|
A
Letter to the RMC...
By Anthony Plante,
Winter 2006-2007
"I recently completed a
presidential traverse and had the opportunity to have customer
service interactions with RMC. I was impressed with the high-quality
customer service skills and local hiking knowledge demonstrated
by the caretaker from Crag Camp, Aaron."
|
A
Letter to the RMC
By Melina Shannon-DiPietro, Winter
2002-2003
"I am writing to ask your
help. As you know, only three of the five peaks of Adams have
been named. I would like to propose that one of the unnamed peaks,
Adams 4, be named in honor of Abigail Adams."
|
|
|
 Alpine Flora Below
Treeline
By Tim Stetter,
Summer 2004
"Twinflower fruit emerges
as a sticky nutlet with hooked bristles: a perfect parcel for
grabbing hold of birds and mammals. Through feather and fur,
Twinflower has managed to spread throughout the entire boreal
region of the North."
|
 Anna
Bemis Stearns
By Judith Maddock
Hudson, Winter 2005-2006
"Anna was a member of the
RMC beginning in 1920. Between 1939 and 1969, she served 13 years
on the Board, with 6 years as secretary, 2 years as vice-president
and in 1956-58 two as president. Tom Barrow recounted that during
the 1940s, when labor for clearing trails was scarce, Anna and
his father took charge of clearing the Beechwood Way..."
|
|
|
A
Note of Thanks …
By Michael Hussin,
Summer 2003
"I can’t tell you enough
how incredible you all were. Please pass my thanks on to all
involved. I only managed to get a few names..."
|
 Antioch
Comes to Gray Knob: 15 Years of Alpine Field Studies
By Dick Fortin,
Winter 2003-2004
"The class focuses on plant
identification, recognizing plant distribution based on the previously
mentioned abiotic factors, and implementing sampling procedures
in sometimes less than ideal conditions."
|
|
|
 A Trip to King's
Ravine with My Grandfather, Louis F. Cutter
By Louis Cutter,
Summer 2005
"King's Ravine was my grandfather's
favorite place in the mountains; I think it is also mine. He
mapped it as his thesis at MIT in 1885, and at the first opportunity
bought the farm below it, where we still come."
|
 Bill and Paula Bradley Receive Lifetime Membership
Honors
By Al Hudson,
Winter 2006-2007
At the RMC Annual Meeting this
past summer, longtime RMC members Bill and Paula Bradley received
lifetime memberships in the club for their decades of service
in numerous capacities.
|
|
|
 Bradford Washburn,
1910-2007
By Lydia Goetze,
Summer 2007
"The world knows Brad Washburn
as a mountaineer, aerial photographer, cartographer, and Director
of the Boston Museum of Science. Less known is that Brad spent
some childhood summers in and around Randolph. So we also remember
Brad (an honorary RMC member, with his wife Barbara) in more
personal ways."
|
 Can't Get
Enough RMC
By Aaron Parcak,
Winter 2006-2007
"Exposure to harsh weather.
Shoveling giant mounds of human refuse. Putrid stench that other
trail crew members can emit from the mix of many days’ sweat
and dirt. Why would I continually submit myself to such physical
hardships?"
|
|
|
 Letters to the RMC
By Michael Field
and Chuck Wooster, Winter 2005-2006
"The last thing I expected
to see while wandering on the internet was my own picture. But
there I am, on the front page of the Winter 2004-2005 RMC Newsletter,
Mountain Hut Hosts Sounds of Music, carrying part of a
pump organ."
|
 Lost Rings
Found on Starr King Trail
By Edith Tucker, Winter 2004-2005
"The two rings fell out
of her pants pocket on Sept. 13, 2003, when she was peak-bagging
on Mt. Waumbek, one of the 48 4,000-foot White Mountain summits
required to be climbed for those aiming to be members of the
Four Thousand Footer Club."
|
|
|
 Mountain Weather
of the Northern Presidentials
By Steve Bailey, Summer 2004
"There’s something
different about the weather in RMC country. Winds blow harder,
snows fall deeper, and temperatures drop farther..."
|
 Mt. Washington--Revisited
By John Dykstra
Eusden, Winter 2002-2003
"My brother David and I
began to discuss a way of rediscovering the mountain. We decided
to spend a long day on Washington, beginning before dawn and
ending after nightfall, ascending and descending, going up and
down and across the mountain using different routes."
|
|
|
 On
Finishing the Four Thousand Footers
By Will Strayhorn,
Winter 2005-2006
"Emerging from the trees
onto Signal Ridge on Mt. Carrigan I caught my first glance of
the summit. As I climbed along the beautiful ridge, I looked
at the magnificent mountains and the bright blue sky. In the
distance a cloud floated lazily along the horizon..."
