My Kinda Town

Below is an arial shot of North Conway, New Hampshire right after the recent Nor'easter, Nemo. This is where I work and live.

Our landmarks are known world-wide.  On the left, at the top of the photograph, is Mt. Washington, home of the "World's Worst Weather".  In the near background, to the mid-right, is Mt. Cranmore, home to one of the first ski areas in the U.S.

Opened in 1938 by financier Harvey Dow Gibson, a local boy made good on Wall Street and Carroll Reed, a Boston insurance man, the mountain became home to Hannes Schneider, whose world-class ski school in St. Anton Austria was at risk due to the Nazi takeover of Austria.  Schneider and his family,  brought to North Conway and Cranmore by Gibson, legitimized the ski mountain with a ski school and innovative ski techniques.

For more of the history of  Cranmore Mountain, Hannes Schneider and the debut of serious skiing to America, go here.

The Kind of Crap We Do in New England Part 3

I work for a niche television station in the beautiful White Mountains of New Hampshire.  We are surrounded by ski areas, resorts, fabulous old hotels and granite mountains with waterfalls unsurpassed except by Yosemite's.  

One of my co-workers is a risk-taking wild man; a climber who fell one hundred feet from a rock ledge two summers ago when he became dehydrated, dizzy and inadvertently released his belaying rope.  He survived with a broken clavicle & a few ribs.  It was a minor miracle to say the least.

A few months ago, he ascended Mt. Washington, tallest mountain in the northeast at 6288', via the Mt. Washington Auto Road, on stilts.  Yes.  Stilts.

Last weekend, he ascended the Auto Road again, all 8 miles of it, walking backwards, barefoot, jumping rope.  Swear to God.

                                                                      Top of the Summit Finish

                                                              (Mt. Washington OBS in background)

                                                        Storm Trooper Guy Finish

                                                                         (Clouds descending)

People up here are die-hard, rough and ready competitors.  If they're hardy souls, gifted with athletic ability, they'll try anything.

                                               Pre-race participants  Alton Weagle Day  Mt. Washington, N.H.

Inotherwords, they're crazy.