Let's be careful out there this week.

[peakbagger]

Its federal and state holiday this week, June 19th, and its not even officially summer yet but the forecast weather is going to be brutal this week even up north. $ days of 100 plus heat indexes are nothing to mess around with. My limited observations and looking at the water dashboard for the whites https://dashboard.waterdata.usgs.gov/app/nwd/en/ most stations are well below normal or with record lows. That means that normally reliable water sources in early summer may not be as reliable.

Probably a nice week to visit Ice Gulch or Mahoosuc Notch.

 

[DayTrip]

It's amazing after all that rain this Spring how quickly everything dried up and water levels dropped. I did my annual alpine flower, Mount Washington lawns loop yesterday and most of the spots that have traditionally had water were flowing fine though. Weren't any flowers anywhere but water wasn't a problem....

 

[NHChris]

Heat and hiking might not mix this week.

Here's a story from Greece....

 

[Salty]

That means that normally reliable water sources in early summer may not be as reliable.

On the upside, makes for easy Pemi crossings.

 

[DayTrip]

A few years ago I read an interesting article about a famous 100 mile road race out in the desert in the SW United States (I forget the name or exact location. The ole memory is a shell of its former self now). Temps are routinely in the 100's and there is a section of road where everyone runs on the lane striping so the soles on their shoes don't get soft and tacky from melting because it is so hot.

They were interviewing a woman (pretty sure it was a female) who routinely does very well in this race (I think a multiple winner) and she had a very interesting comment. She equated the heat to altitude. Your body is not used to it so you have to acclimate in order to adjust and perform. She set up a multi week training program much like getting ready for an expedition. She made it a point to do all of her conditioning runs in high heat and incorporated rest much like the "camp" process on Everest and similar peaks where you go up and back from different altitudes. She credited this training process with her success. Thought there was a lesson there for regular hikers.

EDIT: The race is the Badwater 135, a 217 km race which starts in Death Valley and is held in JULY. It's freakin nuts that people can do this. Pam Reed and Judy Overholtzer are women mentioned as winning three times each. I feel like Pam may have been the person who's interview I read.

 

[BillyGr]

She equated the heat to altitude. Your body is not used to it so you have to acclimate in order to adjust and perform. She set up a multi week training program much like getting ready for an expedition. She made it a point to do all of her conditioning runs in high heat and incorporated rest much like the "camp" process on Everest and similar peaks where you go up and back from different altitudes. She credited this training process with her success. Thought there was a lesson there for regular hikers.

That also explains the issue in general - like we see these days many of the schools closing (or doing half days) for these hot days, which was never done in the past. Likely because the kids at those times were acclimated to it, as they were outside more and may have even not had air conditioning at home, or in cars or such.
The same thing occurred years back in Alaska - the guide (who was from Florida) was wearing much heavier clothing than those of us touring from New York, as she was obviously acclimated to the warmer Florida weather, and thus it felt colder to her.

 

[DayTrip]

That also explains the issue in general - like we see these days many of the schools closing (or doing half days) for these hot days, which was never done in the past. Likely because the kids at those times were acclimated to it, as they were outside more and may have even not had air conditioning at home, or in cars or such.
The same thing occurred years back in Alaska - the guide (who was from Florida) was wearing much heavier clothing than those of us touring from New York, as she was obviously acclimated to the warmer Florida weather, and thus it felt colder to her.

I did some fishing around on YouTube after this post and found several videos that cover this race. It is definitely an extreme contest. I didn't realize there was so much vertical gain in this race - 14,600 ft. I assumed it was a flat run but it goes over three mountains, finishing at the trailhead for Mount Whitney. There is a 17 mile uphill stretch on one of the mountains!

 

[Yury]

I didn't realize there was so much vertical gain in this race - 14,600 ft.

AFAIK elevation gain is much lower.
This race, if I am not mistaken goes from Badwater only to Whitney Portal rather than to Whitney summit.

 

[DayTrip]

AFAIK elevation gain is much lower.
This race, if I am not mistaken goes from Badwater only to Whitney Portal rather than to Whitney summit.

The nominal change is about 8,000 ft but the up and down adds to the overall vertical. I thought the race was run entirely in the flats of the desert so the number surprised me.

