Episode 179 - SLASR 2024 Recap, Lost Pass Hike, Recent SAR News

[00:00:34] from the Woodpecker's studio in the great state of New Hampshire. Welcome to the Sounds Like A Search And Rescue Podcast, where we discuss all things related to hiking and search and rescue in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Here are your hosts, Mike and Stomp.

[00:01:10] Alright Stomp, welcome to Episode 179. Did you hit record?

[00:01:13] Yeah, I sure did. Yep.

[00:01:15] You did.

[00:01:16] Slow on the eight ball there, but uh...

[00:01:20] Alright, did you do your homework?

[00:01:21] I sure did.

[00:01:22] You did, alright. I sensed off homework, so...

[00:01:25] Let's test him later to make sure that he completed his assignment.

[00:01:30] Were you a good homework person back in the day in the Stone Age when you used to go to middle school and high school?

[00:01:37] Not at all. Not at all. I didn't learn how to study until I got into college.

[00:01:42] And it was a trial by fire when I went my first two years at Wentworth. I went to Wentworth for two years and it was pure math.

[00:01:48] Oh my god, what a miserable experience because I had no foundation in terms of how to do homework or apply myself.

[00:01:54] Until I got to college. What a nightmare.

[00:01:57] Right, right. And there's no like Khan Academy. There was no internet. There was no chat GPT that you could rely on to ask you.

[00:02:05] You had to like actually... You had to find people that knew the magic.

[00:02:09] Right. How about you? You seem like an applicating kind of guy.

[00:02:14] Why? Eh, no. I was a terrible student. Terrible. Because I was too busy socializing and doing sports and nonsense.

[00:02:21] But once I applied myself, I think I kind of picked up how to study like in high school a bit, but then I spent a lot of time in the library in college.

[00:02:28] You know, it was...

[00:02:29] Oh yeah.

[00:02:29] There was a lot of people around, so it was always something going on in the library.

[00:02:33] Right. Yeah. I mean, when you're paying for it, you learn how to apply yourself pretty quick.

[00:02:36] Anyway, I did spend a lot of time like slacking off. I would go to the library to study and then all of a sudden I would pick up like a sci-fi or a fantasy book and I'd find myself reading for an hour or two.

[00:02:48] So...

[00:02:50] That's great.

[00:02:52] Anyway, so welcome to episode 179 of the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue podcast.

[00:03:00] This week, we're going to recap the year 2024. So we've got some New Year's resolutions. We've got some favorite hikes that we're going to talk about.

[00:03:11] We'll recap some of the new gear that we got this year. I didn't get much. I don't have much to talk about here, Stomp, but you got some stuff.

[00:03:17] A couple.

[00:03:17] Some memorable moments on the podcast. There's an update on a backpacking YouTuber who died in Sweden that we talked about recently.

[00:03:25] And then Stomp and our friend Dave Eat Shit. Oh no, Dave Shits in the Woods. My other friend is Steve Eat Shit. I can't keep track of these Instagram.

[00:03:34] So Stomp and Dave hike a lost pass in Waterville Valley. Stomp.

[00:03:39] I've been scheming with a friend of mine, James, to get out here and do this hike, I think. So you previewed it for us. So we'll find out more about that.

[00:03:46] And then we got recent Search and Rescue news, including a missing hiker in the Adirondacks that's been an extended search for this young man.

[00:03:56] And then there's a hiker that we haven't covered this story. There was a hiker who tried to warm up in a snowcat at the summit of Mount Washington and ended up getting a ride down the mountain after realizing he was woefully underprepared for the weather conditions.

[00:04:13] And then we got a few more Search and Rescue stories. So easy show tonight. No guests, but we'll try to keep it entertaining. I'm Mike.

[00:04:22] And I'm Stomp.

[00:04:23] Let's get started.

[00:04:36] I'm Christina from Wild Raven Endurance Coaching. I work with athletes of all levels from hikers to triathletes, helping you reach your goals with personalized guidance.

[00:04:46] With years of experience hiking, mountain biking and trail running across New England, I also have a deep knowledge of the New Hampshire 4,000 footers and the surrounding trails.

[00:04:57] Whether you're a beginner hiker or a seasoned athlete, I'll guide you towards your goals, reducing injury risk and improving your performance through smart, tailored coaching.

[00:05:06] Are you looking to transition from hiking to mountain running?

[00:05:09] I'm here to make that journey easier, too.

[00:05:12] My approach combines strength training, mindfulness and life balance on and off the trail.

[00:05:18] Let me help you find more joy in your sport while getting stronger and healthier along the way.

[00:05:24] Visit www.coaching.christinafulsick.com and start your adventure today.

[00:05:37] All right, Stomp. I got the Home Alone vibes here at the house.

[00:05:41] Oh, yeah. Yeah? Nobody's home?

[00:05:44] No, it's not the part of the movie where nobody's home.

[00:05:48] It's the part of the movie where, you know how it's so chaotic?

[00:05:52] Everyone's packing and getting ready to get to the airport and then they forget Kevin?

[00:05:56] Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:05:58] We're in that packing, crazy, chaotic mode right now.

[00:06:02] Well, that's good.

[00:06:03] Yeah.

[00:06:04] She's crazy.

[00:06:05] I thought you were going with the empty house vibe.

[00:06:09] Are you spending time with family for Christmas?

[00:06:12] Yeah.

[00:06:12] You'll all be together?

[00:06:13] Well, yeah, we go to Florida.

[00:06:16] So my kids all...

[00:06:17] I had one in London, one in North Carolina.

[00:06:20] I've got one home with us, but she's barely home because she's working and graduating and hanging out with her boyfriend all the time.

[00:06:26] Yeah.

[00:06:27] But they're all home now and they're only home for like three days and then we're heading out.

[00:06:33] Okay.

[00:06:33] And then I won't see the two youngest ones until May, I think.

[00:06:38] They'll go down to Florida for spring break with my wife to be determined if I'll go with them.

[00:06:42] But yeah, it's just chaotic.

[00:06:44] They've got like two huge things of luggage each and I'm packing and then they're like,

[00:06:50] oh, you're going to put extra stuff in your luggage.

[00:06:53] I'm like, I don't have that much room.

[00:06:54] It was a small, tiny little luggage.

[00:06:56] So it's chaos.

[00:06:57] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:06:57] It's easy for us.

[00:06:58] It always is.

[00:06:59] I pack like a little bag, a teeny thing and good to go.

[00:07:02] Yeah, exactly.

[00:07:03] We have laundry there.

[00:07:04] I'm like, three, four pairs of shorts and some underwear and socks and I'm good to go.

[00:07:08] Yeah, yeah.

[00:07:09] Well, that's good.

[00:07:10] So no empty nest struggles, just the craziness of getting ready for a trip.

[00:07:15] I get it.

[00:07:16] I get it.

[00:07:16] Correct.

[00:07:17] Correct.

[00:07:17] So hopefully it will be down in the warm sun.

[00:07:19] So we'll see.

[00:07:21] Stop.

[00:07:21] I assigned you some homework.

[00:07:23] This is not hiking related, folks.

[00:07:24] So if you want to hear about hiking, we will be getting onto that topic in about five to

[00:07:30] seven minutes.

[00:07:30] But right now I've given Stomp some homework and that homework is to provide us with his

[00:07:37] favorite Christmas songs.

[00:07:38] We run the PUDS podcast.

[00:07:40] Every once in a while they do music segments and I thought that I would steal Nick and Josh's

[00:07:46] idea and talk about Christmas songs and your favorite Christmas songs, Stomp.

[00:07:52] Well, I mean, hands down, my favorite would be the Charlie Brown Christmas music and that's

[00:07:56] the Vince Guaraldi trio.

[00:07:59] Hands down, without question.

[00:08:03] Anything.

[00:08:04] That's a good choice.

[00:08:05] Yeah, yeah.

[00:08:05] It's timeless.

[00:08:06] It's so good.

[00:08:07] But anything, say, from the 50s up until the 70s, count me in.

[00:08:12] It has to be mono classics with Bing, you know, all the early singers to catch my interest.

[00:08:23] I do, however, love one album in particular, which came out in 1989.

[00:08:28] It was by Michael W. Smith, who's a contemporary Christian artist.

[00:08:33] He put out a record called Christmas and it was his first Christmas album.

[00:08:37] And there are some of the coolest Christmas songs that still stand the test of time.

[00:08:42] In my opinion, First Snowfall is a beautiful instrumental.

[00:08:46] And then No I Had Seen is a duet with Amy Grant and it just gives me chills when I hear

[00:08:52] this song.

[00:08:53] No I Had Seen.

[00:08:56] So.

[00:08:56] Well, I will link those in the show notes in case anybody wants to add those as last minute

[00:09:01] additions to their Spotify playlist.

[00:09:03] How about you?

[00:09:05] Well, I'm not going to be as obscure as you, Stomp.

[00:09:07] I'm pretty mainstream over here, but I segmented this down into.

[00:09:12] Like classics and then two 80s ones and then a newer one.

[00:09:21] So my classic is Little Drummer Boy, Bing Crosby and David Bowie.

[00:09:25] Classic.

[00:09:25] Oh, that's a great pick.

[00:09:27] That's a really great pick.

[00:09:28] That's a cool dynamic between two generations of singers and it's just a good vibe of that song.

[00:09:34] Um, and then the two 80s songs that I like, I like Last Christmas by Wham or George Michael.

[00:09:41] Okay.

[00:09:43] Um, I don't know something about that.

[00:09:45] It just gets in my ear all the time.

[00:09:47] It's overplayed, but I like it.

[00:09:48] Yeah.

[00:09:48] And then, um, I actually believe that this is one of the greatest songs ever written.

[00:09:54] Um, so Dan Fogelberg released in 1980.

[00:09:57] Okay.

[00:09:58] Uh, same old Lang Syne.

[00:09:59] Yeah.

[00:09:59] Meaning his, his former lover in the grocery store.

[00:10:02] Correct.

[00:10:02] In the grocery store.

[00:10:03] Yeah.

[00:10:03] Dan Fogelberg is one of my faves.

[00:10:05] Yeah.

[00:10:06] Oh yeah.

[00:10:06] Leader of the band and everything.

[00:10:08] But I, I, I think that it's not even, not only a Christmas song, I think it's one of

[00:10:11] the greatest songs ever written.

[00:10:12] Same old Lang Syne.

[00:10:13] And then, um, new one, Kelly Clarkson, Underneath the Tree.

[00:10:17] Okay.

[00:10:18] I like it.

[00:10:18] I like it.

[00:10:19] So we should, we should ask what's your least favorite Christmas song.

[00:10:24] Most favorite, I mean.

[00:10:27] I don't know.

[00:10:28] Like, I feel like, um.

[00:10:30] Mariah Carey?

[00:10:31] No, I like Mariah.

[00:10:33] I mean, that's a great song too.

[00:10:34] How about So This Is Christmas by John Lennon.

[00:10:38] I like that too.

[00:10:39] I like being, I like banded.

[00:10:40] I want to kill myself when I hear these.

[00:10:42] I would say maybe Dominic the Donkey.

[00:10:44] Okay.

[00:10:46] You know that song?

[00:10:47] Uh, yeah.

[00:10:49] My daughter's looking at me right now.

[00:10:51] She just walked down the hallway and she's looking at me like, what is he talking about?

[00:10:54] Certainly not hiking related, but.

[00:10:56] No, no.

[00:10:57] This is a hiking podcast.

[00:10:59] So I said seven minutes give us.

[00:11:00] Good stuff.

[00:11:01] All right.

[00:11:01] So those are all good.

[00:11:02] I will put those in the show notes, stomp.

[00:11:04] And, um, I knew you were going to come up with something obscure.

[00:11:07] Ha ha.

[00:11:08] Yeah.

[00:11:08] Well.

[00:11:10] Turn people on to some new stuff.

[00:11:13] Yeah.

[00:11:13] Yeah.

[00:11:14] And then before we get to hiking talk, the next bit of homework that I gave you was

[00:11:17] New Year's resolution stomp.

[00:11:20] Oh, I hate these.

[00:11:21] But I did put some time into this.

[00:11:24] Okay.

[00:11:24] I appreciate it.

[00:11:26] Do you want mine first?

[00:11:28] Yes.

[00:11:28] You go first.

[00:11:29] All right.

[00:11:29] So, excuse me.

[00:11:30] Hiking related.

[00:11:31] I want to do a Prezi.

[00:11:33] I've never done one.

[00:11:35] I've always done a million Northern Prezis, but I've never done a full.

[00:11:39] I've done them separate, but never together.

[00:11:42] So that's my hiking goal for the year.

[00:11:45] Um, in terms of, uh, personal stuff, non-hiking related, I really want to produce a couple

[00:11:50] tunes, my own music for electronica.

[00:11:53] And, um, you know, that's in part because of this new, uh, experience with, uh, singing

[00:12:00] with Nick and stuff like that.

[00:12:01] It's really turned up the gas on my creative, uh, endeavors here.

[00:12:06] So those are my goals.

[00:12:08] Um, that's about it.

[00:12:09] That's good.

[00:12:10] Yeah.

[00:12:10] Awesome.

[00:12:11] Awesome.

[00:12:11] So I got a couple, I didn't put them all down here, but, uh, so for me, it's along the same

[00:12:16] lines hiking.

[00:12:16] Like I need to do a single day Pammy loop.

[00:12:18] Oh, okay.

[00:12:19] I just haven't gotten around to that.

[00:12:20] Uh, so I got to do that.

[00:12:22] And then, um, I was looking at our Instagram feed and I liked the, you know, the notifications

[00:12:29] about the show and I liked the coffee.

[00:12:31] Um, vibe and stuff, but I feel like we need to post more hiking specific photos on the

[00:12:40] slasher Instagram page.

[00:12:42] So I'm going to commit to posting some of my photos on hikes moving forward on the Instagram

[00:12:48] page.

[00:12:50] How about making reels too?

[00:12:52] Reels are super important.

[00:12:53] In reels too.

[00:12:54] Yeah.

[00:12:54] I'm going to more, more Instagram content.

[00:12:56] Okay.

[00:12:57] Sounds good.

[00:12:59] Um, now when you say Pammy, is it because you're a little bit of a little bit of a

[00:13:01] chip on your shoulder from when we tried to do the single day and you went down?

[00:13:06] No, no.

[00:13:06] I don't have a chip on my shoulder because that was totally not my fault.

[00:13:10] I, I, I just ran out of time and I have no doubt in my mind that I would have like,

[00:13:13] I probably would have finished within like nine hours if it wasn't for you two idiots.

[00:13:18] Yeah.

[00:13:19] Cause you missed the last quarter apparently.

[00:13:21] Yes.

[00:13:21] Essentially.

[00:13:22] I had to go.

[00:13:23] I had to go blow off fireworks at the beach.

[00:13:26] Okay.

[00:13:27] All right.

[00:13:28] But beyond that, you've never done a Pemi.

[00:13:31] No, no, I haven't done.

[00:13:33] Okay.

[00:13:33] I need to do it.

[00:13:35] That's on my list.

[00:13:37] Cool.

[00:13:37] Yeah.

[00:13:37] You guys slowed me down that day.

[00:13:39] Yeah.

[00:13:40] Well, it was, uh, it was all that burning beer spray on my, my eyeballs.

[00:13:44] Stomp blast himself with the beer spray.

[00:13:46] So slasher's hiking topic of the week.

[00:13:58] Um, all right.

[00:14:00] So now moving on to hiking topics here, Stomp.

[00:14:03] So we, um, we wanted to just look back and give a recap of our favorite hikes of 2024.

[00:14:12] So we might as well continue on the Pemi loop theme here and let you start, because I think

[00:14:18] you probably have that on your list, but why don't you go and then, then I'll go.

[00:14:23] So yeah, I, um, for number one, I, I ranked them in order of, you know, one to three, my

[00:14:28] favorite being number one, a single day Pemi, it was clockwise.

