2018 NH Spring / SH Autumn Photo Thread

Only the daffodils give away the fact that it is early spring. The rest look like winter still.

You can't even tell that my photos are taken in spring, as gorse flowers all year.

Yeah, but we're not subtropique like southern England

Frost in the valley is a regular feature here during March mornings. The sunshine strength on the church is a sign that spring is beginning.

English architecture.

Council Houses:


Middle Class:


Well to do:


This reminded me on the Financial District in New York City:



Old Architecture:

Rainy weather today

you got more snow than me; also can tell you have a decent smartphone camera now; think ours are similar in quality. Used Daylight Savings Time to push myself to wake up before sunrise and get out before then. Nice reddish glow, this was the best my phone camera could do to capture it



orange glow on houses after the sun rose, think my phone is a bit overeager here





looking at angle perpendicular to the sun and it doesn't look early morning

After several overcast days, finally a sunny day.
Went skiing. Ca 350 - 400 m asl. Temp ca -1 to -2C


ca 400 m asl, Trondheim's city forest


You can by limonade, coffee, open sandwiches, taco or some Norwegian specialities like Waffles and Sour Cream Porridge here

you have good timing, I keep getting overcast days in the mountains. How deep was the snow?

I'll start by adding a few pictures I forgot to post from Bangkok.

This is Lumphini park, the Central Park of The Big Mango.
A jungle in a concrete jungle.



Loads of monitor lizards there. One of then found a fish carcass and fought some crows for it. Easy battle.



Fast forward about a week and we're in Koh Lanta. Anybody who doesn't think this looks like a ding dong has got a screw loose or something.


We went on a four island tour today. Gotta love Thailand's rock formations (and blue water (and warm water (and warm sunny weather (and 1$ thai food))))


Snorkelling in Koh Tao had cooler corals, and SHARKS, but there were a little more fishes here. Not that I could take pictures underwater.

Another stop was the "emerald cave". Had to swim in line through a 80m cave in complete closed-eye darkness. Cave exit.


Perspective.


This was actually really cool. It was a paradise  oasis hole in the island, only accessible by that cave. 50m walls surrounding you all around.

With some nice tropical vegetation.


The last island was possibly the coolest. The water was simply unbelievable.


That wasn't even the good part. This was the good part. Tell me with a straight face you've ever seen water that blue before in your life.

An unedited panorama.


It was so shallow so far out allowing it to be just as blue at the shore as 100m out. Incredibly warm water too. Probably 35'C. Closer to the shore it was hot tub temperature.

While taking these pictures the others were eating. Stupid tour.

After that we went home. Through the jungle.


What wasn't very nice at all was sitting in the trunk of a pickup truck (obviously without seatbelts) crammed together with 9 other people, going 100kph down these roads.


And lastly, some sunsets for good measure. (First two from today and third yesterday)

Mt. Washington hike. Nor'easter had dumped snow in the region late last week, and then there was clouds and flurries for a couple days. Driving to the trailhead, day started out clear. No clouds except on Mt. Washington, which had an interesting cloud cap along the ridge. Looked like moisture had moved in from the southeast and the mountains had trapped it there



Parked at the cog railway lot, which doesn't run during the winter. Owner wants to build a hotel on the mountain, and environmental groups and an outdoor group are fighting to stop it. There's already a rather primitive "hut" 1.5 miles south of the summit at 5000 feet with bunkrooms that holds over 100 people; his idea is something fancier, and one his train can take you to. The owner was at the parking lot and very eager to tell anyone who'd listen why the hotel was a great idea. He's pissed off at the greenies and thinks the AMC (which owns the existing huts) are hypocrites for trying to stop him — the AMC runs heliocopter to supply the huts at the beginning of the season. I'm mixed: as long as it's done carefully, it won't harm sensitive vegetation, though the summit already must be stressed with water & sewage. Mt. Washington isn't a wilderness, it's already crowded with people in summer. Rather just hikers there than lazy tourists but at least the tourists don't crowd the trails. Other guy talking to the owner thought "an Alps like mountain lodging" would be exciting. Owner said he wouldn't put the hotel right by the summit as he wouldn't want disturb the views. Felt like adding the lower down location he had in mind also had the benefit non-hikers could only visit the hotel by his train rather than use the auto road. Didn't get a chance to tell him that. Meh, the whole mountain turned into a tourist trap does sound like too much; the summit crowds are huge as it is. So the cog started charging for parking during the winter. I get it's his land and it takes effort to plow, but his parking fee was a passive-aggressive "greenie groups pissed me off so you get to pay". Here's the note:



view from the parking lot. Up the mountain:



down and across the valley



trail started in the woods with a few peeks of hill slopes but no mountain. Trailhead elevation around 2800 feet, this was around 3000 feet



view of the mountain



my phone forecast looked frigid, was this for 3000 feet?! or was my phone confused and giving the summit forecast?



current temperatures



after a short but very steep section up at about 4000 feet



surprised there was running water up here; maybe the thaw 2 weeks back helped there wasn't enough time to fully re-freeze? In 2015 when I was up here in early April everything was frozen solid



neat cloud shape. hope the clouds were moving in and out rather than lingering







this sign is at about 3 and a half feet above the ground in the summer



got windy by the top of the ravine. and the wind was blowing powdery snow into the ravine top. Trail was confusing to follow, I went off trail for a bit.







above the ravine is a hut closed for winter. I found white-out conditions. Met some hikers coming down, they all said they turned around rather than go up any summits because they didn't like hiking in a white-out plus it was chilly anyway. Was tempted to turn around, but there was plenty of daylight and I got all the way here, might as well go further and see how it goes. Observatory webpage showed a big temperature drop from 4000 to 5300 feet with the summit about the same temperature as 5300 feet. Guessing the cloud layer was all the same temperature and the drop was when I entered the cloud layer? Felt like it; soon put on another layer, a hat, and warmer gloves.



Looking towards Mt. Washington



and Mt. Monroe, clouds lifted a bit



Mt. Monroe was mostly in the clouds. Another break from the white-out. It felt windy closer to the hut, maybe it was topography, maybe I was heating up from hiking uphill? Only two hikers I met. One guy had an Australian accent. Or was it British? About the same, right?



most of the trail looked like this. Weather didn't get any worse as I got higher



eventually I discovered a tall cell phone tower



and there was no more uphill. Saw one staff (observatory?) and a group of Russian speakers who had hiked up the road. Long but less steep way up. One of them took a photo of me.



I circled around looking for phone service, then typed the temperature onto the forum; 12°F (-11°C) and 18 mph winds (wind chill -4°F/-20°C). Some more summit buildings. Cafe buildings looks different than summer



started to cool down from stopping but I needed a break from the uphill. Cairns were easier to follow than I expected. Snow made descending more pleasant than ice or rocks though took a bit more energy. Quite loose for above treeline



was going to go up Mt. Monroe but it was getting a lot windier. Got about halfway up there 300 foot climb and the blowing snow and steep snow drifts were intimidating. Clouds were rolling back in and looked like snow flurries might start, wasn't going to get a view anyway. Felt like Monroe was windier than Washington; sharper topography there must have created a wind amplifier. It looked very dark and stormy to the east; didn't catch a photo. I was imaginging for this hike while I was atop the mountain and see the edge of the nor'easter in the distance; instead I got socked in clouds.



got lost entering the ravine. top of the trail isn't well-cairned. Used a hiking app to keep catching if I was on trail, didn't like that I was relying on my phone for navigaion, but worked great. some very deep snow





from the tracks, must have been on trail