 

[OldEric]

The original intent of that race was to go from the lowest point in the continental US to the highest, The distance was 140+ miles and one of the shoe companies came pt with a model 142 or something close to that. They cut out the Whitney summit and ended the race at Whitney Portal after too many close calls..

 

[DayTrip]

The original intent of that race was to go from the lowest point in the continental US to the highest, The distance was 140+ miles and one of the shoe companies came pt with a model 142 or something close to that. They cut out the Whitney summit and ended the race at Whitney Portal after too many close calls..

Yah when I was reading various articles I noticed that change. That must have been crazy (OK even crazier) going all the way to the Whitney summit.

Found a lot of crazy ultra races looking this up. There is one in Queens, NY where they run the same 52 mile course 52 days in a row. Can't even begin to imagine the mental stamina necessary to do that, or the physical conditioning. That must absolutely wreck your body.

 

[ImYourHuckleberry]

I did the Pemi Loop this Mon-Wed and it was brutal for me, although plenty of other people seemed to have no issues with the heat and humidity. I drank 6.5 liters yesterday and was still peeing orange.

 

[peakbagger]

I did the Pemi Loop this Mon-Wed and it was brutal for me, although plenty of other people seemed to have no issues with the heat and humidity. I drank 6.5 liters yesterday and was still peeing orange.

Wow, you definitely picked an interesting "spring hike"

 

[BillyGr]

Yah when I was reading various articles, I noticed that change. That must have been crazy (OK even crazier) going all the way to the Whitney summit.

Found a lot of crazy ultra races looking this up. There is one in Queens, NY where they run the same 52-mile course 52 days in a row. Can't even begin to imagine the mental stamina necessary to do that, or the physical conditioning. That must absolutely wreck your body.

Along with any additional mental stress when/if parts of that 52-mile course are shared with others (seeing as how Queens is not exactly the Adirondacks or the Catskills, so it seems difficult to have a 52-mile route that doesn't interface with traffic at least one or thirty times)

 

[ImYourHuckleberry]

Wow, you definitely picked an interesting "spring hike"

This is what happens when you have to request vacation days ahead of time.

 

[peakbagger]

Now that the weather pattern has shifted, surprisingly no rescue reports on the NH F&G website.,

 

[Ear Drum]

When I drove north through Franconia Notch on Wednesday afternoon, there was a sudden rain storm, in contrast to the hot and humid conditions to the south - nothing unusual about rain in the mountains. What caught me by surprise was a very large bolt of lightning, come down toward the ridge, probably in the vicinity of Mt Liberty or Flume. I was just north of Lincoln and this was ahead of me. I wouldn't want to be up on any exposed ridge in a lightning storm.

 

[ImYourHuckleberry]

When I drove north through Franconia Notch on Wednesday afternoon, there was a sudden rain storm, in contrast to the hot and humid conditions to the south - nothing unusual about rain in the mountains. What caught me by surprise was a very large bolt of lightning, come down toward the ridge, probably in the vicinity of Mt Liberty or Flume. I was just north of Lincoln and this was ahead of me. I wouldn't want to be up on any exposed ridge in a lightning storm.

I left Galehead Hut at 6:30 AM on Wed so I could get over the high stuff and into the valley early because there was a possibility of electrical storms in the afternoon. I could hear constant thunder to the west on the very lowest part of the Bondcliff trail and all the way out to Lincoln Woods.

Edit: to the west not east!

 

[egilbe]

My wife and I drove to the Saco Rivr Ranger station Thursday to escape the heat and buy my life time senior citizen pass, mostly to get discounts on Federal Camgrounds. We went from a high of 103 in North Conway to a low of 68 North of Franconia Notch. The thunderstorm was pretty cool. Drove over the Kanc and at the summit viewpoint it was 88 with a nice breeze, drove down to Lincoln and stopped at the Mountain Wanderer to buy the new 52 WAV book and talked a bit to Steve. Ended up buying a couple T-shirts supporting the Pemi SAR and an AMC 4000 foot sticker while chatting with him. I guess it was my day to spend money.

 

[Ken MacGray]

drove down to Lincoln and stopped at the Mountain Wanderer to buy the new 52 WAV book

Thank you for the support! (The book isn't so new anymore; I published the 2nd edition in 2020.)