[00:14:32] And I had that stupid pool noodle.

[00:14:34] I had a lot of fun.

[00:14:36] It was absolutely miserable.

[00:14:38] You know, I, I, it took me what?

[00:14:40] 10,000 hours.

[00:14:41] And I saw sunrise.

[00:14:42] Uh, I, I broke all the rules.

[00:14:44] I started, I slept in late, started at like 10 o'clock in the morning.

[00:14:48] So that was a blast.

[00:14:49] That's, that's my number one.

[00:14:51] Um, I felt pretty good coming out of it at the end.

[00:14:54] And, um, number two would be the captain, the trip with Nobby, uh, Liz and Dave.

[00:14:59] Uh, and by the way, it's Dave, Dave eats shit is so funny that I can't get over that one.

[00:15:05] That's a good one.

[00:15:06] Like, can you imagine Dave eats shit for an IG name?

[00:15:09] Um, yes.

[00:15:11] So that was just a, no, Dave shits in the woods.

[00:15:14] Correct.

[00:15:14] But you mixed it up with your other guy who eats, eats shit.

[00:15:19] Is that his name?

[00:15:20] Steve eats shit?

[00:15:22] That's his Instagram.

[00:15:23] Steve eats shit.

[00:15:24] And it's like, he doesn't eat shit.

[00:15:26] It's like, he just is saying like, I eat stuff on trail and he takes photos of food on summits.

[00:15:31] And they're really, really good photos.

[00:15:33] Right.

[00:15:33] But if that was Dave's name, it would be a whole different context.

[00:15:36] Yeah.

[00:15:37] Yeah.

[00:15:37] It wouldn't be good.

[00:15:38] Yeah.

[00:15:39] Uh, and then, uh, in third place, it would be this lost past thing.

[00:15:43] Um, just cause it was, it's so out of the ordinary.

[00:15:46] And we'll, we'll talk about it a little later, but it was just, uh, a nice walk in the woods,

[00:15:51] uh, with good banter as Dave put it on his post.

[00:15:54] So those are my top three.

[00:15:55] They're, they're probably more, but those come to mind.

[00:15:59] And, uh, you got a long list, huh?

[00:16:02] Yeah.

[00:16:02] Yeah.

[00:16:02] Yeah.

[00:16:02] When you, when we said like favorite hikes of 2024, we didn't say top three.

[00:16:06] We just said favorite hikes.

[00:16:08] I was trying to do it for time, but Hey, let's do them.

[00:16:12] All right.

[00:16:13] All right.

[00:16:13] I have six here, but I probably could add like a multiple ones.

[00:16:16] So for me, number one is like, I always like to get out to new places.

[00:16:19] I love New Hampshire, um, in Maine, but you know, if I can get out to a new place, I will.

[00:16:24] So I would say number one for me is the, uh, the small cold pass hike that I did in, uh,

[00:16:31] the Tatra mountains of Slovakia.

[00:16:33] So that was a day hike that I, you know, I drove down to Slovakia from,

[00:16:38] um, from Krakow, Poland and, uh, crossed the border and went into the, um, south of the

[00:16:45] Tatra mountains and got into a, uh, small little village called, um, Starry Smokovic.

[00:16:53] And, uh, this little village was like, you would imagine if you've seen that movie frozen,

[00:17:00] you would get the vibe of what this village felt like.

[00:17:03] It had the, um, you know, the old sort of shutters and the, um, the, uh, what do you call

[00:17:10] that?

[00:17:11] Um, gingerbread houses.

[00:17:13] That's, that's the vibe.

[00:17:14] It had the gingerbread houses village.

[00:17:15] And, you know, I met my guide, Peter, and then we proceeded to, uh, hike up through,

[00:17:22] I think there was two huts that we got to.

[00:17:25] And every time we got to a hut, we had like a shot and a bear.

[00:17:29] And, um, I think I was shithouse by the time we got done with the hike, but it was,

[00:17:33] it was an amazing hike.

[00:17:34] You know, you go up into this huge pass and it's like this valley that's covered in snow.

[00:17:39] And then we're hiking up into the snow fields.

[00:17:43] It was just amazing.

[00:17:44] Oh, yeah.

[00:17:44] I remember that story.

[00:17:45] That was great.

[00:17:46] That, I forget what episode we talk about that, but that's a good episode to check out if anybody

[00:17:50] hasn't heard it.

[00:17:51] Yeah.

[00:17:52] Yeah.

[00:17:52] That was sometime in like April or May.

[00:17:54] So, um, you can, you can scroll through, but yeah, Slovakia highly recommend it.

[00:17:57] It's on my list to get back to.

[00:17:59] I want to get, um, my friend Peter, who's the guide, get him, uh, a bigger crowd to go

[00:18:04] with.

[00:18:04] So someday I'll be going on that.

[00:18:06] The next one would be, I think I had this.

[00:18:10] So then there was a Northern presidential hike that I did with a crew of guys where we ran

[00:18:16] into probably the most spectacular undercast I've ever seen.

[00:18:21] And we also had a fog bow.

[00:18:23] Oh, I remember that one.

[00:18:25] So instead of a rainbow was a fog bow.

[00:18:26] Yep.

[00:18:27] So I'd say that was my number two memory.

[00:18:30] And that was also when Nick was able to get those shots of us coming up to, um, coming

[00:18:36] up, um, Adams.

[00:18:37] Yeah.

[00:18:37] Profile.

[00:18:38] Backdrop of Mount Washington.

[00:18:39] Yeah.

[00:18:39] It was amazing.

[00:18:40] Yeah.

[00:18:41] It almost looks like a stick figure that was drawn in there.

[00:18:44] Right.

[00:18:45] Yeah.

[00:18:45] It's a, it's amazing.

[00:18:46] So that was a great day.

[00:18:47] And we saw so many friends too, like little foot and that crew was up there and, um, Joanne

[00:18:51] and everybody.

[00:18:51] So it was, it was just a fun day to be on the mountain.

[00:18:55] And you, you know, when you hit it, like it was like cloudy and overcast.

[00:18:58] And then, um, once you got to the hut and we started like the second we left the hut,

[00:19:03] you could see like, all right, the sun's busting through, but then you don't realize

[00:19:08] it, but then you look over and we had maybe like 150 to 200 feet of clearing on Madison.

[00:19:16] And then you look out and the clouds are like literally like right out of your hand level.

[00:19:20] Yeah.

[00:19:20] That's epic.

[00:19:21] Yeah.

[00:19:22] Was it better than that time up on, uh, Kyrshaj?

[00:19:26] Remember that one we saw?

[00:19:28] That was amazing too.

[00:19:29] I think the difference with this one was the clouds were just like much closer to us.

[00:19:33] Oh yeah.

[00:19:34] That's neat.

[00:19:35] Yeah.

[00:19:37] Um, then next I have, um, I took a trip up Mount Washington.

[00:19:42] I did Ammanusik and then we brought the sleds with us and, um, we were able to sled down

[00:19:48] the cog.

[00:19:49] So that was a fun adventure that I've never done before.

[00:19:52] Yeah.

[00:19:53] Sketchy.

[00:19:54] How fast do you think you went?

[00:19:56] Uh, not super fast.

[00:19:58] I think the sketchiest part was maybe up above, um, when you're in the, like the narrow sections

[00:20:02] between Burt Ravine and, um, and the, the railroad tracks is a couple of sections where

[00:20:08] you just got to be a little careful.

[00:20:09] It's, it's not too, you know, we hiked the dangerous parts, but you know, this is a little

[00:20:13] sketchy in some areas, but overall, I mean, it took us like 10 minutes to get down 10, 15

[00:20:20] minutes to get down when it normally would take like a half hour, 40 minutes.

[00:20:23] Yeah.

[00:20:24] That's cool.

[00:20:26] So that was good.

[00:20:27] And then, um, I would say a couple of other ones that I had here.

[00:20:30] So we did a Z-Bunge Traverse winter overnight, staying at the Zealand hut.

[00:20:34] That was a fun, memorable adventure.

[00:20:36] And I recommend that to anybody just, you know, bring your, if you can do this in winter,

[00:20:40] just bring your snowshoes and be prepared to work because no matter what you do, uh, the

[00:20:44] twin way is not going to be cleared out.

[00:20:46] It's going to be blown over with snow no matter what.

[00:20:49] The twin way.

[00:20:50] Yeah.

[00:20:50] Copy.

[00:20:51] Got it.

[00:20:52] Yeah.

[00:20:52] Coming down from Guille and then heading over to West Bond.

[00:20:54] It's just, it's snowblown.

[00:20:56] Sure.

[00:20:57] Sure.

[00:20:58] Thank God it's like fairly level, but still.

[00:21:01] Exactly.

[00:21:02] And then I would say I did a, a wildcat fall foliage hike.

[00:21:07] So we had awesome views of fall foliage.

[00:21:09] And then my last one would be finishing the winter 4,000 footer on Mount Heal.

[00:21:13] That was just fun because I was with good friends.

[00:21:16] Right.

[00:21:16] Right.

[00:21:17] Good stuff.

[00:21:19] Yep.

[00:21:20] So to summarize, stomp Slovakia, Northern Presidentials, sledding down the cog, Z-Bunge

[00:21:26] Traverse, wildcat fall foliage, and then finishing the winter 4,000 footer on Heal.

[00:21:32] Very cool.

[00:21:34] Yeah.

[00:21:34] I feel like you don't get out hiking enough, stomp.

[00:21:37] You have a longer list.

[00:21:39] Well, I was going to just mention that I've probably done Welch Dickey about 300 times.

[00:21:45] That's something.

[00:21:46] It's, I've done it so many times this year.

[00:21:50] But yeah, it's just time constraints.

[00:21:52] You do what you can when you can.

[00:21:54] Yeah, that's true.

[00:21:55] That's true.

[00:21:55] And then I have here, have you added any gear to your list?

[00:21:59] Any new hiking stuff?

[00:22:02] Any new hiking clothes?

[00:22:03] Anything like that?

[00:22:04] Well, I purchased these A Solo full leather boots that have been on a couple of recent

[00:22:12] missions and some big bushwhacks.

[00:22:14] I wore them with Dave this weekend and they're bulletproof.

[00:22:17] They're super duper warm and they're just super dry after a full day.

[00:22:22] There's no moisture inside my boots.

[00:22:24] So I'm really happy with my new A Solos.

[00:22:27] They're heavy.

[00:22:28] They're super heavy.

[00:22:29] So I swap off between the A Solos and the Hokas that I love, but absolutely love them.

[00:22:35] And in terms of my pack, that low 64 that I picked up this year has been just really beautiful.

[00:22:42] I'm almost at the point where I'm just not using my giant 115 low pack as much.

[00:22:49] That thing has almost taken a backseat to the 64.

[00:22:52] I think I break out the 115 for larger adventures, but like this weekend.

[00:22:59] And then like stupid little things like those Arc Plasma lighters.

[00:23:03] I'm on this bent right now trying to find really great ways to make fire and shelter

[00:23:09] when you're backpacking or bushwhacking and you're getting in trouble and you need to get warm quick.

[00:23:15] So I've just like really been doing a lot of research digging in on that.

[00:23:18] So those Arc lighters are super cool.

[00:23:20] They do need a charge, but they will light up in whatever condition you throw at them.

[00:23:25] Even if they're wet, they'll light right up.

[00:23:27] So those three things have been great.

[00:23:30] Yeah.

[00:23:30] We're going to talk about fire a little bit when we talk about the young man in Sweden that got in trouble.

[00:23:37] So yeah, so that's cool.

[00:23:39] And I think for me, a couple of things that I got, I didn't get much this year.

[00:23:43] I got, you know, it's something I did get that I've added to my winter gear that I didn't think that I would ever like is the electric hand warmer.

[00:23:54] So they're a little heavy.

[00:23:55] Yeah.

[00:23:55] You know, you kind of have to have that attitude that like, all right, you know, you're just going to carry like a lot of weight in winter.

[00:24:01] And if you do, then these things are pretty good because you can, the thing about the traditional hand warmers is that depending on like if they're zipped in your pocket for too long or something like that,

[00:24:17] like you have to re-engage them sometimes and shake them to get them to get hot again.

[00:24:20] Yeah.

[00:24:21] These electric hand warmers, you can control the level.

[00:24:25] So I can put in one of the hand warmers with my phone and just keep it warm the entire time.

[00:24:30] And the battery life is really good.

[00:24:32] How long does the charge last?

[00:24:35] It takes like, I don't even know, like an hour to charge.

[00:24:38] And then like I've left it on, it's got three power levels and I've left it on like power level one for eight hours on a hike and it was still warm.

[00:24:45] That's pretty cool.

[00:24:47] And I got two of them.

[00:24:50] So, and then I think a couple of times I've used it where I put it on the power level three and just warmed up my hands really quickly.

[00:24:57] So yeah, I think it's, it's pretty good.

[00:24:58] I've been impressed with it.

[00:25:00] Yeah.

[00:25:00] That's cool.

[00:25:01] Yeah.

[00:25:02] And then I got a couple of things.

[00:25:05] So I did, I bought a few pairs of minus 33 socks stomp, which I've liked.

[00:25:10] Good stuff.

[00:25:11] So for me between darn toughs and those, I think I've, I'm pretty good with socks.

[00:25:17] And then I bought a couple of virgin hoodies, which I find super comfortable and I've been impressed with those as well.

[00:25:24] Yeah.

[00:25:24] What color?

[00:25:26] I've got blue and green.

[00:25:28] Okay.

[00:25:28] I think I have the green one that you have.

[00:25:31] Yeah.

[00:25:31] Yeah.

[00:25:31] I think you did.

[00:25:32] A front zip?

[00:25:34] No, mine's not a zip.

[00:25:35] Mine's a pullover.

[00:25:36] Okay.

[00:25:36] It's got one button on the top, but I've seen the zips too.

[00:25:39] Yeah.

[00:25:39] I haven't got one of those, but I've been wearing those quite a bit.

[00:25:41] Yeah.

[00:25:41] They're not bad.

[00:25:42] So super soft, super comfortable, super warm.

[00:25:45] Yeah.

[00:25:46] Well, same thing with minus 33.

[00:25:47] They're micro fleece.

[00:25:50] It's wonderful.

[00:25:51] Keeps you warm even when you're wet.

[00:25:53] Even if they're damp, their clothing is just great for cold weather.

[00:25:59] Yeah.

[00:25:59] So, I mean, not too much.

[00:26:01] Oh, you know what else I did get is I got new snowshoes.

[00:26:06] I got helium Atlas snowshoes, which are, they're a lighter weight than the MSR.

[00:26:13] So I also got the MSR Lightning Ascents.

[00:26:16] Or not the Lightning Ascents.

[00:26:18] I got the MSR Evo Ascents, I think.

[00:26:20] Yeah.

[00:26:22] But the helium Atlas snowshoes are good.

[00:26:26] They're a lot lighter, I feel like.

[00:26:28] The only issue is I think the crampons on the Atlas don't bite as well going downhill.

[00:26:34] So that was my one gripe with them is when I had to kind of lean back.

[00:26:39] I was coming down Jackson.

[00:26:41] You know that section of Jackson that's got the really steep rock right before the summit?

[00:26:45] Yeah.

[00:26:45] I was coming down that and I like had to lean heavily on the back of the snowshoes and

[00:26:50] the crampons didn't really bite as much as I expected.

[00:26:55] So that's the one thing.

[00:26:57] But I do like the Atlas.

[00:26:58] They're light and pretty comfortable.

[00:27:01] Cool.

[00:27:01] That's great.

[00:27:03] I'm still beating the hell out of mine, my MSRs.

[00:27:08] Yeah, yeah.

[00:27:08] I mean, my MSR Evo's, the old ones, I've had those for like 10 years now.

[00:27:13] They're still in good shape.

[00:27:16] All right, Stomp.

