Well, at long last the weather has turned cold. ice climbs are coming in fast. It's like magic. Every day sees new ice forming and more climbs coming into shape. From the North End of Cathedral to routes at Frankenstein, Tuckerman Ravine, Huntington Ravine and teh Black Dike on Cannon. The summit of Mt. Washington recorded a low temperature for the day of -15°F a couple of days ago and it got down to 0°F here in North Conway last night. There is still a lot of ground and surface water available to make ice. We have the ingredients to make for a spectacular ice season. It will be fun to see what happens during the next few days. Forecast for the rest of the week calls for cold temperatures and a snowstorm tomorrow (Saturday 12/6) which may dump 7" or more of snow.

We did have a brief spell of cold weather at the beginning of November and ice quickly formed in many places. Everyone was getting very excited as drips were appearing in places that had not seen much ice in a long time. The Black Dike was getting climbed and Dropline and The Coffin at Frankenstein were climbed by IMCS guides Kevin Mahoney and Josh Hurst. The entire climb fell to the ground the following day.

Conditions are everything and they change every year. Depending on elevation and orientation current conditions can change quickly for better or worse. We can't hope to keep this section of our website as up to date as some might like. Guiding is more of a focus for us as working guides than posting daily pictures of all the routes.

If you have questions about climbing conditions please call us to get the most current route information and local weather forecast. We'll do our best to keep it reasonably current. If you have a picture of a route you did and you want to share it on this website please email it to the office at guides@ime-usa.com. Best wishes to all; have a safe and rewarding season of ice climbing and winter mountaineering.

If you are going up on Mt. Washington or one of the other peaks in the Presidential Range check out the Today's Weather atop Mount Washington weather forecast information along with the USFS Avalanche Bulletin. Chris Joosen, Brian Johnston and Justin Preisendorfer perform a valuable service by posting a daily advisory. Learn or refresh your avalanche hazard awareness and rescue skills in our Level I and Level II Avalanche courses this winter.