Author Archives: ethatcher89

Tranquility

tranquility means :

The noun tranquility means “a state of peace and quiet,” like the tranquility you feel at the shore of a quiet lake or inside a beautiful cathedral.

Alex embodying tranquility, at the top of Tranquility.

Now that my fall climbing team has come to an end I have a few days of reprieve before heading off to Red Rocks. Among my list of must do’s before leaving and not returning until “winter” was one day of required climbing for my self. Luckily Alex was psyched for the same.

So in synch we even dressed the same! Mooney Mountain Guides logo’d Mammut Ultimate Light Hoodie’s

We went to the South Buttress of Whitehorse, which has some of my favorite climbing in North Conway. The good thing about the South Butt right now is that it’s south facing. The bad thing about the South Butt most of the season, is that its south facing. Because polished granite only feels greaser in the sun, and I work a lot in the fall and spring, I rarely get to climb here.

Views of Cranmore, Echo Lake and more from the South Butt

We were able to quickly tick off Hotter Than Hell (5.9 face climbing), Inferno (5.8 hand crack) and Tranquility (5.10 glorious finger locks).

My Lady Slippers, and Alex following one of the cleanest hand cracks known to Conway Granite

With a twin rope set up you can easily zip around here combining climbs up to and off of the large ledge in the middle, and get back down easily in one 60 M rap for each section.

Mammut 7.5 Twilights felt super light on long pitches and allowed us easy full 60 meter rappels. Coupled with Bionic Screw gates and the Wall alpine belay device, we were light and fast.

After leading Tranquility, which just flowed incredibly well for me, I hollered down to Alex that I got in that “Flow State”, a moment of being experienced by climbers, skiers, surfers etc. where you simply ride the rock, the wave or the snow, and seem to effortlessly work with nature to tick off your objective. Its’s a state of Euphoria, and that combined with a warm blue bird day and a killer granite crag all to ourselves made for a day of Tranquility. Rightfully so.

Alex starting up the final pitch of Inferno

The only blemish on an other wise perfect day lay at the base. A monument to human wastefulness in the form of a golf course replete with 5 star hotel, swimming pool, luxury housing complex and engines of various lawn machines buzzing in the back ground all day long.

Alex topping out with views of the Golf course below.

November Wild Card

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It’s pretty incredible how much of a wild card November can be for climbing in NH. Today was sunny with a light breeze and I climbed more than comfortably in a long sleeve shirt and a wind breaker. but backtrack to last year around this time (Nov. 14th) and I was doing a wholly different kind of climbing on Cannon…

Starting up the Dike in Mid November

And throw it back 2 days shy of 2 years and I was hypothermic doing this in a blizzard!

Matt Ritter on a wintery early November Ascent of Cannonade on Cannon Cliff

Matt Ritter and Erik Thatcher on a Wintery ascent of the Cannonade Buttress on Cannon. PC: Dustin Portzline

But back to today, having the cliff to ourselves but for the military planes blasting through the notch below us, was exceptional. The Whitney Gilman Ridge is a climb I’ve done more times than I can remember, but it remains an exceptional spot to bring friends, clients, or in the case of today, a former students, for a first real taste of exposure and alpine rock…

I was psyched to be able to share the climb with Jack, one of the first students I’ve had at Holderness who really got psyched for climbing. Getting to link up with those students after their holderness career is a pretty exceptional feeling.

Bluebird. The clean line of the Witney Gilman Ridge cast against the shadow behind and the blue sky above is awesome

Jack on P1

Jack on P2

Jack on P3

Jack just after the crux “Pipe Pitch” Move P4

Jack at the top of P4

Sunshine from the South

Jack on the house of cards section of the final pitch

Clear view of the Rockfall from two summers ago…let loose from the white rock in the upper left corner, and obliterated the trees that use to be in the lower right

Fall

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The end of summer and through the fall has been chaotic. Lots of coaching once The Holderness School year started, and free time spent in the garden, and even a bit climbing. With not having the time to dedicate to projecting, most of my recreational climbing has been put into alpine-esque multi pitch routes.