[00:27:17] Now, memorable moments of the year.

[00:27:19] So we talked about hikes, but then we want to talk about memorable moments related to the

[00:27:24] podcast or related to just hiking in general.

[00:27:29] Yeah, the podcast has had a bunch this year.

[00:27:32] Full Conditions was really a mind-blowing time for us.

[00:27:36] I can't believe how packed that was.

[00:27:38] But earlier in the year, we had the Seek the Peak event for the Mount Washington Observatory.

[00:27:42] That was a really great time.

[00:27:44] It's just been a great year.

[00:27:46] A lot of fun stuff.

[00:27:48] For me personally, my big highlight was actually standing next to Andy Satchett, the voice of

[00:27:54] the Mount Washington Road Race and spinning music for the runners before they took off uphill.

[00:27:59] That was an out-of-body experience.

[00:28:03] That was pretty wild.

[00:28:04] I forgot about that.

[00:28:04] Yeah, right?

[00:28:05] That was pretty cool.

[00:28:07] And then, of course, the big one, which we all experienced, was that solar eclipse, which

[00:28:12] was just, looking back on it, it was chaos.

[00:28:15] I mean, I cannot get over how crazy the roads were.

[00:28:18] It took people 12 to 24 hours to get out of the traffic back home.

[00:28:24] It was an amazing event.

[00:28:25] The pictures are incredible.

[00:28:26] But that was wild.

[00:28:28] I've never seen anything quite like it.

[00:28:31] Yeah, that's right.

[00:28:32] I missed that.

[00:28:32] That was when I was in Europe, so I missed it.

[00:28:35] Oh, dude.

[00:28:35] I mean, I pulled out.

[00:28:37] I'm driving up and over Lost River from Benton back to Lincoln, and people are diverting,

[00:28:43] trying to get God knows where.

[00:28:46] And then I get on to 93 South, and I was counting exits, and I think I almost made it from Lincoln

[00:28:53] down to Thornton with watching a northbound traffic, just stall traffic the entire way.

[00:29:02] It was mind-blowing.

[00:29:04] Yeah, you think that foliage is bad.

[00:29:06] This was just 100 times worse.

[00:29:09] Incredible.

[00:29:10] Well, it's good preparation, because if the Seabrook nuclear power plant ever blows, that's

[00:29:14] what you're going to see.

[00:29:15] Everyone heading north.

[00:29:17] Yeah, good luck with that.

[00:29:19] That's even more congested.

[00:29:21] Ay-yi-yi.

[00:29:22] I'll be coming to your house, Stomp.

[00:29:24] Is that thing operational?

[00:29:27] It is operational.

[00:29:29] They've extended it multiple times, and they actually have another reactor that they could,

[00:29:35] I don't know if it's in there, or they could install it or something, but they don't have

[00:29:40] a permit.

[00:29:41] Wow.

[00:29:42] They fought about it in the 70s, so.

[00:29:44] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:29:44] Yeah, it's still there.

[00:29:46] Huh.

[00:29:47] Cool.

[00:29:47] I can see it from Poe Hill when I climb up there in the morning.

[00:29:50] Yeah, yeah.

[00:29:51] With your Bambi family.

[00:29:53] Yes.

[00:29:54] All right, so that was memorable moments, and then, Stomp, you had here media-podcast,

[00:30:01] hiking sites, books, et cetera.

[00:30:03] So what is this?

[00:30:04] Did you want to put in your own segment?

[00:30:06] Is that what you're doing here?

[00:30:07] Right.

[00:30:08] No, just highlights from the year.

[00:30:10] Clearly, The Lines of Winter was the book highlight of the year.

[00:30:15] That thing is amazing, incredible.

[00:30:18] Hiking sites, I just wanted to give a plug to TrailsNH.

[00:30:22] I think TrailsNH is a really great resource, and we'll talk about that shortly.

[00:30:27] That was a great highlight.

[00:30:29] And for podcasts, I don't know, have you been listening to anything new?

[00:30:32] I mean, the PUDS, PUDS is pretty cool.

[00:30:34] I'm enjoying that.

[00:30:35] Stosh is killing it out in the Catskills.

[00:30:39] Yeah, I listen to PUDS.

[00:30:40] I listen to Stosh's podcast, and then I listen to just a bunch of stupid news podcast and

[00:30:49] sports podcast and stuff.

[00:30:50] Yeah.

[00:30:51] I think that's worth mentioning.

[00:30:52] Okay.

[00:30:53] All right.

[00:30:54] Any other books, hiking-related or non-hiking-related?

[00:30:58] I just got a book, as a matter of fact.

[00:31:02] Hold on a sec, Stomp.

[00:31:04] I'll tell you in a moment.

[00:31:05] Sure thing.

[00:31:06] But yeah, back to the lines of Winter, I think that, for me personally, was just a great,

[00:31:16] great book.

[00:31:16] And it was...

[00:31:19] Everybody was anxious for it to show up, and we got that early copy to read it ahead of

[00:31:27] You may need to edit this.

[00:31:29] Amazing.

[00:31:29] No, I've just been chatting.

[00:31:31] Wait a minute.

[00:31:32] Yeah.

[00:31:32] I won't tell you what I'm talking about, because it was all about you, of course.

[00:31:36] But yeah.

[00:31:38] So anyway, what you got?

[00:31:40] So a friend of mine, a friend of Mrs. Mike's, gave me this book called Hidden Mountains by

[00:31:47] Michael Wetschert.

[00:31:49] And it is the story of a climbing adventure gone wrong in the remote Alaskan mountain range,

[00:31:55] the impossible rescue attempt that followed, and the fraught cost of survival.

[00:31:59] So yeah, I'm bringing this with me to Florida to read.

[00:32:02] Okay, cool.

[00:32:03] Can I...

[00:32:04] How do you spell that last name?

[00:32:05] Is it Weichart?

[00:32:06] It is Weichert.

[00:32:10] Oh, okay.

[00:32:11] W-E-J-C-H-E-R-T.

[00:32:14] Interesting.

[00:32:14] Okay.

[00:32:15] It's called Hidden Mountains.

[00:32:17] Excellent.

[00:32:18] You'll have to give us a full report.

[00:32:20] I will.

[00:32:21] I will.

[00:32:22] That's what I have.

[00:32:23] Ready to go here, Stomp.

[00:32:24] And then next up, we want to do a recap of memorable guests that we had this year.

[00:32:29] So we had many, many guests this year.

[00:32:31] I think this year was the busiest year as far as guests go.

[00:32:34] I can't remember doing an episode where it was just Stomp and Mike for at least the last

[00:32:38] three months.

[00:32:39] Except for this.

[00:32:40] Yeah.

[00:32:41] This is the...

[00:32:42] It's been months.

[00:32:43] Yeah.

[00:32:43] Yeah.

[00:32:43] Yeah.

[00:32:43] I mean, that's actually a sort of a New Year's resolution.

[00:32:46] I want to go a little lighter on the guests next year because the dual format is a lot

[00:32:53] of fun.

[00:32:54] Not that guests aren't fun, but this is cool.

[00:32:58] Yes.

[00:32:59] So who were your favorite or most memorable guests?

[00:33:03] A couple come to mind.

[00:33:05] I really enjoyed Jen Kunze's visit with us explaining what life is like at McMurdo Station.

[00:33:11] That was a great episode.

[00:33:13] I found the conversation with Barefoot Ken to be pretty fascinating, especially coming from

[00:33:20] a physical therapy viewpoint.

[00:33:22] That was great.

[00:33:23] Kimball from Trails in H.

[00:33:25] That was fun.

[00:33:25] And I really enjoyed Jason from the Real Rescue podcast.

[00:33:30] That was a fun chat too.

[00:33:32] Just an ocean swimmer who told us all the stories about training and saving people in

[00:33:39] the waters of the oceans and whatnot.

[00:33:41] So it was fascinating.

[00:33:43] How about you?

[00:33:44] And Jason, the thing about Jason that was interesting to me is, and we talked a little

[00:33:48] bit about this when we were on the PUDS podcast around guests and you never know what you're

[00:33:52] going to get.

[00:33:53] And Jason came in in the energy and the sense of humor and the timing and the cadence and

[00:34:01] everything.

[00:34:01] And the stories that he told was so interesting.

[00:34:03] But he just fit so perfectly, I felt like, with us.

[00:34:06] It was the easiest episode I think we recorded all year long.

[00:34:10] It was just like we'd known him our whole lives.

[00:34:14] Yeah, that's a good point.

[00:34:15] I'd love to have him back on at some point.

[00:34:16] I mean, he does have a podcast too.

[00:34:18] So he's got some practice behind him.

[00:34:21] But that was great.

[00:34:22] Yeah, yeah.

[00:34:23] Yeah, he's great.

[00:34:24] For me, so a couple of guests.

[00:34:26] So Andrew Drummond, I thought that was a great chance to meet him.

[00:34:29] I mean, White Mountain legend for sure.

[00:34:31] Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[00:34:33] And then I think Josh Bogardas and then meeting Jason from The Caretaker, I think those were

[00:34:40] two separate episodes, but both those guys were like very interesting, fascinating guys.

[00:34:45] Yeah, yeah.

[00:34:46] That was really great.

[00:34:47] And Jason is, where is he now?

[00:34:49] Australia?

[00:34:50] He was in Australia.

[00:34:51] I don't know if he's back yet or not, but he was doing a seasonal thing.

[00:34:56] And then Adam Hoyt, I thought was fun.

[00:34:59] You know, it was nice to meet him.

[00:35:00] I've seen so many of his videos.

[00:35:02] I thought that that was good.

[00:35:04] And then Danger Will Robinson, I thought that was one of the funnier moments of the year

[00:35:13] to me is when I called out the whole Danger Will Robinson and he immediately, like first

[00:35:17] you knew exactly where I was going with it.

[00:35:19] And then he knew exactly where I was going with it.

[00:35:21] And I thought that cracked me up.

[00:35:23] Yeah.

[00:35:23] Yeah.

[00:35:23] It was like me, like St. Bernard, last name.

[00:35:27] Something you live with for decades.

[00:35:30] Yeah, exactly.

[00:35:31] And then I think Heather Harlan was fun too.

[00:35:33] Like it's just very interesting to hear her evolution with the AMC and, you know, her work

[00:35:37] and the Hutt crew and then now the volunteer work that she does.

[00:35:42] I thought that she was a great, great fun guest.

[00:35:44] Yeah, for sure.

[00:35:46] I wonder how many episodes we had this year.

[00:35:48] Maybe like 40 plus, 45?

[00:35:51] Yeah, I would say probably at least 45 or so.

[00:35:53] I think we missed a few weeks, but it was good.

[00:35:56] Not bad.

[00:35:56] Good year.

[00:35:57] Putting in the work, Stomper.

[00:35:59] Yeah.

[00:35:59] Yeah.

[00:36:00] But yeah, thank you to all the guests.

[00:36:02] We appreciate the time that you took and hopefully it was a positive experience for you.

[00:36:08] And if it wasn't, then it was Stomp's fault and we apologize.

[00:36:17] Yeah, so next up, Stomp wants to explain a little bit to the listeners why they're forced

[00:36:25] to listen to McDonald's and AT&T commercials before they listen to us.

[00:36:29] Yeah, it's because we've made the proverbial big time, apparently.

[00:36:33] Yeah, we got approved for monetization, which is a huge step, I would say, in the life of

[00:36:39] a podcast.

[00:36:40] So thanks to all the listeners for making that happen.

[00:36:44] And yeah, we do apologize for the interruptions, but overall it's a positive.

[00:36:49] It's a good positive and a step forward for us.

[00:36:51] So you may hear McDonald's and AT&T at some point, but it's all good.

[00:36:57] Yeah.

[00:36:57] Stomp has an endless need for money.

[00:37:03] Well, I think you have an endless need for like equipment.

[00:37:07] That's true.

[00:37:08] I think that that's the reason we're looking to do the monetization piece of it here.

[00:37:15] But if you don't like it that much, definitely what you can do is just send us coffee money

[00:37:21] instead.

[00:37:21] And then if we get enough coffee money, we'll turn off the monetization.

[00:37:25] Right.

[00:37:26] So next up here, Stomp, we got a couple of goings on in the area.

[00:37:30] So we pulled a couple of events and news items here.

[00:37:33] So Tenney Mountain is going to host the Kaboom X Freestyle Show.

[00:37:38] What is this?

[00:37:39] Yeah, that's coming up on, let's see, January 10th and 11th.

[00:37:45] It's an epic weekend.

[00:37:47] Big air, insane flips, and electrifying snowmobile stunts right here in Plymouth at Tenney Mountain.

[00:37:53] Tenney's making a huge comeback.

[00:37:55] So this event should be pretty cool.

[00:37:57] You can go to the website, Tenney Mountain, and get all the extra details on tickets and pricing and stuff like that.

[00:38:04] So it's going to be a good time.

[00:38:05] They're really doing all kinds of stuff.

[00:38:07] You can go there any day of the week once the snow starts flying.

[00:38:10] They're open now.

[00:38:11] Trails are open.

[00:38:12] But they also have the tubing, sledding hill.

[00:38:14] It's a great place.

[00:38:15] A lot of fun.

[00:38:16] Awesome.

[00:38:17] Yeah, well, definitely check it out.

[00:38:18] And then, Stomp, I'll go back to that video about the eaglet in a minute, but just keeping in the theme of events and news stories.

[00:38:28] So we just want to remind people, we'll put this in the show notes, but the National Park Service has announced that there are six dates where they are waiving entrance fees.

[00:38:38] So the White Mountains is a national forest, so it's not the same as a national park.

[00:38:43] The national parks that I've been to, I haven't been to all of them, but I've been to a few.

[00:38:48] And my experience is essentially like you will enter a ranger station with a gate, and you have to pay a toll or an entrance fee.

[00:38:59] And typically, your choice is you can buy like a National Parks Pass, which will get you into all the national parks, or you can buy a one-day permit to get in.

[00:39:10] And a lot of times, it's really like it's a little extra to get an annual pass.

[00:39:15] It's not that much more expensive than a one-day entrance.

[00:39:18] But they also run these deals where they will incentivize the public to come into the national parks for free.

[00:39:26] And they have six days this year.

[00:39:28] So they've got January 20th, April 19th, June 19th, August 4th, September 27th, and November 11th.

[00:39:40] And the National Park Service will be allowing free admission to encourage U.S. citizens to venture out and explore the country's 63 national parks and 360 designated sites.

[00:39:55] So visitors can enjoy free entrance to more than 400 national parks across the country.

[00:40:02] So this is your chance if you want to go to the Smokies, or you want to go to Yellowstone, or you want to go to Yosemite, or the Grand Canyon, you can go there for free.

[00:40:10] That's great.

[00:40:11] Yeah, that's super cool.

[00:40:14] Awesome.

[00:40:15] And then next up here, Stomp.

[00:40:17] So I have been up to the Watcher and saw some climbers on the eaglet earlier this year.

[00:40:22] Our friend Jake has gone up and climbed the eaglet with a guide.

[00:40:26] And you have now linked a YouTube video of somebody climbing the west chimney of the eaglet, which is great.

[00:40:36] Three pitches at a 5.7, I guess, difficulty.

[00:40:42] Yeah, it's a first-person video.

[00:40:44] Just stumbled upon it on YouTube.

[00:40:46] And they go right from the start to the top.

[00:40:49] And it's great.

[00:40:49] Nice little resource to see what it's really like to get up that thing.

[00:40:53] Yep, yeah, and the YouTube channel is Trail Slippa.

[00:40:57] Trail Slippa.

[00:40:58] Trail Slippa with an A-H at the end.

[00:41:03] Yeah, I was thinking about doing that one time or another, but I don't know.

[00:41:09] Maybe not.

[00:41:10] Yeah, yeah.

[00:41:13] Yeah, it looks like there's a lot of cracks and stuff that they can climb into, but it's just a little...

