Summer 2020 Banter and random observations

[rimetree]

I renew my family membership at MWN every year, which includes the station tour. I guess they shut that down due to COVID...next year I guess.

Read a decent book a while back about disasters/fatalities on Mount Washington. I was trying to remember a bad accident on the cog that happened in modern times...it was in 1967: http://www.northstarmonthly.com/features/the-history-and-tragedy-of-the-first-mountain-railroad-through-the-eyes-of-past-employees/article_ec1814fa-515a-11e9-9de4-7b44d5b8c75e.html

[powderfreak]

27 minutes ago, rimetree said:

I renew my family membership at MWN every year, which includes the station tour. I guess they shut that down due to COVID...next year I guess.

Read a decent book a while back about disasters/fatalities on Mount Washington. I was trying to remember a bad accident on the cog that happened in modern times...it was in 1967: http://www.northstarmonthly.com/features/the-history-and-tragedy-of-the-first-mountain-railroad-through-the-eyes-of-past-employees/article_ec1814fa-515a-11e9-9de4-7b44d5b8c75e.html

Great reading for right before a Cog trip!  

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

On 8/26/2020 at 10:15 PM, ORH_wxman said:

I’ve driven up MWN 3 times. It’s def kind of nerve wracking. Smaller car is def better. 

It is. I’ve done it twice but the last time was in 92 in my dad’s Ford Thunderbird lol. I remember being fairly anxious on the way up but the summit was euphoric. On the way down...hard braking in a heavy Ford wasn’t the most pleasant experience but my dad, as usual, wasn’t phased. I think he enjoyed the rush back then, secretly, as my mom was having a nervous meltdown thinking we would fall off the side of the mountain. The ‘this car climbed mount washington’ bumper sticker stayed on until the car crapped out on him in 96/97. RIP pops. 

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

The falling doesn't kill you, hitting the ground though....

Right.  The fall is fun, landings not so much.  50 years ago while building houses I'd walk on 2nd story upper plates - 2x4 framing in those days - where a fall one way meant 8' onto a plywood deck littered with chunks of wood, and the other way 20'+ onto the rocks near the foundation.  Especially dicey before the wall was braced - the plate would wobble back and forth a few inches.  Probably most of us have survived dumb acts.

[PhineasC]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

Great reading for right before a Cog trip!  

And right after feeling like I was inches from death on the road and the railroad is the safer option. LOL

[PhineasC]

2 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

I took the cog once and took a van the MWN road several times. Didn't want to torch my brakes..lol. But the Cog? Yeesh. I'm sure it's fine now, but the time I went up was terrifying. A piston broke on the way down, and it was manual brakes the whole way down. There was a legit feeling that we could just be a runaway train. It was to the point that the workers were ready to jump and my parents put us next to the windows in case we were going, so they could throw us out. I'm not kidding. I was only in second grade, but I remember the look on my parents face. That said, I would definitely do the cog again. 

God never intended for man to take vehicles up the sides of mountains. 

[snowman21]

This board talk about Mt. Washington like it's Everest. It's 6,000 feet. That's barely a hill out west. Practically the elevation of Denver.

[dendrite]

33 minutes ago, snowman21 said:

This board talk about Mt. Washington like it's Everest. It's 6,000 feet. That's barely a hill out west. Practically the elevation of Denver.

28th most prominent mountain in the CONUS. How many of those 28 have public roads up to the summit?

[snowman21]

52 minutes ago, dendrite said:

28th most prominent mountain in the CONUS. How many of those 28 have public roads up to the summit?

Pikes Peak is 14kft and has a road to the top. I-70 climbs up over 11kft through mountains. Hawaii has one that goes up 13kft. Just googling around seems like there are tons of roads that go up or through mountains in the U.S., some much higher in elevation.

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, snowman21 said:

This board talk about Mt. Washington like it's Everest. It's 6,000 feet. That's barely a hill out west. Practically the elevation of Denver.