Going all the way back to August, my good friend Geoff and I did a mini road trip to Katahdin, the premier Alpine climbing area in the east. As a freshman in college i hiked the classic knife’s edge traverse. Along the way I snapped this picture of climbers on the most climbed feature in the Cirque, the Armadillo.

Climbers on the Armadillo

Since then I’ve wanted to go back and climb it. Geoff, having gone to college not far from here has done the armadillo and many other adventure climbs in the in glacial cirques on the mountain. On the hike in two other climbers caught up to us and we chatted the rest of the way to Chimney Pond. Luckily they were nice folks and we were easily able to share the route with them. Geoff and I decided to approach the climb from the left hand side, gaining the top of the large flake by a 5.9 crack called Wind in the Willows. We did an opening 5.8-ish Chimney pitch to get to the base. After wards I realized there was a picture of this chimney in Yankee Rock & Ice. It was one of the original routes on the Armadillo formation, dating back to the mid thirties!

The route in its entirety was about 400-500′ of technical climbing followed by another few hundred feet of fourth class ridge scrambling to where it intersected the Knifes edge.

Hiking into Chimney Pond after ~3 miles on the trail.

Following a stream bed up into the cirque. The armadillo is the large pyramid shaped buttress in the sun

The start of the technical approach, the headwall looming above

The Armadillo from above the first technical step, with a few hundred feet of 4th class ‘schwacking to go

Opening 5.8 chimney, part of the original route from the 1930’s

Geoff in the gorgeous crack of Wind in the Willows

Looking back down the upper hand crack at the top of the flake.

The boys from Belfast coming up behind us

Geoff on the ridge as we 4th class to the Knifes Edge

Katahdin in a cloud bank, as seen from our campground

In addition to Katahdin I’ve been spending a fair number of days on Cannon. I’ve been up the Ridge twice with two groups of friends as Batchelor parties. Had a fun outing on the VMC Direct Direct with Alexa, another on Vertigo with Alex, and pre work laps on Moby with James and Weisner’s with Geoff. Its great being able to call this cliff a crag, and walk up to do a half day of dragging on the awesome granite. Or, in some cases, the not so awesome granite.

Alexa in the P2 corner, VMC DD

Alexa reaching the P2 belay VMC DD

Alexa going for the harder, direct version of P3 VMC DD

Rappelling the line…

Alex on the Pendulum, Vertigo

Alex about to snatch the hold on Vertigo

Alex eyeing the infamous Half-moon crack on Vertigo

Doing the finger crack variation

Rapelling Vertigo, right over the gorgeous 5.9 finger crack

Approaching Moby Grape after some fresh rockfall about a week prior

Sport climber on crack. Fresh rock fall DZ on the left

The Sweetness. I’ve refined my kit for all this alpine climbing. Super light Mammut Twilight ropes (7.5), quadruple length Dynema sling for quad anchors and light weight lockers and belay device.

Being goofy on Cannon, twerking with exposure

James Otey on Cannon

Geoff approaching the slabs. As per usual there was some fresh rock in the talus

Looking up the shared finish of Weisners and lakeview. To the right is the rock scar from the Old Man rock fall, along with reinforced bars from the attempt to hold him in place.

Loose rock sitting on a ledge on the slabs. possibly from the Old Man rock fall.

Needless to say a good amount of time was also spent harvesting from the garden and farm.

: Diverse mid summer harvest

: Tomatoes galore processed and canned as salsa, Roasted garlic and red pepper tomato sauce, and quartered tomatos

: Bumper crop of squash, over 50 butternuts! and a good collections of potatoes

: our first year harvesting sweet potato

Most time of all has been spent coaching at Holderness. The team has had an exceptional year…pictures on the team website: https://www.holderness.org/rock-climbing

Catching up! Wildwood, Quinn, Acadia & the Farm!

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Its been a busy past couple of weeks with limited access to internet. So here’s a quick run down!

A couple of weeks ago Todd and I did a two day portion of a camp for Wildwood, which is associated with Mass Audubon. The campers where in the White Mountains for a week, doing some hiking and trail work in addition to their two days with us. We had a good time showing them the ropes on Rumney’s single and easier multi pitch terrain!