[00:41:18] I'm curious, I just want to see what happens when they get up top.

[00:41:21] Oh, you're scrolling through the vid?

[00:41:23] Yeah.

[00:41:24] It's pretty awesome.

[00:41:25] I'm scrolling through the video and getting dizzy.

[00:41:26] Yeah, yeah.

[00:41:27] There's a lot of ropes here.

[00:41:28] There's a lot going on.

[00:41:31] I think that's what freaks me out about climbing.

[00:41:33] Like, I can see here he's got...

[00:41:35] I'm just looking at this video.

[00:41:36] So, he's got one, two, three, four, five.

[00:41:40] He's got six, like, strings of ropes.

[00:41:43] And then he's got three carabiners and then some pulley system thing.

[00:41:48] Like, it's too confusing to me, Stomp.

[00:41:51] Yeah, yeah.

[00:41:52] Watching that, you definitely got to know what you're doing.

[00:41:55] It's probably best to take the rusty Talbot route and just hit a gym and learn how to do it from the ground up before you tackle something like that.

[00:42:04] Yeah, you got to know what you're doing for sure.

[00:42:06] Get a guide.

[00:42:07] Hell yeah.

[00:42:07] Yeah, absolutely.

[00:42:08] All right.

[00:42:10] Next up, Stomp, we are...

[00:42:14] Oh, we want to just give a thank you to Ty Gagne for coming in and doing a deep dive with us for two episodes.

[00:42:19] Got a lot of good feedback from listeners.

[00:42:22] Was a fun conversation.

[00:42:24] It was.

[00:42:24] Stomp had these two giant maps that we were referencing with laser pointers, which was actually pretty helpful.

[00:42:30] But what's the feedback?

[00:42:32] Have you heard anything from anybody on your end, Stomp?

[00:42:34] And thanks again to Ty.

[00:42:36] Yeah, yeah.

[00:42:36] Those maps have found a home.

[00:42:38] A couple listeners reached out and they'll be grabbing them soon.

[00:42:41] But it was great.

[00:42:42] Yeah, Ty reached out and said that people are complimenting the three of us on the effort.

[00:42:49] And that's good.

[00:42:52] Because that was a long talk and it was a lot of angles and a lot of stories to cover within a two to three hour period.

[00:42:58] But so far, the feedback is good.

[00:43:01] So that's a good thing.

[00:43:02] And I just want to thank you for those longhorn chocolates that you left.

[00:43:06] I think Mrs. Stomp and I.

[00:43:07] Yeah, we ate the whole box and that came out to like, what, 3,600 calories?

[00:43:12] Yeah, that's a problem.

[00:43:14] I immediately was like, I got to get these out of my house.

[00:43:16] Yeah, Mike showed up with a box of longhorns and one was missing.

[00:43:20] Like, wait a minute, dude.

[00:43:21] You have one of these already?

[00:43:23] It was funny.

[00:43:25] That was Caroline.

[00:43:26] Caroline grabbed one, so.

[00:43:28] Yeah.

[00:43:28] And Mrs. Stomp is still like, oh, they didn't like the climber special.

[00:43:31] If you've read the lines of winter yet, on page 38, the climbers have a climber special.

[00:43:37] And Ty makes note of it.

[00:43:38] And it's basically cream of mushroom soup, tuna, and pasta.

[00:43:43] And we made it not so much for like, oh, wow, this is a great dinner, but just an experiential type of thing.

[00:43:49] Like, here's what they had that night, you know.

[00:43:50] But you two hated it.

[00:43:52] You were like, I'm not eating that.

[00:43:55] I don't like tuna.

[00:43:56] I don't like tuna, so.

[00:43:57] Well, what can you do?

[00:43:59] You missed out.

[00:44:00] I ate the whole thing.

[00:44:03] I'll come up with a, so I'm doing, I think we're doing an overnight on Zeeland Hut in a couple of weeks.

[00:44:07] So when I get back, so I will come up with like a better recipe.

[00:44:11] I typically love what I like.

[00:44:14] Yeah, yeah.

[00:44:15] What I like to do is like, I'll do the shredded chicken in the crock pot with like some rice.

[00:44:20] And I'll do cream of chicken.

[00:44:24] And then I'll do like cheddar cheese soup.

[00:44:26] And I'll mix that together and then kind of reduce it down so it's like more of a paste.

[00:44:33] And then when I get to the hut, I can pour a little bit of water.

[00:44:37] I'll freeze it.

[00:44:37] And then when I get to the hut, I can pour a little bit of water in it and then unfreeze it.

[00:44:45] I'll heat it up inside my pot.

[00:44:47] And it's pretty good.

[00:44:48] It's like shredded chicken, rice, and cream of chicken, cream of cheddar cheese soup.

[00:44:53] I like that.

[00:44:54] That's hearty.

[00:44:54] That sounds good.

[00:44:55] Yeah.

[00:44:56] Some sourdough bread.

[00:44:57] Sure.

[00:44:57] You can put any other meat in this thing too.

[00:44:59] It doesn't have to be tuna, but.

[00:45:01] Yeah, exactly.

[00:45:02] Yeah.

[00:45:04] But anyway, so thanks again, Ty.

[00:45:06] And thanks to you and Mrs. Stomp for demolishing the Longhorns.

[00:45:15] All right.

[00:45:16] So now we're going to do a little segment here, Stomp, to talk a little.

[00:45:20] So first of all, we're going to recap.

[00:45:21] You had found a new video on YouTube that talks about the young man that we had covered, his death in Sweden.

[00:45:31] So this was a young hiker who had gone out and he was a YouTuber and he had gone out in Sweden, got caught up in a bad storm and basically froze to death.

[00:45:45] I think that they couldn't even, it was so bad in the conditions they couldn't even get his gear back.

[00:45:50] And his father was planning to go back in like the spring when things settled down and try to find the camera that he was using to film his adventures in the hopes that he can find like some more details of his son's last moments.

[00:46:02] But for now, basically the helicopter had to fly in there, get him out and then recover the body and get right out of there.

[00:46:11] I think it was that bad.

[00:46:12] But what's the update?

[00:46:14] I don't have an update.

[00:46:15] I've just seen a lot of commentary after the fact from different YouTube channels and outdoor survivalists, outdoor bushcrafters.

[00:46:23] And one stood out to me in particular, this channel called Survival Russia, which is, I love it.

[00:46:30] The guy, he's up in Siberia and he just, his focus is on situations like that and how to survive by making all these classic time-tested things like a Siberian fire,

[00:46:40] different log fires and different really clever techniques.

[00:46:44] But his take on the whole situation was that the dude just was not A, ready and his gear wasn't up to the task for what he put himself into.

[00:46:54] So the gear failed and he himself probably had not tested the gear in a similar situation.

[00:47:02] So it was just a recipe for disaster.

[00:47:05] Something like knowing how to make a fire in a pinch could have saved his life.

[00:47:11] But unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

[00:47:14] Yeah.

[00:47:15] And I did watch a little bit of this video, so we'll link this.

[00:47:18] His name's Lars from Survival Russia.

[00:47:21] Yeah.

[00:47:22] There's another guy that I watched.

[00:47:24] His YouTube channel is The Outdoor Boys.

[00:47:26] He's got a huge following.

[00:47:27] I think he's got like 11 million followers or something.

[00:47:30] Yeah.

[00:47:30] And his whole shtick is like, he calls it Outdoor Boys because he's got like his, he's got three young sons and they do a lot of fishing.

[00:47:37] But the father goes out and does a lot of solo stuff in Alaska and in crazy conditions.

[00:47:43] And one of his most common techniques is exactly what you were talking about is he'll like start fires in these like difficult conditions.

[00:47:52] Now, in the case in Sweden, I don't know if this kid could have even started a fire given the conditions he was dealing with.

[00:47:59] But I do find it interesting to watch The Outdoor Boys because his technique is essentially like he'll find driftwood or deadwood and he'll get a fire started.

[00:48:10] And it takes him some time.

[00:48:11] And, you know, he does a lot of effort to dig out snow pits and try to get down to bare ground as quickly as he can.

[00:48:19] Right.

[00:48:19] Because what he's basically trying to achieve is he wants to build a very large fire that has, that basically spreads out the size of like your body.

[00:48:30] And then his basic technique is to get that fire hot enough so that the coals underneath stay warm and then he'll sleep right on top of the coals.

[00:48:40] Wow.

[00:48:41] Interesting.

[00:48:42] Yeah, I've never seen that technique.

[00:48:45] Yeah, he'll basically like get the fire so that coals are settled.

[00:48:49] He'll get down to the ground level and get the coals below him and then build more like trees and brush on top of the fire and then fall asleep on the fire.

[00:49:02] And then that keeps him warm.

[00:49:04] Interesting.

[00:49:04] So instead of just a heat of sleeping pad, he sleeps right on top of the fire.

[00:49:09] Yeah.

[00:49:10] So he makes like a bunk or something almost.

[00:49:12] Yeah.

[00:49:13] Yeah.

[00:49:13] Interesting.

[00:49:14] Which is crazy.

[00:49:14] Huh.

[00:49:15] Yeah.

[00:49:16] Wow.

[00:49:16] I mean, he's disgusting.

[00:49:17] He's full of soot and like, you know, it can't be good for your breathing, but that's how he does it.

[00:49:22] Sure.

[00:49:22] Sure.

[00:49:23] Wow.

[00:49:23] Well, there are a lot of techniques out there.

[00:49:25] So that's another one of my resolutions is to really get a handle on some of these strategies.

[00:49:31] Yeah.

[00:49:32] What are some of the like fire starting techniques that you're familiar with, Storm?

[00:49:37] Soaking like cotton rounds in paraffin, things of that nature.

[00:49:42] I've done that here at home.

[00:49:46] Definitely having matches lighter.

[00:49:50] One of those spark, I forget the name of them, but it's like a flint.

[00:49:54] It's like a flint stone, but it's like a rod.

[00:49:56] Yeah.

[00:49:57] Yeah.

[00:49:58] Definitely having one of those.

[00:49:59] And just different cutting techniques where you can find fatwood.

[00:50:04] And that's a whole other part of the equation.

[00:50:06] Finding fatwood at the base of like a stump.

[00:50:09] Knowing what that looks like, where to find it.

[00:50:11] It's where all the resin from these trees accumulates.

[00:50:14] And then when they're dead, you can get these pieces of wood out to really get a fire raging pretty quick.

[00:50:20] I had mentioned briefly the bloom.

[00:50:22] It's like you take your knife or your axe and you're just shaving down a piece of wood to make somewhat of a bloom at the end of the stick.

[00:50:31] And that just lights up easier.

[00:50:32] It's like kindling.

[00:50:33] But really important stuff.

[00:50:35] Really simple ideas.

[00:50:36] But once you see it once, you're like, oh, that's cool.

[00:50:39] That'll work if I'm in a pinch.

[00:50:41] Yeah.

[00:50:41] Yeah.

[00:50:42] What I've seen online is the dryer lint.

[00:50:46] People say like, oh, collect a dryer lint.

[00:50:48] Yeah.

[00:50:48] Dave does that.

[00:50:49] And then you can like wrap that up in Vaseline and that's a good fire starter.

[00:50:52] Put it inside of like a little metal container and then you can use those for fire.

[00:50:56] Yeah.

[00:50:57] You know what you can do also is take, instead of throwing out your inner toilet paper roll,

[00:51:02] you keep the toilet paper roll and stuff it with lint.

[00:51:06] So you have like a log of lint.

[00:51:08] That'd be easy to carry and it would be weightless.

[00:51:11] True.

[00:51:12] Yeah.

[00:51:12] Yeah.

[00:51:12] That's actually a good idea.

[00:51:13] Yeah.

[00:51:13] Yeah.

[00:51:13] Right on.

[00:51:14] You pyromaniacs, get your fires going out there.

[00:51:17] Yes.

[00:51:18] And yeah, we had mentioned this a little earlier on in the show, but TrailsNH has a new website feature

[00:51:23] and it's called the Snow Depth Report.

[00:51:26] And it's just crowdsourced information as to what you can expect on trail for snow depth

[00:51:32] and what you're going to need for whether it be crampons or snowshoes or whatever it may be.

[00:51:37] So the Snow Report is now in TrailsNH.

[00:51:41] Nice job.

[00:51:41] Very good.

[00:51:42] Very good.

[00:51:43] Yeah.

[00:51:43] There was another site that had the snow depth as well.

[00:51:45] I'll take a look at that.

[00:51:46] But if New Hampshire NH has it, then that's perfect.

[00:51:49] Oh, that's great.

[00:51:51] Great resource.

[00:51:53] We all know that hiking a mountain can be hard at times.

[00:51:57] So here's a corny dad joke to help you get over it.

[00:52:02] Ba-dum-bum.

[00:52:07] All right, Stomp, you ready for the last dad joke of the year?

[00:52:09] Yeah, let's hear it.

[00:52:11] Okay.

[00:52:12] This one is a...

[00:52:13] We're going to steal this one from Ann Tellier.

[00:52:18] She had sent this over to us.

[00:52:20] So how do trees get on the internet, Stomp?

[00:52:25] I give up.

[00:52:26] They log in.

[00:52:29] Oh, God, that's so easy.

[00:52:31] I should have known that.

[00:52:31] They don't dump.

[00:52:32] Right?

[00:52:33] That's right.

[00:52:33] And it was on the script too.

[00:52:35] You could have just read the script instead of pretending you didn't know.

[00:52:40] I definitely did not know.

[00:52:42] That's too funny.

[00:52:48] Hey, what's that sound?

[00:52:50] It must be time for the pop culture segment with Mike and Stomp.

[00:53:01] Our year-end review from a pop culture perspective.

[00:53:05] Yeah.

[00:53:05] We haven't done a pop culture thing in quite a while.

[00:53:08] Right.

[00:53:09] Yeah.

[00:53:10] Do you want to start with yours?

[00:53:12] Yes, I will.

[00:53:13] I watched House of the Dragon.

[00:53:15] Good stuff.

[00:53:15] Which was fun.

[00:53:16] Season two.

[00:53:17] Seems like they're sticking reasonably close to the books.

[00:53:21] There's a few things that they're tweaking.

[00:53:23] Like the number of little princes and princes from the greens is a little less.

[00:53:30] And then they're kind of short-cutting the story a little bit with the dragon seeds, which are the people that are like basically have Targaryen blood and get to pick dragons.

[00:53:41] But they're not exactly.

[00:53:42] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:53:43] Yeah.

[00:53:43] I mean, they're close to the book, but not exactly like the book.

[00:53:47] Yeah.

[00:53:47] That was a great, great season, especially towards the end.

[00:53:52] That's fun.

[00:53:52] Yeah.

[00:53:53] Yeah.

[00:53:53] And then I've been watching Below Deck.

[00:53:56] Below Deck has become my favorite secret pleasure or whatever it is.

[00:54:02] Dirty pleasure.

[00:54:04] I like it.

[00:54:05] I like the dynamics.

[00:54:06] I like the interpersonal with the crew.

[00:54:09] I like the management sort of lessons that can be learned on how leaders can motivate their team members to not be happy.

[00:54:17] I like the interpersonal conflicts.

[00:54:19] And then it's very hot people.

[00:54:22] Hot.

[00:54:23] Sexy hot.

[00:54:23] Sexy hot.

[00:54:25] They're very good-looking people that go out and get drunk and be dramatic.

[00:54:30] And I think that's fascinating.

[00:54:32] Yeah.

[00:54:32] It's a good combo for ratings, huh?

[00:54:35] Yes.

[00:54:35] Yep.

[00:54:36] And then I went to some concerts this year, Stomp.

[00:54:38] I went and I saw Kenny Chesney and Zach Brown and Megan Maroney at Gillette Stadium and Uncle Cracker.

[00:54:46] Was that one show?

[00:54:47] That was one show.

[00:54:48] Wow.

