Monday May 5, 2008

With a nice day today I was anxious to get out and see how the climbing was after our wet weekend. Jay and I made plans to climb this afternoon, we were in the shade all day. Conditions could not have been much better, the cliff was dry for the most part and the temperatures were warm but not too hot. We headed over to the Lower Left Wall and climbed Bombardment we then crossed the Tree Covered Ledge and headed up Black Lung / Upper Refuse.

After our climb I headed out for another trail run, this time I ran in the area of the cliffs, this has been a standard run for me for some time. I started up Cathedral by the climbers trail on the north end of the cliff. From the top of Cathedral I headed down the Bryce Path to the col between Cathedral and Whitehorse then down towards the White Mountain Hotel. From the hotel I ran up the trail that goes up the south end of Whitehorse to the summit of that cliff then I went down the Red Ridge Connector to the Red Ridge Trail then followed that to Diana's Bath then back to the Cathedral Road by some unofficial trails. The entire loop is about 5 miles long with an elevation gain and loss of about 1700 feet. Here is a map of the run.

Jay on Bombardment

After the crux on Bombardment

At the crux of Black Lung

Jay finishing Upper Refuse

 

Sunday May 4, 2008

May has started and I have been shifting my focus from the winter sports to summer. I am writing this now after a little weekend getaway to the coast for some relaxation and good seafood. Before I left for the weekend however I had a decidedly summer like week. I have started to do some trail runs and got out a day for some rock climbing. First, last weekend I was able to run in the Mud Muck and Moose Trail Race in Bartlett NH. Normally this run involves just what the name implies but this year it was more snow covered than muddy.

The race got me motivated to start my trail running up for the season, I had noticed that the Nature Conservancy Green Hills Preserve just east of North Conway seemed to be pretty free of snow. I had been running the trails in that area at the end of last year so I was eager to get out to see how conditions were. One of my favorite runs in that area goes to the top of Black Cap from the Thompson Road Trailhead. There was a little bit of snow left but for the most part it was snow free and even though I was doing the run soon after a rainy day it was not too muddy. Here is a link to the map put out by the Nature Conservancy. I have also made a map of the area which include some unmarked trails that are on the edge of the Conservancy Land and are not included on their map and you can find that map here. Another running day last week included a track workout at the new Kennett High School Track. This track was completed late last year and it was nice to do some speed training on such a nice new track.

On Thursday Jay and I went over to Cathedral Ledge for a little climbing. We had gotten quite a bit of rain on Tuesday and the cliff was pretty wet on Wednesday but by Thursday the cliff had dried nicely. Our goal was to climb up onto the Thin Air Face and top rope a few climbs. We led up Thinner then lowered down Wind Fall and Pro Choice to top rope those climbs. After doing those climbs we headed out. Since then it has been rainy so I am sure the cliff is wet right now. I will be getting out more this week and will try to get some condition reports up with some pictures.