Last Monday I was joined by Quinn at Rumney. Quinn’s dad takes his sons on various cool adventurous trips, but climbing was a first. Quinn, or “muscles” as his dad called him, lived up to his nick name. For a first day we were able to climb a good number of pitches at a relatively difficult level.

Immediately after climbing with Quinn, my girlfriend and I took off for Acadia in ME. I use to vacation here frequently as a kid, and now my dad care takes at a campground on the island. We had a great visit with him and his wife, along with sentimental, for me, stops in various towns along the ME coast (Bath, Woolwich, Rockland, Camden, Belfast…) and a good time paddling climbing and hiking around the Island.

Paddling around Solmes Sound in my dads home made wooden kayak (and a plastic LL Bean one) We had two gorges mornings on the water accompanied by seals, porpoises, fishing Bald Eagle and Osprey, and some salty Lobstermen

An afternoon and evening of climbing classics. Story of O on the South wall, and some of the fun climbs on the Sea stack at Otter Cliffs!

In between work and vacation I’ve been trying to catch up on work on the farm and more importantly visiting it for nutritional and spiritual sustenance during this hectic time!

Mom sending the Freedom Rangers (Meat Chickens) to freezer camp

: Confused Sheep

: Happy Pigs

: Turkey Walkabout

Mucked out the Sheep Stall. Been getting lots of good food for the pigs this year thanks to Longview Farm and Squam lake Marketplace. The Turkey’s enjoying a little free range

The Three Sisters(Corn, Beans & Squash) working together in a synergistic fashion

Borage volunteers aiding in the 3 sisters garden

4th Of July Climbing Foray

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This past Holiday weekend I was joined by Tracey and Mason. Tracey is an incredibly well traveled climbing, having climbed with Mountain Guides all over the American West, as well as abroad. Work brought her to New England for the the week preceding the holiday, and she decided to sample the climbing here, as well as get her God-son, Mason, on rock for the first time.

Tracey helping Mason with his Figure-Eight’s

Day one for us was at Rumney. The climbing at Rumney is well suited to new climbers. The style on the easier climbs is intuitive even for those with little experience, (grab hold, step on foot hold, pull down and step up, repeat.) while still being engaging and fun for everyone. In addition, the leading and transitions are quick, so a lot of terrain can be covered in a day. We climbed at multiple cliffs, and Tracey even got on the sharp end some to hone her skills.

Mason rocking some classic intro lines at Main Cliff

On day two we stepped it up a notch to experience some multi pitch climbing. Whitehorse is another ideal venue for introducing beginners to multi pitch, and Tracey was excited to sample some of the local Granite.

In the morning we climbed the first 3 pitches of Sea of Holes. This route ramps up from an easy first pitch to an engaging and interestingly featured third pitch. From here we rappelled back to our bags, some water and a well needed snack.

Climbing, and Rappelling the 3rd Pitch

After our brief snack Tracey decided she wanted to practice her multi-ptich skills on another similar climb. The biggest crux to multi-pitch climbing, especially with a party of 3, is the rope management. Standard Direct is a prime route to practice this on. All but one of the anchors are bolts, and the climbing goes quick. In a brief couple of hours Tracey got to manage 3 transitions. The rust from not using those skills in some time quickly wore off. Mason and I had a great time following her up another fun route to about 500′, and she did an excellent job leading the way!

Tracey leading Pitch 4, Standard Direct

Mason enjoying the exposure 400′ up Standard Direct

What would a three day intro to climbing be with out a bit of crack climbing 101? Our third day was necessarily short due to play departures. Luckily, we have access to a great intro crack climbing area in Franconia Notch State Park. Echo Crag is roughly 40′ tall with solid granite and a variety and crack climbing styles all right next to each other. This technique is a bit hard for beginning climbers to grasp as its more reliant on balance, and refined jamming technique. Tracey did superbly well here, as was to be expected, and Mason took the new style of climbing in stride.