[00:54:49] Cool.

[00:54:50] Yeah.

[00:54:50] A little bit of a country vibe there.

[00:54:52] Yeah.

[00:54:53] And then I saw Hootie and the Blowfish and I saw Bare Naked Ladies and one or two other acts at Fenway.

[00:55:04] So I got out and did some concerts.

[00:55:07] Great.

[00:55:07] That's cool.

[00:55:08] I feel like those are like, if you're going to pick two concerts to go to that are like quintessential 50-something-year-old bro concerts,

[00:55:16] Zach Brown, Kenny Chesney, Hootie and the Blowfish at Fenway.

[00:55:19] I got them covered.

[00:55:22] Yeah.

[00:55:22] I'd have to agree.

[00:55:23] Yeah.

[00:55:24] I'd have to agree.

[00:55:26] We're going to see Elderbrook in April.

[00:55:29] That should be fun.

[00:55:29] He's an EDM guy.

[00:55:30] So we're going to the House of Blues and that should be a nice time.

[00:55:34] But all right.

[00:55:35] That's a sort of short list.

[00:55:37] You ready for mine?

[00:55:37] Yep.

[00:55:38] Yep.

[00:55:38] Yeah.

[00:55:38] I won't go crazy with this.

[00:55:40] Well, just happy 20th to the Lord of the Rings Return of the King, which came out yesterday, the 17th.

[00:55:45] That is amazing.

[00:55:47] Yeah.

[00:55:47] I saw that at midnight.

[00:55:48] Blew my mind.

[00:55:49] So amazing.

[00:55:50] Such a great time.

[00:55:52] I've been watching a lot with Mrs. Stomp.

[00:55:54] We re-watched The Leftovers, which if you haven't seen that on HBO, it's fantastic.

[00:55:58] If you watch the pilot, you're either going to love it or hate it.

[00:56:01] But the pilot is absolutely amazing.

[00:56:04] So, Silo on Apple has been really, really great.

[00:56:08] The second season's wonderful.

[00:56:12] Cannot wait for 28 years later.

[00:56:14] Have you seen the previews for this?

[00:56:16] I don't know if you're familiar with it.

[00:56:18] No.

[00:56:18] I tried to get 28 Days Later and I can't find it on streaming.

[00:56:23] Huh.

[00:56:24] Okay.

[00:56:24] Yeah.

[00:56:24] That's probably one of the better zombie genre movies out there.

[00:56:29] 28 Days was probably the best.

[00:56:30] 28 weeks was okay, but 28 years later is coming out this summer, I believe.

[00:56:37] And it was filmed on an iPhone, which is pretty amazing.

[00:56:41] But you have some heavy hitters.

[00:56:42] You have Ralph Fiennes in the movie and it looks incredible.

[00:56:47] For TV shows, Disclaimer with Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, hands down, was our favorite show of the year.

[00:56:55] It was absolutely great.

[00:56:57] Really, it's just this, it's a drama, but the acting was top notch.

[00:57:03] It was so good.

[00:57:05] Highly recommended.

[00:57:06] A little racy at times, but definitely worth it.

[00:57:09] Let's see what else.

[00:57:10] Oh yeah, I was going to ask you about George Martin.

[00:57:13] Is he ever going to finish Game of Thrones writing?

[00:57:15] No.

[00:57:16] Not only has he not been writing it, he's never going to write it and it's not going to happen.

[00:57:20] That's such a shame.

[00:57:22] How are fans taking that?

[00:57:24] Are they pissed?

[00:57:26] The fans, like years ago, the fans split on it.

[00:57:30] I think like five or six years into him.

[00:57:32] So it's been 13 years since he released, I think Dance with the Dragon.

[00:57:38] Dance of the Dragons was the last book.

[00:57:42] I can't remember the name of the last book, but basically he was like, well, when he released the last book,

[00:57:46] he said that he had been, he was about halfway through Winds of Winter.

[00:57:50] Yeah.

[00:57:51] Or Wolves of Winter, Wolves, whatever it is.

[00:57:53] And that it should be out pretty soon.

[00:57:56] And then now it's been 13 years.

[00:57:59] And I think around five years or so, people started complaining and they were like, can he,

[00:58:03] five years afterwards, people were complaining and saying like, oh, he should hurry up and write it.

[00:58:07] So there's two sets of fans.

[00:58:09] There's the ones that are like, George R.R. Martin is a jerk because he lied to all of us and he should be writing the book.

[00:58:13] Then there's the fans that are like, George R.R. Martin doesn't owe you anything and you should be grateful for what he's done so far.

[00:58:18] I'm the one that's like, just shut up and write the book.

[00:58:21] I can do this podcast every week, George.

[00:58:24] You can write your book.

[00:58:25] Do one page a day.

[00:58:27] Sure.

[00:58:28] He can refocus and make it something magical.

[00:58:30] Yeah.

[00:58:31] Yeah.

[00:58:31] So anyway, but yeah, no, he's not going to ever write it.

[00:58:34] Yeah.

[00:58:35] And my last one is Yellowstone.

[00:58:37] We saw the finale and it was great, but it's just too many spoilers.

[00:58:42] So I can't even really touch that one.

[00:58:43] It was really good.

[00:58:44] The rest of the season was like, eh, but it was okay.

[00:58:49] So that's what we have.

[00:58:50] Well, I forgot one other thing is I, the reason why I think I was light on pop culture stuff is because I spent probably the first three or four months of the year focused on a video game.

[00:59:01] So I conquered the Harry Potter video game.

[00:59:04] Right.

[00:59:06] So I think that's probably why I'm a little light, but yeah, I went through a video game era and I conquered it and then I put it down and I haven't touched a video game since.

[00:59:13] That's really funny you say that because I just started playing the Half-Life 2 20th update from Steam and it's been really great.

[00:59:22] And every now and then Mrs. Stone will come up and I have to take my headphones off and go, hey, if I'm getting like pulled into this too much, let me know and I'll stop, you know, because it is so addicting.

[00:59:32] Holy moly.

[00:59:33] Oh yeah.

[00:59:34] It's great.

[00:59:36] And now a word from our sponsor.

[00:59:40] CS Instant Coffee.

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[00:59:43] CS Instant Coffee.

[00:59:44] And you can find them at csinstant.coffee.

[00:59:48] Thank you, CS, for supporting the pod.

[00:59:51] And as always, you can get your stickers at Ski Fanatics or Spinners in Andover, Mass.

[00:59:58] You can still advertise with the pod.

[01:00:01] If anybody's interested, send us an email at slasherpodcast at gmail.com or just direct message us and we'll send you out the rates.

[01:00:11] Boy, the Slasher swag has been flying off the shelves.

[01:00:14] It really has.

[01:00:16] If anybody's looking for last minute gift ideas, go to the Bonfire Shop for Slasher and you can find that link on our link tree on the Instagram.

[01:00:25] And there's a ton of hoodies, classic v-necks, tees and all kinds of stuff.

[01:00:29] Tons of great colors.

[01:00:31] Very cool stuff.

[01:00:32] And well built.

[01:00:33] You like yours, Mike, right?

[01:00:34] I do.

[01:00:35] It's very soft and comfortable and I give it a four out of five stars.

[01:00:40] There you go.

[01:00:41] There you go.

[01:00:42] And that's what listeners give the pod.

[01:00:44] Right?

[01:00:46] It makes sense.

[01:00:47] Yeah, it adds up.

[01:00:48] For coffee donations, if you want to show your support for the pod, donate at the Buy Me A Coffee site.

[01:00:54] Again, on the link tree.

[01:00:56] On Instagram, donations help us pay for hosting, distribution, live events.

[01:01:00] And this week we have a donation of five coffees from Paul Noel of New Hampshire Wild.

[01:01:08] N.H. Wild.

[01:01:08] That's the Instagram handle.

[01:01:10] Thank you, Paul.

[01:01:11] And then John Ackerman also donated five coffees with props to the show.

[01:01:18] Apparently listens quite a bit.

[01:01:19] So thank you, John.

[01:01:20] Much appreciated.

[01:01:22] Yeah, yeah.

[01:01:23] And I think that the New Hampshire Wild...

[01:01:24] So I got to get them hooked up with my friends, Lance and Camilla, because...

[01:01:30] And I don't want anything to do with this.

[01:01:32] I refuse to do this stuff.

[01:01:34] But like every once in a while in New Hampshire Wild will like post a video and they dance.

[01:01:38] They do that thing where they dance on the mountain stomp.

[01:01:40] Yeah, they sure do.

[01:01:42] Yeah, and Lance and Camilla do that too.

[01:01:44] And I feel like they should form an alliance and do a dance together.

[01:01:48] It doesn't involve me because I don't like to dance.

[01:01:51] Right.

[01:01:52] As a matter of fact, N.H. Wild, they're coming on early in January at some point.

[01:01:57] Forget the exact date.

[01:01:58] Oh, they are?

[01:01:58] Okay.

[01:01:59] But they'll be joining us for a chat.

[01:02:00] So that'll be fine.

[01:02:01] So I can ask them about their dance.

[01:02:02] Are they going to come to the studio or are they going to go...

[01:02:05] I think virtual for now.

[01:02:08] Yeah.

[01:02:09] But things can change.

[01:02:10] Because if they come in the studio stomp, maybe you can dance with them.

[01:02:15] Oh, sure.

[01:02:16] Sure.

[01:02:17] You hula hooped, you can dance.

[01:02:19] I can hula hoop.

[01:02:20] I can do some break dancing.

[01:02:21] That'd be good.

[01:02:22] That'd be good.

[01:02:30] Hey, hold my beer.

[01:02:32] It's time to find out what Mike and Stomp are drinking.

[01:02:36] On this week's Beer Talk.

[01:02:43] You're clean and sober tonight, huh?

[01:02:45] No beer?

[01:02:46] Yeah, no beer.

[01:02:47] I got to get up at 2.30 in the morning, so...

[01:02:49] That's okay.

[01:02:50] ...you're drinking.

[01:02:50] That's okay.

[01:02:51] I'll get you covered.

[01:02:52] So Grandma and Grandpa Stomp got me that 24 beer garden box for my birthday a couple months

[01:02:59] ago.

[01:03:00] Mm-hmm.

[01:03:01] And tonight I'm enjoying a Rittmeyer Keller Beer.

[01:03:06] Visually pleasing with a clear amber color.

[01:03:09] This is made by George Rittmeyer, and it's a Keller Beer.

[01:03:15] 5%.

[01:03:15] It's really good.

[01:03:17] Nice.

[01:03:18] Yeah, product of Germany.

[01:03:19] It's a Bavarian.

[01:03:20] Yeah, it came from Hollendorf.

[01:03:23] Hollendorf, Germany.

[01:03:24] Imported by some outfit in Florida.

[01:03:29] So it's really good.

[01:03:31] Tasty.

[01:03:32] And it's warm, as the Deutsch do.

[01:03:36] Well, good for you, Stomp.

[01:03:38] Yes.

[01:03:42] I knew we should have gone left back there.

[01:03:45] Stomp, don't worry.

[01:03:46] I know it's this way.

[01:03:47] I've got a feeling in my gut.

[01:03:49] Uh, are you sure you're not about to have a bowel emergency?

[01:03:53] Uh, totally.

[01:03:54] We got this.

[01:03:55] But I just blew out my hip.

[01:03:57] Fell down that gully with my 40-year-old micro spikes.

[01:04:00] Suck it up, Stomp.

[01:04:01] It's 4 p.m.

[01:04:02] We're at 3,500 feet.

[01:04:04] We got nine miles back to the parking lot.

[01:04:06] Your leg may be broken.

[01:04:08] We got no cell connection, and we can't feel our fingers.

[01:04:11] But we're finishing all of my list tonight.

[01:04:13] By the way, I need some water.

[01:04:15] I'm empty.

[01:04:16] I would if I could see what I'm doing, but my headlamp batteries are dead.

[01:04:20] You gotta be kidding me.

[01:04:21] What a chump.

[01:04:22] This is the last time I hike with you.

[01:04:24] Psh, ha.

[01:04:25] Whatever, mister.

[01:04:26] Do you know me?

[01:04:27] I have a podcast.

[01:04:28] Psh, whatever.

[01:04:32] Let's find out what Mike and Stomp have been hiking.

[01:04:37] Have you gone on any recent hikes?

[01:04:39] Yes, sir.

[01:04:40] Yeah.

[01:04:41] I was just out with, uh, Dave does not eat shit.

[01:04:44] He takes shits.

[01:04:45] But, um, we did the lost pass.

[01:04:50] And, um, just a quick little update on this.

[01:04:52] So, the lost pass is this remote, um, area that's south of Snows Mountain and the Sleepers,

[01:05:01] which connect Whiteface over to the Tripyramids.

[01:05:04] And then Flat Mountain would be essentially south of the Lost Pass.

[01:05:09] So, starting in Waterville, you can follow Snowsbrook up to the pass, which is at roughly

[01:05:16] 2,800 feet.

[01:05:17] And then dive southeast down towards Flat Mountain Shelter.

[01:05:22] Uh, it's a really cool place.

[01:05:24] Um, there's really no views, except for one at the pass.

[01:05:28] Uh, but it's just, it's just super remote.

[01:05:30] And, uh, it's just very quiet.

[01:05:32] It dates back to the 1860s, and it's connected to Nathaniel Greeley, uh, Goodrich, Walden.

[01:05:39] Um, there was a trail back in the 1860s that connected Waterville to Whiteface, uh, Intervale

[01:05:46] and Sandwich, but that was lost, uh, in the 1870s.

[01:05:49] In the 1880s, there was a second trail that was rerouted, but that was also lost.

[01:05:56] Uh, you see how they get in the name here, the Lost Pass.

[01:05:59] Um, in 1905 and 06, a new route opened, uh, again between the two via the Cascade Brook

[01:06:05] Valley, uh, via the Woodbury Trail, which apparently went to Mount Whiteface.

[01:06:11] I don't think that exists.

[01:06:12] That's probably another abandoned trail out there.

[01:06:15] Um, at the Ferncroft end, Arthur Walden and others from the Juana Lancet Outdoor Club

[01:06:20] reopened the trail, but alas, it fell into disuse once again.

[01:06:24] Uh, back in the 20s, the International Paper Company, uh, and the Parker Young Company,

[01:06:32] both logging outfits, uh, were doing work up in there so you can find old logging roads.

[01:06:38] There is one great blog by Steve Smith, the Mountain Wanderer.

[01:06:41] Uh, that's actually the only blog that I found, uh, for this, and Steve's made several trips

[01:06:46] up to this place, so that's a really good, um, starting point if you're interested in heading

[01:06:52] here.

[01:06:52] But last weekend, Dave and I met, and, uh, this has been on my, my bucket list forever

[01:06:57] just to get up into that region.

[01:06:59] And we went to the Drake's Brook Trailhead, which is on Route 49 in Waterville, and we decided

[01:07:05] that we would take the cross-country trail all the way up to approximately 1,800 feet

[01:07:10] where there's a hairpin.

[01:07:11] And at that point, you can dive into Snow's Brook.

[01:07:16] Um, and the cross-country trail, I think, was called Upper Fletcher's.

[01:07:19] So, it's, it's mostly a road walk for, or a trail walk for about a mile and a half, two

[01:07:25] miles up to Snow's.

[01:07:26] And, um, we saw a sign that said hairpin 300 meters, which would be, what, roughly 1,000

[01:07:32] feet ahead.

[01:07:33] Yeah.

[01:07:34] And we decided to just dive in at this one point that looked fairly promising for a bushwhack.

[01:07:39] And this is a bushwhack.

[01:07:40] So, once we got into the bushwhack, I think one of our errors was not looking at the terrain

[01:07:49] with a sensitive enough topography.

[01:07:52] So, we went into this thinking that it would be fairly, uh, consistent if you were just

[01:07:57] following a contour.