But we aren't out west.  If we were we'd talk about those local mountains?

I can tell you at the ski area one of the most common questions is "What is that mountain?" when standing at the top of a chairlift looking out on a bluebird day and MWN is just glistening there on the horizon.  For our area, it is one hulk of a rock.

[BrianW]

10 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

But we aren't out west.  If we were we'd talk about those local mountains?

I can tell you at the ski area one of the most common questions is "What is that mountain?" when standing at the top of a chairlift looking out on a bluebird day and MWN is just glistening there on the horizon.  For our area, it is one hulk of a rock.

You NNE's need to get drones. The technology is incredible now with gps guidance. You can fly for miles and the stabilized gimbal camera is nuts. 

Took my DJI Mavic Mini up for a flight the other day. This is looking west from 400ft just east of New Haven over lake Saltonstall. The drone was over 2 miles away from me. 

If you or Phin had one the shots of the mountains would be incredible. 

 

[HoarfrostHubb]

15 minutes ago, snowman21 said:

Pikes Peak is 14kft and has a road to the top. I-70 climbs up over 11kft through mountains. Hawaii has one that goes up 13kft. Just googling around seems like there are tons of roads that go up or through mountains in the U.S., some much higher in elevation.

Pike's Peak climbs 6715 feet over 19 miles...  Mount Washington climbs 4614 over 7.6 miles.  

I-70 does that 11k feet over???

[Ginx snewx]

Ok PF what gives. Jennifer Hannux Vt

 

[PhineasC]

2 hours ago, snowman21 said:

This board talk about Mt. Washington like it's Everest. It's 6,000 feet. That's barely a hill out west. Practically the elevation of Denver.

The Rockies aren't mountains, dude. They are hills compared to the Himalayas. 

Shit, a real mountain man wouldn't even start calling it a mountain unless it is higher than Olympus Mons. 

You gotta lot to learn.

[CoastalWx]

38 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Pike's Peak climbs 6715 feet over 19 miles...  Mount Washington climbs 4614 over 7.6 miles.  

I-70 does that 11k feet over???

Yeah it’s all about the vertical. Who cares if you are 11k up on a plateau. 

[powderfreak]

14 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Ok PF what gives. Jennifer Hannux Vt

 

Ha, I’m very confused.  Wonder if there’s some big game park in someone’s backyard?

Edit I guess some dude owns a zebra, lol.

[Lava Rock]

Drove through Smuggs Notch. Cool stretch. Would be fun on bike. Lunch at Brewster's Pub

[BrianW]

There is a massive mussel die off going on along the sound. People think its either from the storm or the record warm water temperatures. The water temp in the sound was 85 the other week.

 

[HoarfrostHubb]

Thar's gotta smell

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Pike's Peak climbs 6715 feet over 19 miles...  Mount Washington climbs 4614 over 7.6 miles.  

I-70 does that 11k feet over???

6.7% gradient vs. 11.5% at MWN.  I suspect I-70 doesn't get above 5%.

[PowderBeard]

20 minutes ago, Lava Rock said:

Drove through Smuggs Notch. Cool stretch. Would be fun on bike. Lunch at Brewster's Pub

Best burger and fries around, The Godzilla - pastrami, pulled pork, beef Brisket, pork roll, smoked bacon, fried egg, hash brown, multiple types of cheddar on it as well.  

[tamarack]

21 minutes ago, Lava Rock said:

Drove through Smuggs Notch. Cool stretch. Would be fun on bike. Lunch at Brewster's Pub

Been there only once, on our honeymoon in June 1971.  I recall it as being a bit spooky, in a good way - deep shade and big roadside boulders.

[Hoth]

13 minutes ago, BrianW said:

There is a massive mussel die off going on along the sound. People think its either from the storm or the record warm water temperatures. The water temp in the sound was 85 the other week.

