The average historical snowfall on Mt. Washington for the months of October (17.6in) and November (37.8in) sit well below this season's current totals; unofficially 100+ inches from late October through mid-November. Interestingly, this precipitation outlier was accompanied by equally as strange low wind speeds (based on data gathered from unscientific but incredibly fun “fieldwork”). Additionally, [...]
(Beth topping out in Left Gully) “When was the last time you skied in an all female group?” My mind raced searching for at least one example in which I was the sole Y chromosome among my ski partners. I couldn’t find one, so I lied. “Umm, I think once a while back when I [...]
The following words were read to the Waynflete upper school before departing for our annual Outdoor Experience trips. .......I wasn’t a great student….but I was a really good thinker, and the place(s) where I did most of my thinking was outside. This wasn’t a mistake. Woolf, Einstein, Wadsworth, Tchaikovsky, and even Jobs, all recognized the [...]
https://vimeo.com/226207366 I begin each winter with clear personal and professional goals. This year all plans had to be changed or abandoned due to injury and great personal loss. What resulted was a winter spent trying to heal physically and emotionally, searching for answers to life's unanswerable questions. This video commemorates the lives of Brad Lord [...]
PART I: What Were You Thinking How long can I keep skinning without a headlamp? You should be able to get up this trail without a headlamp…. I’m getting soft…..what did Steve say….oh yeah, drink some concrete and harden up. I miss being on the boat…. Man, people were tough back in the day…. Ok, [...]
Laying on the wooden bench I watched as dust drifted down between the cracks of the decaying ceiling tiles. Finally some rest. On the table above my head there was leftover pizza, a beer, and the waning minutes of the Rangers game emanated from my phone. Gibbs and Frizz would be here soon. I had [...]
This is an excerpt from the 2016 Outdoor Orientation speech at the Waynflete School in Portland, ME. Recently I was asked to think about a place in the world to which I feel connected. After I identified this place, I was then supposed to explain to the people in my group why this particular [...]
https://vimeo.com/175956418 Wow. This is really happening. With all the fancy gear and expensive plane tickets, the best option we can come up with for “camping” is sleeping under this bridge. This isn’t hyperbole, or bending the truth. Night one of our road trip was literally spent under a bridge somewhere on the outskirts of Portland, [...]
https://vimeo.com/163931205 It has been a hectic season with the Monday through Friday job mixed with training + the weekend gig teaching AIARE courses with Acadia Mountain Guides. However, in the midst of the hustle some fortuitous trips occurred that provided deep snow (Crystal Mountain, WA), steep corn (Mt. Washington, NH), and incredibly aesthetic lines (Estes [...]
Only a handful of people actually understand why I left work early, seemingly abandoning my day-to-day responsibilities, to fly to Seattle. Truth be told, it wasn’t an impulsive desire to chase winter storms (although as luck would have it there were plenty of those throughout the trip), and while I imagine myself still being brazen [...]