[01:07:59] But what ended up happening, we, we would hit one gully or one drainage after another, like

[01:08:05] every hundred yards, so there'd be a partially frozen, uh, water gully just draining.

[01:08:11] So, it became somewhat, somewhat tedious.

[01:08:13] Um, and we were side-sloping it the whole way up for the most part.

[01:08:17] We ended up getting to 2,800 feet, which is essentially the start of the plateau.

[01:08:24] Um, from where we were, we had about 0.4 to get to the, the actual GPS point, which is on

[01:08:31] most GPS units, uh, and on most maps.

[01:08:34] Um, for the Lost Pass.

[01:08:37] And that's where Steve Smith had taken some pictures of South Tri-Pyramid and the Sleepers.

[01:08:42] So, it's a, it's a really neat spot.

[01:08:44] But at that point, it was about 2.33 in the afternoon or so.

[01:08:47] And we just ran into some really thick, uh, dead-end spruce covered in deep snow.

[01:08:54] And we decided to, uh, call it and, uh, try for another day.

[01:08:58] On the way out, um, we followed, uh, a really narrow ridge.

[01:09:03] But that ended up getting us down there pretty quick.

[01:09:06] There were a couple wild water crossings that we had to get over.

[01:09:09] Uh, because you remember, we had two inches of rain a couple days prior.

[01:09:13] And now it was all frozen.

[01:09:14] It was, uh, maybe a high of 20 degrees.

[01:09:16] Um, felt pretty warm all day.

[01:09:19] But it was chilly.

[01:09:20] But there was no wind.

[01:09:21] So, it was actually really comfortable.

[01:09:23] Um, when we got back out, we stumbled upon, uh, one of the logging roads that probably would

[01:09:30] have saved us some time as well.

[01:09:33] And sure enough, the, the bushwhack we were taking out paralleled this road.

[01:09:38] And it dumped out within 30 feet of where we started.

[01:09:41] And we, if you, if you turn back and look at where this logging road started, it was covered

[01:09:46] by a blowdown.

[01:09:47] So, we just didn't notice it.

[01:09:48] We didn't quite get to the Lost Pass.

[01:09:50] But now the, the, the new plan is to hit, uh, Snows Mountain actually.

[01:09:55] And take Snow Mountain Trail and hit Snows Mountain.

[01:09:58] Which, once you get up to the plateau, it's a straight shot at 2,800 feet over to the Lost

[01:10:03] Pass.

[01:10:04] And then you can just do an out and back, which would be about five miles.

[01:10:07] So, that's the plan.

[01:10:08] I'm, I'm going to go back.

[01:10:09] It is absolutely beautiful in there.

[01:10:11] Uh, stunning area.

[01:10:13] So, that's, that's our story.

[01:10:16] It was a nice time out.

[01:10:17] Can you talk, maybe I missed this, but the Woodbury Trail, did you actually find it?

[01:10:21] No, there's just talk about that in reports online.

[01:10:24] It's, it's got to be abandoned.

[01:10:26] You know, the.

[01:10:26] Did you feel like you were close to it?

[01:10:29] Um, no.

[01:10:30] We, we really didn't see any old, uh, former trails or logging roads until the very end

[01:10:36] of the trip.

[01:10:37] You know, stumbling upon that logging road at the end.

[01:10:40] But, uh, yeah, we were in the woods the whole day.

[01:10:43] Yeah.

[01:10:43] Mostly, mostly open.

[01:10:45] Um, but, yeah.

[01:10:49] Anyway.

[01:10:50] Yeah, we were, I got to be honest, we were sort of cursing Steve Smith, like, jokingly,

[01:10:55] like, we're in the open woods.

[01:10:58] It was funny.

[01:10:59] Yeah, yeah.

[01:11:00] Cause we, um, I've been talking to my friend James online a little bit about, like, trying

[01:11:04] to find that Woodbury Trail.

[01:11:06] Okay.

[01:11:06] To get up to Whiteface.

[01:11:07] So, it's been, like, uh, on our list.

[01:11:10] So, we, we may try to convince you guys to, like, get back there.

[01:11:14] Sure.

[01:11:15] Yeah.

[01:11:16] I mean, where do you think, where do you think it would be?

[01:11:21] Supposedly, it, like, extends beyond that.

[01:11:23] Um, my understanding is, is that, um, it, there's the, um, the cross-country trail and

[01:11:31] then the cross-country trail extends beyond the, um, it follows Cascade Brook.

[01:11:39] I believe that's the name of it, right?

[01:11:41] Yep.

[01:11:41] That, it follows that up to Whiteface.

[01:11:44] Uh, via the sleepers or a whole separate ballgame?

[01:11:47] I think, um, below the sleepers.

[01:11:50] Interesting.

[01:11:50] Yeah.

[01:11:51] So, it's more of a direct path to Whiteface.

[01:11:53] Yeah, we should talk to Steve about it.

[01:11:55] There is that abandoned trail site that, um, I could send along as well, which covers

[01:11:59] many of these, but, uh, yeah.

[01:12:02] It's a cool area, dude.

[01:12:04] It's, it's, it's, like, so remote.

[01:12:05] And by the way, I don't want to mention this, but there was so much animal track in there.

[01:12:10] Unbelievable.

[01:12:11] It's, like, this reserve for animals.

[01:12:14] That's where they all, they're all hiding.

[01:12:16] Oh, so.

[01:12:17] Now we're going to trample on them.

[01:12:18] Cool stuff.

[01:12:19] Yeah.

[01:12:20] Yeah.

[01:12:20] Now, that's interesting.

[01:12:21] Very cool spot.

[01:12:22] That's a pretty good stomp.

[01:12:24] Um, can I go now?

[01:12:27] Sure.

[01:12:29] Thank you.

[01:12:30] Thank you.

[01:12:30] So, um, I have done two hikes since, since we, since we last left, left you listeners.

[01:12:38] I've done two hikes.

[01:12:39] I went out and did the, I went into the Ossipi range with the idea that we were going to do,

[01:12:45] um, Black Snout and Mount Shaw.

[01:12:47] And then we were debating, this was early on.

[01:12:52] It was like right after the first snowfall.

[01:12:53] We were kind of like, well, it looks like it's only like two, three inches up there.

[01:12:57] So I think we'll be fine without snowshoes.

[01:12:59] So we made the classic mistake stomp of not bringing our snowshoes.

[01:13:02] Oh.

[01:13:04] And then once we got up to about 2,200 feet of elevation, um, the snow got thicker and it

[01:13:10] was about six inches and it was kind of not fun breaking through snow barefooted.

[01:13:14] And we were regretting that we left our snowshoes in the car.

[01:13:18] So we ended up going up to Turtle, Turtleback Mountain.

[01:13:21] And then we were sort of feeling like, you know what?

[01:13:24] We had a good day.

[01:13:24] We had a good time.

[01:13:25] This is our first dip out into like winter conditions.

[01:13:28] And, um, let's just take our time on Turtleback and then you can go, there's a, there's an

[01:13:32] outlook that you can see, um, the lakes, you know, the lakes region out pretty clearly.

[01:13:37] So we hung out there for a little while.

[01:13:39] We even were able to see the castle in the clouds through the woods, which I, my understanding

[01:13:44] is, is that's a pretty rare site.

[01:13:46] Usually you can't see them or the castle.

[01:13:48] So we were able to see that from where we were.

[01:13:50] And we just went back to the car.

[01:13:51] It was an easy hike, easy day.

[01:13:54] Nice.

[01:13:55] Back to my trip.

[01:13:56] Back to my trip for a second.

[01:13:58] Yes.

[01:13:58] We, it's funny you mentioned that because we were bare booting probably up to about 2,500

[01:14:03] feet.

[01:14:03] And then we had to swap into snowshoes cause it just got over to like maybe 12 inches.

[01:14:08] Yeah.

[01:14:09] Yeah.

[01:14:09] It's that big mix we're happening right now.

[01:14:12] Yeah.

[01:14:12] Yeah.

[01:14:12] That's the line I think is like 22 to 2,500 feet.

[01:14:15] Yeah.

[01:14:16] Um, and then, so the, the Ossipie hike was so easy.

[01:14:20] Me and my friend Jake, your friend Jake too, decided to, um, do something a little bit more

[01:14:25] challenging.

[01:14:26] So I had decided, I'm trying to remember what we were, what we were going to do.

[01:14:33] I can't remember.

[01:14:34] We had something else planned and then I was like, well, let's go up.

[01:14:37] Oh no.

[01:14:37] We, Jake stir had said like, maybe we would do Crawford resolution and stairs and, and

[01:14:43] add Parker to it.

[01:14:44] And I was like, well, that sounds like a crazy winter hike right now.

[01:14:48] And I don't know if I'm up for that.

[01:14:49] So let's find something a little bit easier and unbeknownst to me, I didn't pick something

[01:14:54] easier.

[01:14:54] I picked, um, Mount Webster from the Southern approach of West Webster cliffs.

[01:15:02] Oh, my gosh.

[01:15:04] Yeah.

[01:15:04] So that's basically like the part of, um, the Appalachian trail that cuts across 302.

[01:15:09] And I didn't know, I didn't, I didn't really know what to expect.

[01:15:12] I figured like, all right, well, it's a steep climb up to Webster and then you're done.

[01:15:16] But I didn't realize it was like all these steps to get up there.

[01:15:20] But yeah, we, we parked, we, we spotted a car at, uh, the Jackson trailhead and then

[01:15:26] we drove down to 302.

[01:15:28] It's maybe about, I don't know, a couple of miles down the Willie house and then go past

[01:15:32] that park in the lot there where I think it's Ripley falls or one of those lots.

[01:15:37] And then we started out and the trail was, it was clear.

[01:15:40] It was broken out, bear booted.

[01:15:43] It was a, it's a climber's trail because the climbers are going up to shoestring gully and

[01:15:47] those other climbs in Webster.

[01:15:48] So it was broken out until we got past topping out for shoestring gully.

[01:15:55] We talked to one of the climbers was coming down.

[01:15:58] He was the only person we saw until we got down from Webster.

[01:16:02] He was, um, shout out to AJ.

[01:16:04] He's, uh, works at IME.

[01:16:06] We ran into him and he was just telling us how he had gone up to, um, shoestring gully

[01:16:11] and had done like just a, he was getting back into ice climbing.

[01:16:15] So he, he was a nice guy to talk to.

[01:16:17] And then once we got past where the climbers top out from there, it was like, we had to

[01:16:23] break trail.

[01:16:24] And then the problem with breaking trail on Webster cliff.

[01:16:27] And I think even all this time of the year, what we're finding out is that there's all

[01:16:32] these rock scrambles that you have to get up, which are normally not that big of a deal,

[01:16:35] but you, there's no way to bite into ice because there's no ice on the rocks because the snow

[01:16:42] is fresh.

[01:16:43] So what's happening is you're like falling backwards and then you're digging around on

[01:16:48] these rock scrambles to try to figure out like, is there a step that my crampon for

[01:16:52] my snowshoes can bite into to let me climb up?

[01:16:55] And like, there was some section, there was one section that we were like 15 minutes trying

[01:16:59] to figure out how to get up this, like maybe 10 to 12 foot rock scramble that we couldn't,

[01:17:04] we, we kept slipping backwards on.

[01:17:06] Sounds like a lot of fun.

[01:17:09] It was brutal.

[01:17:09] You invited me.

[01:17:10] I'm glad I didn't go.

[01:17:12] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:17:13] But you know, Jake is a great guy to hike with, very patient.

[01:17:16] And, um, you know, I would have my moments and he would have his moments, but we didn't

[01:17:20] have our moments at the same time, which I think was important.

[01:17:23] It was like when I was losing my head, he kept his head.

[01:17:27] And then the few times he was getting frustrated, I sort of kept my head together.

[01:17:32] So, wow.

[01:17:33] How deep was the snow up there beyond the ice?

[01:17:36] It was pretty deep.

[01:17:37] I mean, there was sections where it was like up to our thighs that we were cutting through.

[01:17:41] And then there was some demoralizing stuff like just like climbing halfway up a rock

[01:17:48] scramble and then only to just slide completely back down like five, six feet and going like,

[01:17:53] oh crap, how am I going to get back to where I was?

[01:17:55] It's a wild.

[01:17:55] It was tough.

[01:17:56] Yep.

[01:17:57] Yeah.

[01:17:58] Interesting.

[01:17:59] And when we got up above tree line, like we were exposed, you had to wear goggles and

[01:18:02] like the wind was whipping.

[01:18:03] It was like probably, I don't know.

[01:18:05] It was enough to be annoying 25, 30 mile an hour when you needed your goggles and full

[01:18:11] gear on in those sections.

[01:18:13] Yeah.

[01:18:14] Now I know, you know that there was a rescue up there, right?

[01:18:18] Yeah.

[01:18:19] Yeah.

[01:18:19] So we, I took a look at the Strava data on it and I was thinking back to it.

[01:18:28] So essentially the way that, um, so there was a rescue on Saturday, I think, and it

[01:18:34] was two ice climbers.

[01:18:35] So essentially what happens is, is that when you get on the trail to get up to Webster

[01:18:40] Cliffs, you can take a left by that pond where the Willie house is.

[01:18:46] And that takes you up to shoestring gully, which is not a vertical ice climb.

[01:18:51] I think it's like a steep ice climb.

[01:18:54] My understanding is it's not an advanced climb.

[01:18:56] It's more of a, like a entry level ice climb where you can rope up and you can use your

[01:19:01] ice ax, but it's not super dangerous.

[01:19:04] I mean, all ice climbing is dangerous, but relative to other routes, this is not as dangerous.

[01:19:11] But my understanding is, is that this guy was hiking with his friend.

[01:19:15] He fell about 60 feet.

[01:19:17] The friend went back, bundled him up, got him settled, and then had to climb up in order

[01:19:24] to get, um, phone coverage to call for a rescue.

[01:19:28] And then my understanding from reading the report is that this, um, he fell about 60 feet at

[01:19:37] a steep section near the top of the climb, suffering an arm and a head injury.

[01:19:42] Um, so his hiking partner secured him and dressed him in warm clothes, no cell service, but that's

[01:19:48] a dead area from the time, from the point where you come down from Highland Center down to

[01:19:55] the Willie house until you get to Bartlett and bare notch road, the cell, cell connections

[01:20:00] dead unless you get up high.

[01:20:02] Um, so 28 volunteers from mountain rescue service, Andrew Scrogg and Valley, um, search and rescue

[01:20:09] and Bartlett Jackson ambulance service responded.

[01:20:13] So MRS team had to, um, ascend the gully to reach the, the climber or the rest of the group

[01:20:21] hiked up the ridge above with equipment needed to raise the climber out of the gully.

[01:20:26] So the rescuers were able to stabilize him and then they raised him up 400 feet to level

[01:20:32] ground.

[01:20:32] And then that wasn't even the hard part.

[01:20:35] The hard part was carrying him down two miles to the trailhead.

[01:20:39] The, the, the first mile when they're up above is insanely steep.

[01:20:46] It's 1200 feet of elevation gain in a mile.

[01:20:50] Right.

[01:20:50] Right.

[01:20:50] And there's probably like three or four rock scrambles that they would have had to like

[01:20:55] use ropes to lower him down.

[01:20:57] Probably more than that, honestly, but there was like two or three that are crazy steep that

[01:21:01] they would have to lower him down.

[01:21:03] Do you think they hit the section you were just talking about sliding?

[01:21:07] Well, they had to.

[01:21:08] Well, no, no, not those sections.

[01:21:10] Those were above.

[01:21:10] Okay.

[01:21:11] Where we were really struggling was above that because that wasn't broken out.

[01:21:15] Got it.

[01:21:15] But this was, this part of the trail was broken out, but it's still steep.

[01:21:20] It like, almost imagine like, um, it'd be like coming down that steep section of Avalon

[01:21:25] or it'd be coming down like falling waters.