 

I noticed that on my beach this week. We had tons growing last summer for the first time in years, and they're all gone now.

[Lava Rock]

Best burger and fries around, The Godzilla - pastrami, pulled pork, beef Brisket, pork roll, smoked bacon, fried egg, hash brown, multiple types of cheddar on it as well.  

Lol, heart attack on a plate. I got a plain burger

[weathafella]

Speaking of harrowing mountain experiences...

1.  After submitting mount Whitney (14,495), my friend and I started down.   I get this sense we’re off the trail but my friend insists we’re not.   I put my foot down a few feet from falling off a glacier around 14,000 feet.  This was August of 1982.

2.  Walking across knifes edge on mount katahdin in 1962

3.  Driving up MWN in a 1974 Plymouth Belvedere with “3 on the tree”.in 1976

 

[weathafella]

1 hour ago, PowderBeard said:

Best burger and fries around, The Godzilla - pastrami, pulled pork, beef Brisket, pork roll, smoked bacon, fried egg, hash brown, multiple types of cheddar on it as well.  

Did you eat the whole thing in one sitting?

[PowderBeard]

Just now, weathafella said:

Did you eat the whole thing in one sitting?

Yea we were up skiing, had a short-lived hour stomach bug hit me while skiing at MRG, tried toughing it out but ended up puking off the lift a few times. Took the following day off, felt better, hadn't eaten in almost two days, ended up putting it down in less than 10 minutes. The day I can eat red meat again I'll make the 7 hour round trip up just for that burger. 

[powderfreak]

7 minutes ago, PowderBeard said:

Yea we were up skiing, had a short-lived hour stomach bug hit me while skiing at MRG, tried toughing it out but ended up puking off the lift a few times. Took the following day off, felt better, hadn't eaten in almost two days, ended up putting it down in less than 10 minutes. The day I can eat red meat again I'll make the 7 hour round trip up just for that burger. 

Now that’s pro style!  Crushing that right after a stomach bug!

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, weathafella said:

Speaking of harrowing mountain experiences...

1.  After submitting mount Whitney (14,495), my friend and I started down.   I get this sense we’re off the trail but my friend insists we’re not.   I put my foot down a few feet from falling off a glacier around 14,000 feet.  This was August of 1982.

2.  Walking across knifes edge on mount katahdin in 1962

3.  Driving up MWN in a 1974 Plymouth Belvedere with “3 on the tree”.in 1976

 

My Knife Edge round trip in 1973 tops my list of memorable mountain experiences.  However, the scariest was much smaller scale, at a pocket beach surrounded on 3 sides by 100' cliffs on the state's "Bold Coast" Cutler tract.  We entered down a 45° (thus 100%) scree slope about 100' long after another 150' of letting ourselves down by hanging on to the occasional bush.  When one would hit the "beach", scrambling another 30-40' was recommended to avoid being hit from behind by the rocks one had loosened.  The footing wasn't very good once one was down as the Cutler "sand" is of a size suitable for paperweights.  With 7 of us looking to get back up, I had the "smart" idea of free-climbing the cliff where it was only about 75' to the trees.  The first 30' were easy but when I got to the real steep I found that the rock was so crumbly that it was worthless as a hand-grab.  For the next 15 minutes I edged upward (down would mean a 30' fall) by using the dying grass for support - weak but better than the rocky mess.  By the time I reached the tree line my legs and arms were toast, having been at constant full tension for that 1/4 hr.  A minute after rejoining the group I got stung by a yellowjacket but had far more adrenaline in my system than an epi-pen would provide (and I've never shown the allergy.)  Still had another 4-5 miles that day and I was slogging as much as walking.  The beach was, to me, the most spectacular spot on that spectacular property, but our trail layout avoided its proximity as we couldn't figure a safe way for significant hiker traffic to enter and exit.  (Short of a hideously expensive structure that might withstand the storms)

[HoarfrostHubb]

Tamarack tells the best tales