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Mt. Vancouver 50th Anniversary Reunion
The MIT outing club expedition that made the first ascent of the
northeast ridge of Mt. Vancouver (15,787) in the St. Elias range of
the Yukon and Alaska turned out to be the most significant adventure
of our lives for many of the participants. The expedition happened in
1975, 50 years ago this year (2025). Of the 8 original climbers, 5
are still alive and, while some of us haven't seen each other in a very
long time, we are still in communication. We decided to hold
a reunion and Bart DeWolf kindly offered his mountain home in Tamworth
NH. The pictures here are from that reunion.
The participants were the veterans of the expedition; Bart DeWolf,
John Yates, Hal Murray, Cliff Cantor and myself, Craig (Bob) Walker.
They also included Lucy DeWolf (Bart's wife), Pauline Cantor (Cliff's
wife), and Harriet Cohen (widow of Bob Dangle who passed away in
2019). Sorely missed with the three who have passed on; Bob Dangle,
Paul Ledoux, and Rob Milne.
Most of us arrived in Tamworth on Oct. 4, 2025 and left on Oct 9 for
flights on Oct 10 or later. On Oct 5, we did an easy hike on Mt.
Roberts near Moultonborough, NH. On Oct 6, we did another easy hike on
Mt. Willard near Crawford Notch, HN. Our big hike was up Mt. Washington
on the Jewell trail which starts at the bottom station of the cog railway.
That hike involved a 3652' ascent on a very rocky trail. The ladies
drove to the top and we all rode down in the car. This was a good hike
for a group with ages 71, 76, 80, 81, and 83! On Oct 8, we did a short
walk to Heron Pond near Chocorua Lake, NH. Finally on Oct 9, we did a
casual walk around the property of Bart and some neighbors, ate at a
nearby bakery and started our trips back to Boston and eventually home.
For the 1975 expedition, we had made some granola that we all remember
as being rather special. On the morning of Oct 8, we made a batch of
granola that we based on a recipe that we think was the one used in
1975. It turned out very tasty, but maybe not as special as my memory
of what we had originally. Some of us may try some tweaks.
All in all, it was a very special week of visiting old friends and
reliving old memories.
Please see the
expedition photo set for my photos from the climb and hike out.
Click on the image for a screen size version.
The "2000" and "full size" versions are larger (not available in web versions).
The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was in progress during our trip. This was
one of the Southwest Airlines desks at the Albuquerque Airport on Oct 4, which
was the first day of the Fiesta.
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Hal, Cliff, Bart, and Charlie (Bart's dog) at the start of the Mt. Roberts hike.
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Parline, Harriet, and John at the start of the Mt. Roberts hike.
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Cliff, Bart, and Charlie on the Mt. Roberts trail.
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Bart and Charlie on the Mt. Roberts trail.
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John, Pauline, Bart, Hal, Harriet, and Cliff on the Mt. Roberts trail.
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Bart, Cliff, Hal, John, and Craig on Mt. Roberts.
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John, Harriet, Bart, Cliff, Hal, and Pauline at the start of the
Mt Willard Trail in Crawford Notch.
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From near the top of Mt. Willard. The people are not our party.
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Back at Crawford Notch. Hal, Cliff, Pauline, and John playing on the rails
of the tourist train.
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Breakfast at Bart's place. When I got up at about 3:30am for our alpine
start on Mt. Washington, the table was all laid out for us.
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John, Bart, and Cliff just above the cog railway base station. The
combination of a long exposure (0.4s) and flash created motion
blurring on the distant objects, but not those in the flash range.
The bright object in the sky is the full moon.
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Cliff, Hal, and John on the trail while still in the deep woods.
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A toad. The location made it hard to get the whole body.
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Hal. One can see here how rocky the trail is.
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The cog railroad base station, and where we parked.
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A cog railroad engine and car. This gives an idea how steep the rail is.
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Cliff with Hal behind near timberline. Typical of New England, but not
the west, the trees get dense and short near timberline.
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There were a considerable number of large, very white granite blocks near
the trail.
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Bart and a Cairn above timberline.
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Hal and Cliff at the end of the Jewell Trail where it meets the Gulfside Trail.
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Bart and Hal at the end of the Jewell Trail where it meets the Gulfside Trail.
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Looking down from the end of the Jewell Trail to the cog railroad base.
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Bart working his way up the trail toward the Mt. Washington summit.
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John and Bart on an especially rocky stretch of the Gulfside Trail.
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Looking up the Gulfside Trail toward the summit of Mt. Washington.
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At this point we are near the cog railway tracks and the trains are
running fairly frequently. There were four trains traveling together.
Later is were only three. Train one has a green car and blue engine.
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The second train. It has a purple car and white engine.
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The engine of the second train.
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The third train on the cog railroad. It has a pink car and red engine.
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The fourth train on the cog railroad. It has a blue car and yellow engine.
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A closeup of the fourth train's drive wheels.
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Another closeup of the drive system.
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A benchmark close to the top of Mt. Washington.
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The crowd waiting to touch the actual summit of Mt. Washington. We didn't
bother.
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The viewing area. The train station is just beyond on a slightly lower level.
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The viewing area and observation tower.
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Looking over where the cog railroad starts down from the summit area.
The road is in the background. It comes up the opposite side of the
mountain from the railroad.
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A the road and a corner of the parking lot from near the summit of Mt.
Washington.
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The interior of the gift shop and snack shop at the summit of Mt Washington.
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A shot out the window during the drive down. There were several signs
warning drivers to use low gears and to pull over occasionally to let
brakes cool. It started to rain before we got back to the trailhead on
the other side of the mountain to retrieve the car we had used in the
morning.
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Pauline, Cliff, and Lucy working on the granola that we
hoped would duplicate what we had on the Mt. Vancouver in 1975.
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The main ingredient, oats, ready to go with the liquid intgredients being
prepared on the side.
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The making of the granola was a community effort by everyone, but I think
Lucy, Cliff, and I can claim to be the main instigators and cooks.
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The finished granola.
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Lucy, Harriet, and Pauline.
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Harriet, Hal, and Cliff after the granola was made.
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At the start of the Heron Pond walk on Oct 8.
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Hal, Cliff, and Bart identifying leaves. Pauline and Lucy behind.
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iPhones do some internal image processing to assist in such high contrast
imaging as seen in this iPhone photo compared to the others taken with my
Sony DSC-RX100M7.
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A decayed log along the trail. Taken with the iPhone.
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IPhone photo of approaching Heron Pond.
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Lucy at Heron Pond.
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Some fall color at Heron Pond.
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Bart, Cliff, Hal, Pauline, and Lucy at Heron Pond.
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Lucy at Heron Pond.
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A stream along the trail near Heron Pond.
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Pauline and Bart walking in back of Bart's house.
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John, Craig (standing), Pauline, Cliff, Lucy, Bart, and Hal at the local
bakery on Oct 9, the day we left for Lexington. Harriet had left the
day before.
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Clouds from the plane somewhere before Denver
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