On March 29, 2014, the southeast-facing snowfield on Mount
Washington slid broadly for the first time in many years. MOUNT
WASHINGTON AVALANCHE CENTER
Coming in the Winter/Spring issue of Appalachia journal, available now:
Finding Courage in Mountains’ Shadows: Recovering a climber’s body. “Backs to the encircling headwall, we listen as the helicopter flies out of sight, rounding Chandler Ridge until we can no longer hear its low hum,” writes Ryan J. Harvey, whose attitudes about life and mountains changed on a cold night in March, 2005, when he was sent down into Pipeline Gully on the steep, frozen slopes below Mount Clay, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. “Working in the higher mountains of the Northeast, I knew this moment would eventually present itself, the harsh cost of mountain adventure.”
Lost Hikers: Kilkenny Night. “Accidents” Editor Sandy Stott writes: “On the morning of January 10, 2014, Thomas R., age 44, and his black Labrador retriever left the Bunnell Notch trailhead to traverse part of the Kilkenny Range and return via the Unknown Pond Trail. The weather was temperate for January. At 7 p.m., Thomas’s girlfriend, Teri H., called the New Hampshire State Police to say he was overdue and that she had not heard from him since an early morning text message. … At 9:30 p.m., New Hampshire Fish and Game Conservation Officer Mark Ober and fellow Officer Glen Lucas set off up the Unknown Pond Trail to find Thomas. Two hours into their search, Ober and Lucas heard a voice crying out, “Tom,” and they answered. This brought them to Jason B., a hiker from Maine, who was searching for Thomas himself, having also heard from Teri while on his way to climb elsewhere. Jason had revamped his plans. He knew the terrain well, and it became clear that he was very fit and fast. Ober “soon outpaced” the two officers as all three tried to find the lost hiker. About an hour later, just below Unknown Pond, the two officers came upon a set of snowshoe and dog tracks that veered off-trail and downhill.…”
Appalachia, America’s oldest mountaineering and conservation journal, is published twice a year by AMC. Every issue includes essays on outdoor adventure and history, a rundown of international mountaineering news, poetry, and our White Mountain Accidents report. Subscribe or renew before January 10 to get this issue at www.outdoors.org/appalachia. Single issues are available on AMC’s Online Store at http://amcstore.outdoors.org/books-maps/appalachia.