|
Randolph's
Greatest Storm
By Jack Stewart,
Summer 2004
"The next morning dawned
clear and I have never forgotten the sight of Howker Ridge on
Mt. Madison; on large sections all the trees were lying flat..."
|
|
|
 Remembering
Ned
By Doug Mayer, Winter 2006-2007
A new book has been published
about Ned Green, who served on RMC's trail crew in 2000. Ned
died the following winter, in an ice climbing accident in Huntington
Ravine on the side of Mount Washington. Compiled by his mother
Clare, Cutting A Bond with the Long Trail is a collection
of Ned's outdoors journals.
|
 RMC Announces
a New Edition of Randolph Paths and a New Map
By Judy Hudson, Doug Mayer and
Steve Smith, Summer 2005
This new edition of Randolph
Paths, which was first published in 1917, is much more than just
another update. The guide features entirely new trail descriptions
gathered by a team of a dozen RMC volunteers who started work
almost exactly a year ago.
|
|
|
 RMC Interview: Michele Cormier
Winter 2006-2007
"Michele Cormier has served
for the past 6 years on the Board of Directors as RMC's treasurer.
Recently she passed that responsibility to new board member Bill
Parlett. Not quite ready to give up all her obligations, Michele
decided to take on the significant role of membership director..."
|
 Scoured
by Wind or Buried by Snow
By Kelly Towle,
Winter 2005-2006
"Alpine zones are places
of intensity and drama, of fierce winds, harsh snows, and rough
terrain. But they can be places of subtlety as well, where a
slight shift in topography can lead to an array of differences
in plant life."
|
|
|
 Searching
for the Elusive Bicknell's Thrush in Randolph
By Mary Halm Small, Winter
2004-2005
"We stopped to listen at
each of the next four points, and still no Bicknell’s thrush.
The study protocol calls for revisiting the points to play a
1-minute tape of Bicknell’s thrush vocalizations in the
hope of enticing any birds in hiding to respond..."
|
 Stearns Lodge and its Extraordinary
Volunteers
Summer 2007
With Stearns Lodge now completed,
it's natural for those of us involved in the project to find
ourselves reflecting upon the endeavor, what it says about the
RMC, the club's many volunteers and friends, and the act of coming
together to accomplish a substantial community goal.
|
|
|
Stories
from "Appalachia" ...
By Klaus Goetze, Summer 2003
"The last time I saw Louis
F. Cutter was at a meeting of the Trail Committee of the Randolph
Mountain Club two days before his death. Someone asked him why
the trail to Lookout Ledge used to be called the Hallway..."
|
 Thanks
to all who contributed to Stearns Lodge...
Winter 2006-2007
A list of all the donors to the
project.
|
|
|
 The Pondicherry
National Wildlife Refuge
By David Govatski,
Summer 2006
"The 5,500 acre Pondicherry
National Wildlife Refuge is located in Jefferson and Whitefield.
It was created on December 22nd, 2000 when 670 acres of wetlands
and lowland spruce fir forest were acquired from the Hancock
Timber Resource Group by the US Fish and Wildlife Service."
|
 Two
Lives Saved by Search and Rescue Effort
By Edith Tucker, Summer 2007
"The lives of two middle-aged
hikers who became disoriented while descending Mt. Adams on January
10, 2007 in whiteout conditions above treeline were saved by
the combined efforts of two volunteers from the Randolph Mountain
Club and Androscoggin Valley Search and Rescue, and four state
Fish and Game Department conservation officers."
|
|
|
When
Stewardship Means Doing Less
By Doug Mayer,
Summer 2004
"On some fundamental level,
the club seems to understand that stewardship is more than just
keeping a cabin staffed and tidy, or a trail well blazed, brushed,
and drained—that it’s an experience we’re trying
to protect, and sometimes that means doing less in lieu of doing
a lot."
|
 Winter Hikers Take Note!
By Lydia Goetze, Winter 2007-2008
"...it is important for
all hikers to remember that they are responsible for their own
safety in the mountains at all times of the year. The RMC, NH
Fish and Game, USFS, and the AMC all work together to educate
hikers and others about responsible and safe behaviors in the
mountains."
|
|
|
 Zen
By Dean Potter,
Summer 2006
"Cold air from the valley
drifts upward. It's predawn, and I've been moving on the Nose
of El Cap through the night, focused on the rock in front of
me in the faint light of my headlamp. Suddenly, I think of how
tired and exposed I am, alone, rope-less, far past any point
of retreat. A surge of panic courses through me..."
|
|
