Waiting for the mountains to freeze!

On Saturday Steph and I spend all day hiking since it has been warm and wet with very little in the way of freezing temps.  I was optimistic at first that the ice would freeze enough for us to go ice climbing but it was a lost dream this weekend.  We ended up going for a hike to Mount Whiteface which is one peak north of Smugglers Notch ski resort and is also normally a ski trail into a hut in the good season. 

This was the Lean to that was at 4 miles.

The view from the lean to at four miles!

My sneaker after the 8.2 miles of snow.  It is not ice climbing season yet but I think I might be done with trail running until it is colder.

Most of the hiking was on these old logging roads that had been converted to ski/hiking trails and the trails were sooo wet.  We ended up doing 8.3 miles and by the end of the day we were both really tired. It was a nice day for it and it was a cool spot to see.  There was one lodge that was 3 miles in that I think we will ski camp at this winter at some point.  It was a really cool spot and I can totally see heading out there for a night on skis.  The hut is first come first served and it has a wood stove in it as well so it is not just a lean to.

This past week at the climbing gym I went with Zack and I ended up getting one V5 on my first try and a couple V4 problems.  It is not much of a breakthrough but it is definitely a noticed increase in strength/ability/technique.  Not really sure what to attribute it to.  Hopefully in the next week it really freezes and we can can make it ice climbing before new years.