Firery Reds of Indian Summer

Got up to North Conway (NH) this past weekend and found the colors to be unusually spectacular on the west side of the Kancamangus Hwy - meaning more reds than I have noticed before. Strangely, once on the east side of the pass and in North Conway itself the colors are muted, not even close to what we see west of the pass. The temperatures the past few days are abnormally high.

View north from the Kancamangus Pass, White Mtns, NH

While is rained up until Friday night, Saturday was cloudy and humid.  The stillness and humidity did not provide for fast drying on the cliffs. After killing some time looking at the very wet route starts at Whitehorse Ledge and Cathedral Ledge, we retreated to climbing plan B - go to the local climbing shop!  Always fun to stop into IME and cruise the consignment shop - or just plain "talk shop" with the owner and staff.  After killing a little time there we decided to take a peek at Humphrey's Ledge to see if we could find anything dry.  While most routes were indeed soaked, we found all dry rock on Wanderlust.  A fun face climb with a tricky little crux for us shorter folks.

 Then Sunday we thoroughly enjoyed Toe Crack and the 2 Saigon routes on the Thin Air face. It had been quite a while since I had climbed these, so it was a fun revisit.

Temps are scheduled to get cooler beginning tomorrow and into the end of the week, along with the dreaded rains again.  But we sure have enjoyed these past few sunny, hot days. Follow @jeanclimbs