[01:21:27] Sure.

[01:21:27] Those type of problems.

[01:21:28] Uh-huh.

[01:21:29] Wow.

[01:21:30] So, yeah, but I, they did get them out.

[01:21:33] And I think from a timing perspective, the call came in at 730 at night and, um, they

[01:21:40] got them out at 5 AM.

[01:21:42] I was reading online and read it.

[01:21:43] I didn't realize this, that it's common to do, um, ice climbing at night, which it may

[01:21:48] totally make sense when you read it, but they'll, they'll, they'll climb at night because,

[01:21:52] um, it's colder and the ice is more stable.

[01:21:56] Makes sense.

[01:21:57] And that would have been unique too, because last weekend was the full moon, which would

[01:22:01] be a really neat experience.

[01:22:04] Right.

[01:22:04] Yeah.

[01:22:05] But I didn't realize that, that ice climbing, like they, they'll go at night just because

[01:22:08] of the ice is more solidified.

[01:22:10] The other thing is, is that I was thinking about this too, when I was hiking this whole

[01:22:14] debate about like, um, uh, post holing versus snowshoes.

[01:22:19] Yeah.

[01:22:20] I wonder how many of these trails, like, so people wouldn't know this, but like Webster

[01:22:25] Cliffs is a perfect example of ice climbers are coming down.

[01:22:29] They're, they're topping out on shoestring and then they're coming down bare booted because

[01:22:34] they're in their crampons.

[01:22:35] Correct.

[01:22:36] So they're not going to carry snowshoes on a climb.

[01:22:39] So they're going to bare boot no matter what.

[01:22:41] So you may have some scenarios where, um, people are breaking trails, but they're breaking

[01:22:46] trails in their crampons, which is totally viable.

[01:22:48] I mean, people do that.

[01:22:51] So.

[01:22:51] Sure.

[01:22:52] You know, I wonder how many of these people that are complaining about post holes are just,

[01:22:56] they're just climber routes.

[01:22:59] Well, yeah, it depends on the route.

[01:23:00] Like, you know, Cannon Cliffs has a dedicated climbing.

[01:23:06] Climbers route to get down.

[01:23:08] So you wouldn't run into that problem.

[01:23:10] Um.

[01:23:11] But Webster Cliffs, you do.

[01:23:12] Yeah.

[01:23:12] It's multi-use.

[01:23:14] Yeah.

[01:23:14] For sure.

[01:23:14] Yeah.

[01:23:15] Yeah.

[01:23:15] It depends on the location, I guess.

[01:23:17] But yeah, that's a good point.

[01:23:19] Yeah.

[01:23:19] But I will say like, well, the other thing about this hike that was cool was that the,

[01:23:24] the forecast was supposed to be snow and overcast, but it was one of those days where

[01:23:28] the sun would pop out and it made really cool photos where you'd have the sun and the, but

[01:23:33] you'd have a ton of clouds around.

[01:23:35] So you'd have like, it was just a cool dynamic.

[01:23:38] And then you had like the fresh snow.

[01:23:39] That's the best.

[01:23:40] Um, the conditions were brutal though.

[01:23:43] I mean like the snow was stacked on top of trees, blow downs.

[01:23:47] We're dealing with like a car wash where the snow was just falling all over us.

[01:23:50] It was one of the hardest hikes I've done in a long time.

[01:23:53] Wow.

[01:23:54] Yeah.

[01:23:55] Crazy.

[01:23:56] To the point where like the, the route from Webster to Jackson wasn't broken out or it

[01:24:00] was wind blown over and we will like, forget that we're just going down from Webster.

[01:24:04] But that section of web Webster wasn't broken out either.

[01:24:08] So we had to break that out too.

[01:24:10] So I don't know, maybe we would have been better off going to Jackson and coming down.

[01:24:13] But once we got to like the intersection of where we connect with the Jackson trail, then

[01:24:18] it was fine.

[01:24:19] But that was only like a mile and a half to get down to the car.

[01:24:21] So like we broke trail from most of the hike.

[01:24:24] Hmm.

[01:24:26] Crazy.

[01:24:27] Yeah.

[01:24:27] Tis the season.

[01:24:28] Yeah.

[01:24:28] That's, that trail is generally less frequented for whatever reason.

[01:24:35] I understand why.

[01:24:36] Yeah.

[01:24:36] I know.

[01:24:36] I understand why because it's like crazy.

[01:24:39] Yeah.

[01:24:39] We were like, what are we thinking here?

[01:24:41] Right.

[01:24:41] So you did go down Jackson trail or you just went out and back?

[01:24:45] We went down the, we went down.

[01:24:47] So there's, when you go up to Jackson, there's a, there's a spur trail that goes directly

[01:24:52] to Webster.

[01:24:53] I forget the names of these.

[01:24:54] I think there's Webster Jackson trail.

[01:24:57] Yeah.

[01:24:57] And then there's Jackson.

[01:24:58] I forget what the names of the trails are, but we took the Webster branch.

[01:25:02] Got it.

[01:25:03] Got it.

[01:25:03] And where if you wanted to climb from Crawford or from Highland Center directly to Webster

[01:25:09] and bypass Jackson, you can do that.

[01:25:12] And that's the trail that we took down.

[01:25:13] Yeah.

[01:25:14] Okay.

[01:25:14] So we didn't even go to Jackson.

[01:25:16] We just said, forget it.

[01:25:17] We're exhausted.

[01:25:17] Let's just go to, let's go, go down.

[01:25:20] Wow.

[01:25:21] Yeah.

[01:25:22] Character building.

[01:25:24] It was character building.

[01:25:25] And we definitely, um, you know, we learned a lot and, um, the gear held up.

[01:25:31] It was pretty good.

[01:25:33] I mean, I definitely like the shell that I was wearing work.

[01:25:37] Well, one thing is I lost my, um, I lost my sleep, sleeping pad.

[01:25:42] It fell out of my backpack when I was like crawling under trees or something.

[01:25:46] I didn't even notice it.

[01:25:47] So it's still up there.

[01:25:48] I got to go back and get it.

[01:25:49] Were you in the back at the time?

[01:25:50] You think?

[01:25:51] I was in the back.

[01:25:52] Yeah.

[01:25:53] Jake was in front.

[01:25:53] He was, he was breaking trail and then I was in the back.

[01:25:56] And then I think what happened is I was crawling like under a tree or something.

[01:26:00] Yeah.

[01:26:00] And it just got knocked out of the back of my backpack and I didn't even notice it.

[01:26:04] And then by that time I was like, I have no idea where I lost it.

[01:26:07] I'm not going back.

[01:26:09] On the way out from Lost Pass, Dave had a snowshoe blowout.

[01:26:14] He was able to keep it on though, without a problem.

[01:26:16] But that's an interesting point.

[01:26:18] Losing things, breaking things.

[01:26:20] You always got to be ready for the unexpected.

[01:26:23] Right?

[01:26:23] Yeah.

[01:26:23] That's why hiking with a partner like Jakester had a, had a pad so we'd be okay.

[01:26:27] But yeah, um, yeah, it's not good.

[01:26:29] I left a trace out there.

[01:26:31] I feel bad.

[01:26:31] You'll, you'll find it.

[01:26:33] Yeah.

[01:26:33] Yeah.

[01:26:34] Hit it in the spring.

[01:26:36] Exactly.

[01:26:36] Yeah.

[01:26:37] Wow.

[01:26:43] It's time for Slasher's notable hike of the week.

[01:26:46] If you want to be considered for the hike of the week, simply tag Slasher on your social media post.

[01:26:55] All right, Stomp.

[01:26:56] Yeah.

[01:26:56] So we've been, uh, slacking on the notable hikes here.

[01:27:01] So we've got a couple that we want to catch up on.

[01:27:03] That's right.

[01:27:04] Yeah.

[01:27:04] The, uh, the tie series was not conducive to, uh, do this, but we are back at it.

[01:27:11] So the Slasher hike of the week, tag Slasher on your adventure to be considered for Slasher's

[01:27:17] hike of the week.

[01:27:18] Uh, no guarantees that you'll be plugged on the show.

[01:27:21] Um, we do our best, but this week is fairly light.

[01:27:23] So we have Dave Schitts in the woods who, uh, told me all about this on trail.

[01:27:29] It was quite the adventure.

[01:27:30] Uh, he did a wolf cub, which is a peak, uh, that's on the 500 highest and it's just more

[01:27:37] or less Southeast of, uh, the Kinsman Ridge trail on the Lost River end.

[01:27:42] And that's also known as Gordon Pond Peak.

[01:27:45] Uh, nice work, Dave.

[01:27:47] Uh, that was sort of definitely a, uh, a challenge and a half from what you told me.

[01:27:52] Uh, Chris Gothberg clearing a loop trail on Stonehouse Mountain in Orford with the Upper

[01:28:01] Valley Land Trust.

[01:28:03] Very cool.

[01:28:04] Very cool.

[01:28:05] Uh, Jakester comes in tagging us for your trip on Webster.

[01:28:10] Uh, Eric Hansen, 42, just tackled a Bonds-Zeeland Traverse.

[01:28:16] Ha ha.

[01:28:17] That's, that's great stuff.

[01:28:18] That's a, that's a good challenge this time of the year.

[01:28:20] And again, uh, we have Chris Gothberg coming in and Sir Maps-A-Lot who hiked Cotton Stone

[01:28:26] Mountain, which I've not heard of.

[01:28:28] And that's a peak in Orford.

[01:28:31] Orford.

[01:28:32] And then finally, Nick in Nature, our good friend, hiked Pierce and Willard.

[01:28:41] Dun, dun, dun, dun.

[01:28:42] So do we have a winner?

[01:28:44] Any prospects?

[01:28:47] Um, I would say, um, Eric Hansen, the, the, the, the, the Bonds-Zeeland Traverse.

[01:28:54] There you go.

[01:28:55] Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one.

[01:28:57] That's a good call.

[01:28:58] That's impressive.

[01:28:59] Yeah, no kidding.

[01:29:00] And there was much rejoicing.

[01:29:04] Ooh, wonder what the conditions are like up there right now.

[01:29:07] Man.

[01:29:07] Man.

[01:29:10] Ah.

[01:29:11] I sort of miss it.

[01:29:12] I miss that adverse stuff.

[01:29:14] Last time I tried to do it, I was with, um, what was that?

[01:29:17] Who the hell was I?

[01:29:18] Oh, Tom.

[01:29:19] Tom Becker.

[01:29:20] 603.

[01:29:20] Yep.

[01:29:20] And, uh, that was when my hip was in need of major hip replacement surgery.

[01:29:26] And we're walking the road up to Zeeland Hut and we're like halfway up the road.

[01:29:31] And it was that awful moment where I'm in the front and I'm thinking to myself, I got to bail.

[01:29:37] So I just turned around and said, Tom, I just can't do it.

[01:29:42] I knew I was setting myself up for an absolute disaster.

[01:29:45] And I just turned around.

[01:29:46] Yeah.

[01:29:46] And that was it.

[01:29:47] I'm like, I'm done.

[01:29:48] And he totally understood and he went, he did it solo and just tackled it himself, which is great.

[01:29:54] But, oh, what an awful moment that was.

[01:29:56] Like, I can't do it, bud.

[01:29:59] I bet.

[01:30:00] It's no joke.

[01:30:01] You, you commit to that traverse and it's no joke, especially in winter.

[01:30:07] Yeah, definitely.

[01:30:08] It's, uh, no, it's something to mess around with, but you get good instincts.

[01:30:11] Yeah.

[01:30:11] Yeah.

[01:30:43] All right.

[01:30:44] So, um, let's get some recent search and rescue news here.

[01:30:46] So there is a missing hiker in the Adirondacks.

[01:30:49] So, um, hiker went missing on November 29th.

[01:30:54] His name is Leo DeFour of Quebec.

[01:30:56] So Leo has a, like a TikTok page where, uh, he chronicles his hiking adventures.

[01:31:02] He'd been out in the Adirondacks quite a lot, been in New Hampshire and Maine.

[01:31:06] He's got some videos as well.

[01:31:07] Um, and unfortunately he, he set out for a hike on, um, oh darn.

[01:31:15] It's shifting from a search now, right?

[01:31:17] To a recovery, they think?

[01:31:20] It is.

[01:31:21] Yeah.

[01:31:21] Yeah.

[01:31:21] So he was, um, he was doing a one day solo trip to Allen Mountain, but he never returned.

[01:31:28] His vehicle was found at the trailhead parking lot by searchers.

[01:31:32] And, um, they are now, um, they transitioned from a, like a, I think they searched like 400

[01:31:37] miles of terrain.

[01:31:39] Wow.

[01:31:40] And, uh, they've now transitioned to what they call a, like a limited continuous search,

[01:31:45] um, which is suspending the active daily field searches, but will, I guess, include some

[01:31:50] air searches by state helicopters.

[01:31:52] They did come out later and make an announcement that the terrain is a significant risk to rescuers.

[01:31:58] Snow's like four feet deep up at the summit, uh, making the searching essentially impossible.

[01:32:03] Um, and it snowed every day since Leo went missing and it's not gotten better.

[01:32:07] So horrible timing for this.

[01:32:09] Avalanche-esque.

[01:32:11] Avalanche-esque.

[01:32:12] Yeah.

[01:32:12] I mean, they've gotten like lake effect snow out there.

[01:32:14] That's just crazy.

[01:32:15] So it's just a terrible situation.

[01:32:18] And, um, the last known location was near the summit of the mountain.

[01:32:22] Rangers did find a water bottle about 3,500 feet in the slide area.

[01:32:27] Um, and then searchers found a set of tracks going up, uh, Allen, but nothing coming down.

[01:32:33] So the Rangers do believe that those tracks were to fours, but they couldn't definitely prove it.

[01:32:39] Um, rescuers also determined his limited cell phone, uh, connected or determined his cell

[01:32:45] phone connected to a satellite in two locations on the hike.

[01:32:48] Um, and this guy did have like all the gear, like you can see on his videos that he's got

[01:32:53] like pretty good gear, uh, snowshoes.

[01:32:56] Um, he had all the supplies I think that you would expect to find in a, um, you know,

[01:33:02] on a winter hike, you know, in our backpacks to stomp.

[01:33:05] So he was reasonably well-prepared.

[01:33:07] I don't know about like whether he had a tent on him or not, what the deal is, but like

[01:33:11] you can check, I'll put a link to his TikTok account and you can see like he, he, he had

[01:33:17] the gear, he knew what he was doing, uh, and he got out quite a bit, but again, like young

[01:33:22] people taking a risk.

[01:33:24] I don't know what the, my understanding is, is that Allen peak is like the one of the more

[01:33:29] remote ones in the Adirondack.

[01:33:31] So sad story.

[01:33:33] Yeah.

[01:33:35] That's terrible.

[01:33:35] So the weather was bad when he left.

[01:33:39] Is there any information about the conditions when he was starting?

[01:33:46] Um, I don't know, stomp.

[01:33:49] I, um, just looking through this article, I, when I read about it, didn't really say much

[01:33:53] about the weather aside from that.

[01:33:54] It had snowed every day since he left and like, I think the conditions were not great.

[01:33:59] Got it.

[01:33:59] Got it.

[01:34:01] So, um, sad story.

[01:34:03] My guess is that this will be a recovery at some point in the, uh, later in the winter

[01:34:08] or sometime in the spring.

[01:34:09] So sad story for the family.

[01:34:11] Yeah.

[01:34:14] Um, next up here, stomp we had, I don't think we covered this one.

[01:34:17] There were two hikers that got in trouble on Mount Chikora.

[01:34:20] So this was on November 12th.

[01:34:24] So this is a while ago.

[01:34:25] I don't think we did this one.

[01:34:26] Um, conservation officers got a call for two lost hikers, one of whom was injured off of

[01:34:31] the Brook Trail.

[01:34:32] So this is on Mount Chikora.