Mason Climbing at Echo Crag

This was an especially great weekend of climbing for me. There’s a lot I love about guiding, but sharing the local crags with an out of town climber, and introducing new climbers to the sport, and especially the variety with in it, are two of the best.

Thanks for a great weekend!

Erik

The High Grade Wall

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My buddy Jay has been stoked on trucking out to Marshfield VT to climb on the High Grade wall recently. A funky new .13a went up there with super unique climbing, and since he can effortlessly huck laps on every other 5.13 in the state, it makes it worth the drive for him to get on a new climb! In reality a day trip there is not that absurd. A 4:30 wake up and a 5:15 meeting time get us there right as its warming up, after a pretty drive through central VT and hike through the state forest. The cliff its self is rather long and 200’+ tall at its highest. The high-grade wall is somewhat of a diamond in the rough, A relatively short, clean overhanging section of rock sitting above a small ledge most of the way up the cliff, surrounded by sopping lichen and moss covered slabs. The approach involves jugging up about 200′ of fixed line to the ledge.

Jay on the final Fixed Rope

The bulk of the climbing there happens on a somewhat dizzying cluster of link ups revolving around the mega classic, Groton High Grade 5.13a. This route climbs the overhanging wall on crimps, and then makes a crux move to the arete where the climbing eases. A harder alternative is to move left, instead of right into the arete. The ensuing boulder problem this way is hard enough to merit .13b, then finishing at the same anchors. Finally, High Grade the Hard Way starts right of High Grade with a difficult boulder problem, crosses High Grade at the rest jug before that climb splits, and then tackles the harder boulder problem on the left. When all is said and done that Hard Way clocks in at 5.13d

Alex Descending the Second Fixed Rope

I had an awesome day of climbing there with Alex and Jay this week. After a couple of warm up burns, which happen on the projects for lack alternatives, Alex and Jay started to Crush. Alex sent the High Grade Direct at .13b and then proceeded to make progress on the High Grade and The High Grade the Hard way. Jay had a riveting send of the Hard Way his first rip of the day, just pulling it off and leaving success in doubt until the final hard move. He then used some key beta alex had unlocked to send The High Grade, sneakily getting through a move previously too hard with his wing span. I got reacquainted with The High Grade and progressively worsened on it through my 3 burns. Luckily I also brought a spare rope and my camera, and got some pictures I was excited about. A successful day can come in many forms!

You can click on the first image in any of these Galleries and scroll through them. Its pretty fun to view them like this as some are a series of a single move that you get to follow from start to finish. Enjoy.

Jay

Alex

Erik (Photos by Jay)

Of Late…

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A lot of random days of Late.

More Mastadons than the last Ice age!

Last Saturday Alex, Art and myself guided our friends from Mammut North America on Mt Monroe. It was great to socialize and climb with these folks whom we often contact through email, but rarely see or meet. One group skied Monroe Brook while another hiked Mt Monroe. It was surprisingly full on winter conditions for this late in the season, with almost a foot of fresh snow and full on white out conditions. Art wrote up a great post on the day for the Mammut Athlete’s blog here

Malcom hanging tough on No Money Down

Izzy climbed super well, here on Lies and Propaganda

The Next day I was back at Rumney joining fellow MMG guide Todd Goodman. Todd is a teacher at Milton Academy near Boston, a school with an incredible outdoor program. He came up with a handful of solid climbers who were stoked test their strength from winter climbing on plastic, against the real rock at Rumney. The students were all solid technically and climbed well, being stymied only by the hardest routes we set up. Todd wrote up a nice blog on the day for the MMG blog here

Finally, my regular fall and spring routine has slowly been coming back together as the weather allows. Sneaking in morning and evening sessions with friends and afternoons with the Holderness Climbing Team. Yesterday was a breakthrough day for a handful of my students, with a couple of them tackling their first 5.8’s and one starting to learn leading skills. For my self, I’m happy to report that I feel surprisingly injury free on the rock. My finger injury from almost a year ago now isn’t haunting me, and the discomfort from a broken toe this winter so far has been bearable when crammed into my tortuously small sport climbing shoes. While my arms feel like lead on anything steer than 85 degrees, I’ve been climbing on my old projects at Wiamea and getting excited to regain strength and stoke throughout the summer!

