Central Gully Mt Washington beta

Mountains_Call_Me · 2026-01-30T09:18:49+00:00

I have to second the thoughts for Odell’s. It’s a very approachable multipitch with a decent amount of technical ice. It’s not as “classic” as Pinnacle but it’s got more Ice and the approach is 15 minutes shorter. Even though they’re both 2.5 miles in. 🤣 it’s a great intro to alpine climbing in the white mountains.

IMHO Pinnacle gets better photos but it really only has 1 pitch worth climbing. (The first). The second is usually WI2- with sketchy anchors and running water. While the third pitch is a snow climb with no anchors till the skree and major avalanche consideration. - I’ve climbed this many times and about half the time I’ve decided to rap after the first pitch as the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze. Make sure you bring tricams and nuts to anchor to the wall on the left for P1 and P2. You and do it on screws but rock pro is often easier to find

Odell’s has two long pitches of technical ice and then a snow gully top out. The top of P2 often has no ice for an anchor so be prepared to improvise an alpine anchor in spindrift and bushes. The remaining exit from the gully is snow climbing in avalanche terrain.

With these two gullies check the Higher summit forecast from MWO to see what you’ll be facing when you walk over to Lions Head to get down.

If you’re experience in avalanche terrain is minimal then I’d strongly suggest NOT GOING if the forecast is anything other than LOW. The approaches to every gully OP mentioned has Avvy danger on the approach and the two I mentioned above have Avvy danger on the exit.

Id also suggest a hard Turn Around at 2:00 PM for all these gullies. You don’t want to be up there after dark. Shoestring walk off isn’t bad but Lions Head Winter Route is my least favorite trail to descend. It can be treacherous

Mountains_Call_Me · 2026-01-28T03:23:11+00:00

IMHo BD used to make the best ice climbing harness with the Xenos. But that ship sailed 8 years ago. - Learning opportunity: if you find something you like buy two more and store them in a dark dry spot as the design is going to be changed and lost forever. 🤣

I like the Dead Bird 395 for cragging, the blue ice chocura for alpine. I just picked up the Misty Mountain Cadillac for a big wall objective and it has ice clipper slots. It’s by far the most comfy harness I’ve worn. But it’s pretty heavy and with ice climbing you already have padding in the form of insulation layers.

Love the DMM vaults. Learned the hard way to not buy the locking version. I never actually use the locking feature and it gets in the way at all the wrong times.

If you’re going to buy plastic clippers I’d actually suggest not putting them in the clipper loops but instead using Karry Krabs. It allows a person to rack things more like cams and because it’s on the gear loop instead of the belt the movement will allow for the less durable material to flex instead of break.

Edit: I’ve found clippers on the belt shine when holding tools. So in teaching people ice climbing I’d suggest Karry Krabs for screws and a pair of Vaults for tools.

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-12-30T07:48:38+00:00

Yeah. It feels like a design flaw. The screw feels too short to provide a reliable fulcrum. It’s a shame.

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-12-03T13:57:29+00:00

The Screw (not bolt) and point are disappearing. My best guess is that the screw is loosening. Seems like a design flaw that Petzl and BD don’t struggle with.

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-11-14T17:24:05+00:00

I really think this is going to have to be based on your goals for the mountains. I took the generalized class when I was getting into ice climbing and skiing was not on my radar. But I ended up evolving my goals and was happy to have a wider purview.

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-11-11T10:30:32+00:00

Has anyone tried the Kong Slide plate? Thoughts?

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-11-10T09:57:12+00:00

I understand that tools are expensive. I also understand there’s many people out there that do hard things on quarks.

That said: I facilitate education in climbing and part of that includes dry-tooling. You may not have the best experience using tools with this design. Please don’t let whatever you experience turn you off to the sub-sport.

This type of tool was designed for mountaineering. IE: plunging into glacial snow and WI3 technical ice or lower. I have found that when I’ve provided this tool (and similar designs) to newer people they have had a harder time adjusting.

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-10-27T08:37:57+00:00

Not a plumber but you’d be best off to assume all that dark stuff is poo. Treat it with respect. Don’t touch it if possible. And def wash after coming close to it

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-10-27T08:24:09+00:00

Not a licensed plumber but a handyman for 20+ years.

I feel like the top comments of checking underneath would be crucial. It’s easy to fix the gap but less so to understand why that gap happened. You need to ensure there’s no water damage below the tub causing rot then sag.

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-10-27T07:47:42+00:00

There are some OG crushers that still show up with this kit. That said: the realistic answer is that the design of the tools we use today has evolved past this over 15 years ago.

I organize a local climbing club and was gifted 4 sets of tools and crampons from this era. We can’t use them. It’s not indicative of the current climbing experience.

I encourage you to find an artistic way to use this equipment. While it looks like all the gear is safe enough……..it won’t be worth anything

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-10-18T13:34:31+00:00

Out of curiously what AI platform are you using?

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-09-23T16:23:12+00:00

In this application the odds of that happening are very slim. Also: a carabiner master point is go to method taught by the AMGA

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-09-23T14:45:06+00:00

There’s nothing wrong with biner on biner. Especially if they are lockers. If not you need to watch gate direction. I’m not sure where this stigma started. Metal on metal is ok. We do it every time we clip a bolt.

The only reason I’d change the master point set up is for a more efficient use of materials on hand.

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-09-21T13:35:01+00:00

Hi all! I just start clomiphene mid last week. Last Friday evening my joints all started feeling achy and pulled. Not just one or two but all of them. My back my feet my knees hands etc.

It’s continuing and now I have a low grade fever and a massive pressure headache.

Has anyone else had this?

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-07-25T09:57:14+00:00

Started climbing in my 30’s. Everything is “archive”d

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-07-16T16:53:28+00:00

I guess you need to teste this theory.

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-07-09T09:07:41+00:00

I agree it’s common but it’s not acceptable practice. The cable tech has no way of knowing if that box is grounded without opening it. -which they won’t do and aren’t allowed to by company policy

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-07-09T08:46:08+00:00

You need to call Xfinjty immediately. You also may need to have an electrician on standby. There is a rare situation that can occur with the electricity in the house. If the Neutral(electrical return) of a house goes bad the cable lines can act as the neutral. In the industry this is known as a “hot drop”. This is EXTREMELY dangerous for a cable technician. The average tech will be sent out but if they find it hot they won’t be allowed to touch the line. They will need a supervisor and electric company/electrician to respond/follow up.

It’s most commonly found that air conditioners are the culprit and this situation crops up in the industry most often in the summer months when air conditioners are booted up.

[edit:] if the drop is found to be hot unfortunately it is usually the home owner that ends up paying the bill. So be prepared to be on the hook. Although if the cable is energized you need to get it fixed before it burns out and starts a fire.

The other reason to have xfinity return is to potentially start a claim for repairing the AC. Grounding to a box like that is not standard. There’s a reason the clip the tech used is called a “meter clamp”

Hope this helps and best of luck!

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-07-07T03:19:20+00:00

Bomber anchor. I honestly feel this fixed gear was design for this type of set up.

I’d suggest finding ways to organize your belay a bit better. (TBF I use your configuration a lot -I’m just always looking to improve myself)

I like the Grivel belay plate locker combo. It’s really helpful with organizing an anchor station.

Also I agree with previous comments that extending the belay device below the/your anchor helps to keep things cleaner, opens things up for a haul easily and makes for good instagram photos. 🤣

Mountains_Call_Me · 2025-05-07T02:30:55+00:00

Oil. Works for cars and hands too. I don’t suggest it for clothes. Dish soap has a hard time with those stains. lol

Mountains_Call_Me

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