February 7th 2015: Ice Climbing and Ice Castles

My friend and I set out early this morning to get to the Northeast Mountaineering Bunkhouse in Bartlett NH, where we were to set out for an ice climbing expedition.

I have since realized that I have been here before in the past to do waterfall rappelling. We had to rent mountaineering boots, crampons, gaiters, harnesses and helmets, and spent some time fitting them.

When we were all equipped, we went on a drive to the Crawford Notch State Park in Hart's Location NH, going to the railroad track on Arethusa Falls Road, hiking northward on it,

where the views of the surrounding mountains from the bridge were amazing.

The ice covered cliffsides were beautiful as well.

After crossing the bridge, we put on our crampons,

and hiked up the steep hillside in the Frankenstein Cliffs area

to get to our climbing area for the day.

Our guides set up the ropes,

showed us how to belay,

as well as the techniques required to use our ice axes

and our crampons to climb the ice.

Then, it was time for us to climb.

I have to say that everyone else other than my friend and I, who were pretty unfit, got pretty good at ice climbing in the end, climbing to the top several times.

I got some pictures of me climbing, fortunately.

I have to say, it took some effort to get the axes stuck in the snow to use it suitably for support, as it was to kick holes in the ice with the crampons to stand on them. My toes became painful eventually with all the kicking, and decided not to aggravate them again after a while of climbing.

When everyone was finally done, my friend and I managed to slide quickly down the hill, then made our way back to the car and back to the bunkhouse to return our stuff.

After a tiring ice climbing experience, we headed all the way to Lincoln NH to check out the Ice Castles.

I have to say, I wasn't really impressed with the manmade ice formations, although it was cool to see the many ice spikes hanging over our heads, and the lights shining out from within the ice. It is a pretty unique experience though. Pictures I took here follow.

Done with the cold, we left for Massachusetts in light of the pending snow storm.With not much snow falling by the time we got back to Malden, we decided to get dinner at Oppas' Kitchen and Bar, a new Korean restaurant in town. The decor here was little on the simple side, but there were a lot of interesting stuff on the menu. We initially decided to get stews, with me getting the Gopchang Jigae (Beef Intestines and beef tripes with tofu, enoki mushrooms and vegetables in spicy stew),

and my friend getting the Kimchi Jigae (Homemade kimchi, sliced pork, sweet rice cakes, tofu, enoki mushrooms in spicy stew).

Although the 2 stews looked the same, they could not have tasted more different. Mine was strongly beef flavored and spicy with peppers in it, while my friend's was less spicy and pretty sour, going well with the rice.

I wasn't feeling satisfied after my meal though, so I decided to get the Japanese Chashu Ramen (Japanese style tender slices of marinated char siu (pork belly) on Japanese Yellow ramen noodles with kamaboka (steamed fish cake, corn, enoki mushrooms, bean sprouts and scallions in tasty tonkatsu pork broth).

I have to say the soup was absolutely delicious.

Overall, a recommend, being the only Korean restaurant in town, although I do have one complaint. The ingredients stated in the menu for the dishes were not necessarily what we got. For example, my stew had rice cakes, while my friend's did not, and mine did not have tofu. The ramen had eggs, but no corn or fish cakes.

A great end to a fun but tiring day in the ice. Thankfully I got home before the worst of the ice came.

August 10th 2013: Waterfall Rappelling in the White Mountains

I woke up really early today to go waterfall rappelling with Northeast Mountaineering on the Ripley Falls in Hart's Location NH. After arriving at the Bunkhouse in Bartlett NH and signing a few forms, we waited for everyone to arrive before the initial lesson started on how to attach the rope to the harness, and how to rappel properly by always leaning backwards.

After the briefing, we followed the instructor to the trailhead close to the Ripley Falls in Hart's Location NH,

then hiked in full gear

along the Ripley Falls Trail

to get to the beautiful waterfall that we were going to climb down. The path we took to get to the waterfall is shown below in pink.

The waterfall itself is beautiful.

After we climbed to the top of the falls, we waited while the instructors set stuff up, so  I took the opportunity to take more pictures of the beautiful scenery from up here.

When my turn came, I became a little apprehensive, having a fear of heights. Climbing down the waterfall was pretty slow and arduous, as leaning back made my back tire and hurt after a while, forcing me to take frequent breaks, with the instructor constantly yelling at me to lean back, which was the one thing I did not want to do.

Getting drenched by the cold water from the falls, which was more intense today because of the rains yesterday, was pretty refreshing though. Looking down to my final destination from the top was not as fun though. I was just glad when I finally reached the end of my journey. Because of my injured wrist, I decided to not take any more risks and waited while my friends tried rappelling a few more times before we finally headed back to our cars for the day. After our rappelling adventure, my friend and I decided to grab some chow at Bart's Deli and General Store nearby, with me getting the Black Russian Panini (Turkey, Pastrami, Swiss, Russian Dressing),

while my friend got the Loaded Steak and Cheese Sandwich,

which were both pretty good, if not for the peppers and onions on my friend's sandwich.

After lunch, we decided to go visit the Arethusa Falls, parking below near the trailhead below the Frankenstein Cliffs.

From here, the path we walked to get to the falls and the Frankenstein Cliff Overlook along the Arethusa Falls Trail is shown below in pink.

The Arethusa Falls themselves were pretty impressive, much better than the Ripley Falls. I'm glad we did not rappel down this one though.

The views from the overlook were pretty awesome as well, even though we had to walk a long arduous journey to get there,

and we were able to spot our car parked in the lot far below from there as well.

The only way from here was down, and it was really tiring for me, especially on my knees. Thankfully, the constant going up and down allowed me to rest different parts of my legs while going uphill or downhill, so it made it a little easier, although I did have to stop a few times along the way to rest them so I did not injure myself. Some pictures I took along the way here follow.

We were just extremely exhausted and happy when we finally got back to the car after a long day of fun hiking and rappelling. I'm just disappointed that even after all our efforts, we missed out on the Bemis Brook Falls, the Coliseum Falls, and the Falcon Cliff Overlook. Oh well, guess I'll come back again sometime in future.

From here, I decided to head to the town of North Andover to have dinner at Casa Blanca Mexican Restaurant. This bar restaurant has pretty okay decor, with Mexican decorations all over the restaurant.

With my groupon, I decided to get the Sopa de Camaron (A delicious zesty Mexican shrimp soup with zucchini, carrots, cilantro, onions and chopped avocados) for soup

and the Pacifico Burrito (Our special blend of shrimp, crab, fish and scallops in a flour tortilla. Covered with a fresh tomatillo sauce and garnished with lettuce, pico de gallo, sour cream and a slice of avocado).

The soup was so tasty that I could not stop lapping it up, together with the jumbo fresh shrimp. The burrito was equally good as well, especially with the tomatilla sauce. Overall, I think I shall give this place a recommend.

After a great dinner, I headed into Boston to hang out with my friends who had come in from New York. They were staying at the Westin Boston Waterfront, which had pretty nice decor.

I was super tired from my day of adventure, but we still had a lot of fun for the rest of the night, but as we had to get up early tomorrow for food truck stuff, we had to call it a day way too soon. Man I have only 2 hours to sleep before tomorrow. I wonder how I am going to to stuff tomorrow.