-day Presi-traverse backpack - so I was pretty heavy with the pack, and of course the Presis were their rocky and icy selves. Anyway, I really liked them. Getting them on and off was unbelievably easy. Joyous, even. Grip was...

I think the tired and inaccurate stereotype about women and empathy doesn't add anything to anything. Unironically, it's the author's dad whose empathy breaks the author out of her own cold disinterest. From the article: It wasn’t until I sent the article to my father in New Hampshire that I...

Using batteries to power cars always struck me as analogous to having to pack out your poop on a backpacking trip - even when the batteries are low or dead, you've got all that weight to drag around. My house growing up (NH, built in the 70s) also had baseboard electric heating, but everyone in...

Different person. So actually there were three fatalities in a short amount of time on that loop. The suicide got mentioned on FB because some folks came across the aftermath in one way or another, but it didn't make the media/press.

Very interesting thread. I've thought about this a bit too - the use case for a mountaineering axe out west is obvious (the Cascade volcanoes, glaciated terrain in N. Cascades, some of the CO 14ers in winter, etc) where you've got these big, steep, open snow fields and you need a way to...

Do different TSL models have different buckle systems? I got my kids the Symbioz Hyperflex, and I can't figure out how anyone would have trouble getting these on and off - in fact I got them because I figured I'd be putting them on for them and didn't want to fiddle around for long. Adjust for...

I confess, my love of the AMC faltered under John Judge. I remain incredibly thankful to all of the volunteers (mainly NH chapter folks from whom I learned all of the fundamentals) who literally made my life better by passing on their knowledge. But the direction of the organization hasn't been...

Does anyone here think a map and compass (and requisite knowledge) would have saved this young lady? Navigating by map and compass in heavy wind and low visibility above treeline is extremely challenging. And unless she knew exactly where she was, M&C would have only given her a general...

That's what I was thinking too. Purely speculative on my part, but my guess is she was quite comfortable up to Greenleaf hut, maybe even sweaty. As she ascended above the hut, perhaps she began to realize conditions were not so good but figured she'd tag Lafayette and come back for Flume another...

This does not look good. I poked my head out the door before I went to bed last night (in MA!) and it had that smell and feel to it - winter. All I can think about is that section on Franconia Ridge where everyone turns right to head down Falling Waters, and if you want to continue along the...

TEO, I'm in agreement on pretty much all of that, even if our underlying philosophies are different. I do wonder if the noise from NH about paying for rescues is a case of a vocal minority being, well, vocal. I suspect most in the tourism industry want to preserve their businesses, and they...