Good to be back on this cliff after avoiding it last year due to injury

The gorgeous Orange Rock of Beat Junkie. This is a favorite early season route of mine as it builds strength fast and isn’t overly tweaky. Not to mention its a blast!

After climbing Van sessions with our friends from the South

Matty Zane crushing hard on China Beach. So Close.

Third Time’s the Charm

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The saying rang true For Khanitha. She originally joined us with a group over presidents day weekend. As some may recall that weekend had some of the harshest winter weather NH has seen in years. Due to bitter cold and hard winds that group had to turn back at tree line ( Write up here ). Then Khanitha came back with a friend to try it again. A combination of fatigue and weather once again turned us back, but not before making it to the lakes of the clouds hut above tree line ( Write up here). Somewhat last minute, Khanitha saw a weather window for this past sunday and booked a day for a third and final attempt of the season. The weather cooperated so we just went slow and steady making our way to the summit! before flying bak back down. It was a gorgeous day to be up there with many unique things to see due to the recent weather pattern of spring one day and winter the next! Congrats Khanitha!

Mt Washington

Sun effects on alpine snow

Summit, from atop the Lakes of the Clouds hut

Mt Washington

Summit Buildings, Mt Washington

Mammut Product Reviews

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We’re pretty psyched to be able to work with Mammut North America at Mooney Mountain Guides. a couple of rainy days ago I spent a while reading up on Mammut’s corporate philosophy and how they act on corporate responsibility. These are major concerns of mine for any product I’m going to spend money on, let alone promote in any way. I think we all need to spend more time reading up on what we buy and what kind of corporate philosophy we are supporting by voting with our dollars. I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least, that this company which I didn’t know much about had taken some great social and environmental initiatives. To name a few, all of their ropes are manufactured in a wind powered factory in Switzerland, many of their products boast Blue Sign certified materials and organic cotton, and they have a whole section on their website dedicated to explaining their philosophy on their own self dictated corporate responsibility to people, communities and the environment (found Here ). In addition they have a wealth of knowledge on their website on how to use and care for the products you buy.

The last couple of years I’ve written a couple of reviews of their products for our company blog at http://www.mooneymountainguides.com . While I’m not personally sponsored by Mammut, the guide company is. Every season Mammut hooks the guides up with a given product to check out in the field. The most recent review I did was a collaboration of thoughts from all of our guides on the Ultimate Hoody which Mammut has furnished us with the past few years. last year I also wrote a review of the Togir Click harness which I went out and bought on my own. This harness is awesome and unique, and it surprises me how rarely I see it out in the field! If you’re a gear nerd like my self, check out the few reviews below!

Alex T rapelling The Promenade in an Ultimate Hoody, reviewed here

My self climbing Repentance with the Togir Click Harness, reviewed here

A collection of quick Mammut gear thoughts from a road trip are gathered here

Wait a Minute

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There’s a saying in New England about the weather, especially in spring. If you don’t like it, wait a minute. Today proved that point wonderfully! Yesterday we were out skiing corn in 50 degree weather. Today conditions on Washington ramped back up to full on winter. When Ben and I met at the Highland center it was drizzling rain, right at freezing at the base and with winds in the teens. By the time we hit tree line conditions had ramped up to 1″/hr+ snow with zilch for visibility and steady winds between 60-80mph. By the time we got back to Gem Pool the summit was recording gusts near the century mark and a -25 wind chill. Guess we have to wait another minute until spring returns.

Ben joined us, as many do, to train for an upcoming Mt Rainier trip. While the summit wasn’t in the cards today, we had all the conditions to train for the ultimate goal of Rainier. Heavy crampon use, layering and gear choice, and how to protect your self in extreme weather. We even stopped on the decent to practice mountaineering axe use and self arrest, before butt sliding to the finish line.

Blowing snow collecting on bare faces. A good time to don goggles and balaclavas

Zilch, on the official visibility scale

Gnarly

The rarely captured, glissade action pic.