[01:34:34] So the Brook Trail is off the backside of the mountain, which is interesting that they

[01:34:38] were hiking over there.

[01:34:39] Cause that's not as common of a location for people to hike from.

[01:34:43] Uh, but they came up the Brook Trail.

[01:34:45] It was two hikers, a brother and a sister from Lawrence, Massachusetts.

[01:34:49] Um, so they, uh, fishing game got a 9-1-1 call stating that, um, the two hikers were lost

[01:34:55] and that the, the, there was a brother and sister.

[01:34:57] The brother was injured due to falling multiple times, injuring his hip.

[01:35:01] So Lakes Region Search and Rescue located the hikers about an hour and a half later.

[01:35:06] So around 1040, uh, they located them a short distance from the Brook Trail on the opposite

[01:35:10] side of the Brook from the trail.

[01:35:12] So they, they crossed the river.

[01:35:15] Um, and that's an interesting trail.

[01:35:17] So you are above tree line for a fair bit, but once you get down into the valley, the, the

[01:35:21] forest in on Chikora is a little bit more wide open.

[01:35:26] It's similar to like coming down, um, like, um, coming down from like Passa Conway in, in

[01:35:35] that lower section.

[01:35:36] It's like an open, um, forest versus where, you know, some of the other areas, the whites

[01:35:41] are a little more tighter and you can't really see, but they, they somehow they made their

[01:35:45] way across the Brook.

[01:35:47] And I guess the story is, is that they had, uh, so the rescuers found them around 1030

[01:35:52] and then they were able to get them back to the trailhead parking area by 1145.

[01:35:56] So that's pretty quick, almost three, a little under three hours to get, get to them and get

[01:36:00] them back to the car.

[01:36:02] Um, but they, they had started their hike at 9am intending to hike to the summit of Mount

[01:36:07] Chikora.

[01:36:08] Uh, they got close to the summit on the steep ledges, but then they decided to return to

[01:36:14] their vehicle and they got off trail while descending the Brook trail and were attempting

[01:36:19] to self rescue.

[01:36:20] Um, and the brother ended up falling several times in the Brook and injured his hip and

[01:36:26] had a difficult time walking.

[01:36:28] So, um, got it.

[01:36:30] Um, I see it.

[01:36:32] It got cold and called 911.

[01:36:33] I see it now.

[01:36:34] So it's, it's basically West of Liberty trail and Southeast of the B line trail.

[01:36:43] So they were making their way down to that, that road that, uh, you can access those from.

[01:36:49] Wow.

[01:36:49] That looks pretty rugged.

[01:36:51] It is rugged and it's the, um, the Chikora race is, um, that goes up the Brook trail.

[01:36:58] So I can, I can state unequivocally that it's a steep, it's a tough one.

[01:37:02] Yeah.

[01:37:02] The last like two, 300 feet look really steep.

[01:37:06] Yeah, it is.

[01:37:07] Wow.

[01:37:09] Wow.

[01:37:09] Interesting.

[01:37:11] All right.

[01:37:13] What other news do we have?

[01:37:14] Anything?

[01:37:14] Uh, yeah.

[01:37:16] I got a couple more here.

[01:37:19] So, um, unprepared hiker driven off the summit of Mount Washington.

[01:37:26] Stop, stop me.

[01:37:28] If you've heard this before.

[01:37:30] Okay.

[01:37:31] Yeah.

[01:37:31] Yeah.

[01:37:32] What's, what's going on here?

[01:37:33] Well, our poor friends at the Mount Washington state park had to deal with this, you know,

[01:37:39] God bless them.

[01:37:40] So Mount Washington state park staff rescued an unprepared hiker from the summit of Mount

[01:37:45] Washington.

[01:37:46] Um, this was going back about three weeks ago.

[01:37:49] It was on a Tuesday at 11 AM state park personnel initially reported a single male hiker with a

[01:37:55] dog arrived at the summit and, uh, the news articles say forced his way into a state park

[01:38:01] snowcat vehicle and then refused to get out when requested.

[01:38:05] I think he, who knows exactly what happened there, but that's what the press briefing says.

[01:38:11] Um, so there was a brief altercation where, um, this hiker was, um, I guess, supposedly in

[01:38:17] one of the vehicles for the state park.

[01:38:19] And they said like, you know, you gotta get out of the vehicle.

[01:38:21] This was quickly deescalated.

[01:38:22] So I think everybody chilled out and, um, essentially they were trying to figure out what's

[01:38:28] going on.

[01:38:29] So the hiker, 27 year old Tristan James Murren from Virginia beach, Virginia was reportedly

[01:38:35] on a cross country hiking trip.

[01:38:39] He was going, I guess, hiking in Maine and New Hampshire and all over the place has a big

[01:38:44] dog with him.

[01:38:44] They don't say what the dog is.

[01:38:46] Um, but essentially he had called the day before he had called Mount Washington.

[01:38:53] I didn't even know.

[01:38:53] Stump, who do you call him?

[01:38:55] Like, how do you call somebody in Mount Washington?

[01:38:57] Who's picking up the phone?

[01:38:58] You got me.

[01:38:59] You got me.

[01:39:00] I wouldn't even know who to call.

[01:39:02] Yeah.

[01:39:03] Right.

[01:39:03] That's, that's wild.

[01:39:05] I'm going to look that online and say, can I, hello, this is Mike.

[01:39:08] Is somebody, can I talk to someone on the summit, please?

[01:39:12] I guarantee you'd get an answering machine if there was a line.

[01:39:17] I don't know.

[01:39:18] But apparently, um, apparently I read in one of the articles that he had called the summit

[01:39:23] the previous day to inquire about hiking to the summit and the staff told him that inclement

[01:39:30] weather was coming in and it's not advisable to hike.

[01:39:33] And this, this, this young man decided he was going to go anyway.

[01:39:37] Wow.

[01:39:38] So what route did he take?

[01:39:40] He went up, um, Tuckerman Ravine.

[01:39:44] He started his hike at 5 a.m.

[01:39:49] Up the Tuckerman Ravine trail and made it to the summit at 11 a.m.

[01:39:54] Wow.

[01:39:55] And he was found to be woefully unprepared.

[01:39:59] I wonder if he had spikes and all that good stuff.

[01:40:03] I don't know, Stump.

[01:40:04] I'm thinking no, because they use woefully.

[01:40:08] Is that in the hiker definition book?

[01:40:10] Woeful.

[01:40:11] I feel like if woefully means you got no spikes, you got no headlamp, you got nothing.

[01:40:16] This is a shame drop right here, baby.

[01:40:19] I don't know.

[01:40:20] I don't know.

[01:40:20] So yeah, like woefully unprepared, that's worse than unprepared.

[01:40:25] That is true.

[01:40:26] Yes.

[01:40:27] Unprepared, you probably at least have like the right clothes.

[01:40:31] Woe unto you, the unprepared.

[01:40:34] Woefully unprepared means you got nothing.

[01:40:37] Right.

[01:40:39] Except a big dog.

[01:40:41] Yeah.

[01:40:42] So he was woefully unprepared for the summit conditions and he had a large dog with him.

[01:40:47] All right.

[01:40:48] All right.

[01:40:50] You could always sacrifice the dog stomp and crawl inside the dog like in that Star Wars movie.

[01:40:56] I thought they smelled bad on the outside.

[01:41:01] So anyway, so anyway, the poor park staff's got to deal with this.

[01:41:05] So God bless them.

[01:41:06] So they got some guy that's up there in trouble.

[01:41:09] They got a dog.

[01:41:11] I mean, what are you going to do?

[01:41:13] So I guess eventually it was determined that-

[01:41:20] He was suffering from-

[01:41:21] It was determined that due to the weather, that the best course of action was for the state park staff

[01:41:27] to drive the hiker to the base where they were going to meet conservation officers.

[01:41:32] So they drove him down the base.

[01:41:34] That had to be an awkward drive down.

[01:41:38] Oh, I did get a message from Patrick about this story from the state park and we should have him on at some point.

[01:41:45] He did offer.

[01:41:46] He did offer, but it sounds like there might be a little bit of the Pierce Brosnan syndrome going on here too.

[01:41:51] Maybe a touch.

[01:41:53] Who knows?

[01:41:54] Who knows?

[01:41:54] I mean, it's a tricky thing.

[01:41:55] Patrick's talked about this a little bit and the Cog has talked about this.

[01:41:58] It's like a-

[01:41:59] It's an impossible-

[01:42:01] They're put in an impossible situation because the worst case scenario for them is that they turn away a hiker that's gotten themselves in over their head

[01:42:09] and then that hiker ends up dying or getting seriously injured and then it reflects poorly on them.

[01:42:15] You know, basically what happens when the hikers do this is it forces the people that are stakeholders in the summit to have to make a judgment on safety that they shouldn't have to make because somebody else has deferred that decision

[01:42:32] because they've just-

[01:42:34] They've sort of gone beyond what they should have gone on.

[01:42:38] You know, if you're prepared and you're capable, then the park's having to make a decision one way or the other would never factor into it.

[01:42:47] So that's the goal is to never force them to have to be in that position.

[01:42:51] Right.

[01:42:51] But this also creates the incentive like, oh, there's something up there if I do get in trouble.

[01:42:58] Exactly.

[01:42:58] It's a vicious circle.

[01:42:59] I've got to get out of jail free card that-

[01:43:01] Yeah.

[01:43:01] No, you don't.

[01:43:02] You don't because you need to be capable.

[01:43:04] But-

[01:43:05] Yep.

[01:43:06] So they're put in an impossible situation.

[01:43:08] So essentially what then happens is the park service folks drive him down to the bottom of the auto road, the conservation officer's sitting in there.

[01:43:17] And then this guy decides that he's not going to speak to the conservation officers and give them any additional information.

[01:43:24] And he's just going to walk his way back to Pinkham Notch, which is, you know, whatever, a mile and a half.

[01:43:29] So him and his dog head up to the auto road.

[01:43:31] I don't think anything that he did rose to the level that they could arrest him, nor does it make sense for them to want to do that, is my guess.

[01:43:40] So, you know, they'll likely recommend that he receives a bill for the cost of the rescue.

[01:43:45] A 27-year-old person from Virginia that is probably never going to be back up here again, good luck getting the money out of him.

[01:43:51] But, you know, again, it's just a great example of, you know, the folks at the summit are put in these impossible situations.

[01:44:00] Right. Yeah. I wonder if they damaged the cats breaking in.

[01:44:05] I don't know. I mean, we'll have to, I mean, who knows what the real story is on that.

[01:44:09] But, you know, whether it was running and he jumped in to warm up or whether he forced himself in, who knows.

[01:44:16] Right, right. You have trespass and maybe conversion.

[01:44:20] Yeah, who knows? Messing around with state property.

[01:44:23] Yeah. But, I mean, at the end of the day, everyone got out of it safe. It's an inconvenience and it's a lesson learned.

[01:44:30] I think that anybody listening to this podcast is likely aware enough that they're not going to put themselves in that situation.

[01:44:35] So, all right, Stomp. And then the last but not least, this is the last rescue story of the year.

[01:44:43] Two men missing in the Maine woods with a storm fast approaching.

[01:44:48] This happened on December 5th and this was in Township, Maine, I think it is.

[01:44:54] So, rescuers were, search crews were looking in an area trying to find a couple of men who were lost.

[01:45:04] So, one of the rescues said he could hear a human voice pretty faint just saying, help, help.

[01:45:09] So, Steve and Shannon Lyon were enjoying a quiet night in their cabin when their dog Skyler started barking.

[01:45:18] Steve headed out to see what the commotion was.

[01:45:23] And when I turned around to go back in, the dog stopped barking for a minute.

[01:45:27] And that's when I could hear from far away that there was a voice saying, help, help.

[01:45:32] And he couldn't place it exactly, but I knew that it was someone in the woods over there.

[01:45:36] So, this couple's basically having a night. The dog tips them off that someone's in the woods.

[01:45:41] And this, so, the last name was Lyon.

[01:45:44] So, the Lyons family would soon find out that the voice was of 77-year-old Sidney Hoyt,

[01:45:50] who had gone missing Tuesday after picking up his friend Gary Foster, 75 years old,

[01:45:55] from the Maine Veterans Home that morning.

[01:45:58] They were going to go for a drive.

[01:45:59] And 24 hours later, they ended up showing up in the woods there.

[01:46:07] So, I guess they were, they'd been looking for these folks for about 20 hours.

[01:46:15] Wow.

[01:46:15] And they speculate that the men got confused where they were, took a turn onto a heavily overgrown road,

[01:46:21] where they eventually got stuck.

[01:46:24] And they were driving over bushes and young saplings that were taller than they were,

[01:46:29] and they were following GPS.

[01:46:33] So, I guess that's basically what ended up happening,

[01:46:36] is that they had a National Guard aerial team out there looking to pinpoint them.

[01:46:40] And they wouldn't give up, but eventually they did find them and were able to rescue them.

[01:46:47] So, all thanks to a dog, I guess, barking.

[01:46:50] Wow.

[01:46:51] Another close call.

[01:46:53] Yeah, yeah.

[01:46:53] And the two older gentlemen were taken to a Bangor Hospital Wednesday night,

[01:46:57] and there's no update on their conditions.

[01:46:59] But, yeah, they're lucky.

[01:47:00] So, they were following GPS, I guess, and got lost and ended up in the woods.

[01:47:04] Wow.

[01:47:05] Yeah, even GPS can lead you astray.

[01:47:09] Yeah.

[01:47:09] Interesting.

[01:47:11] So, anyway, stop.

[01:47:12] All's well that ends well.

[01:47:14] Merry Christmas to you.

[01:47:15] Merry Christmas.

[01:47:15] And Happy New Year to you and all the listeners.

[01:47:18] Happy New Year's.

[01:47:19] Thank you, everybody, for supporting the pod.

[01:47:21] It's another year under the belt.

[01:47:24] And we'll be back in 2025.

[01:47:26] The first one looking at the calendar here.

[01:47:28] Cheswick is joining us to talk about his new adventures upon our return episode.

[01:47:34] Oh, Cheswick.

[01:47:35] Yeah.

[01:47:36] So, that should be fun.

[01:47:38] All right.

[01:47:38] Cheswick is always bringing the interesting story.

[01:47:41] So, that'll be great.

[01:47:42] Absolutely.

[01:47:43] Adios.

[01:47:44] Excellent.

[01:47:45] All right.

[01:47:46] Stomp.

[01:47:46] Adios to you, too.

[01:47:50] Thank you for listening.

[01:47:51] If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[01:48:02] If you want to learn more about the topics covered in today's show, please check out the show notes and safety information at slasherpodcast.com.

[01:48:11] That's S-L-A-S-R podcast.com.

[01:48:16] You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram.

[01:48:20] We hope you'll join us next week for another great show.

[01:48:23] Until then, on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush some mega heat.

[01:48:32] Now covered in scratches, blisters, and bug bites, Chris Staff wanted to complete his most challenging day hike ever.

[01:48:39] Fish and game officers say the hiker from Florida activated an emergency beacon yesterday morning.

[01:48:46] He was hiking along the Appalachian Trail when the weather started to get worse.

[01:48:50] Officials say the snow was piled up to three feet in some spots, and there was a wind chill of minus one degree.

[01:48:57] And there's three words to describe this race.

[01:49:00] Do we all know who they are?

[01:49:01] Oh, yeah!

[01:49:04] Lieutenant James Neeland from New Hampshire Fish and Game.

[01:49:06] Lieutenant, thanks for being with us today.

[01:49:08] Thanks for having me.

[01:49:10] What are some of the most common mistakes you see people make when they're heading out on the trails to hike here in New Hampshire?

[01:49:14] It seems to me the most common is being unprepared.

[01:49:16] I think if they just simply visited hikesafe.com and got a list of the ten essential items and had those in their packs,

[01:49:23] they probably would have no need to ever call us at all.