As the long-awaited winter creeps across the Northeast, the hardy ice climbing community awakens from their long summer slumber. You may have seen them drytooling at your gym, with a blank gaze as they dreamed of frostbitten fingers, screaming barfies and that first ice screw placement. Or at the coffee shop cutting out pictures of Will Gadd from the climbing mags (with their axe, of course). In the warm and dry months that most climbers celebrate, ice climbers dream of the day that temperatures plummet and their freshly polished crampons are put to use.
One staple of ice in the Northeast, and winter expeditions in general, is the Harvard Cabin at Huntington Ravine. Managed by the Harvard Mountaineering Club, it was first built in Tuckerman’s Ravine in the 1930′s by Brad Washburn and the HMC crew, who used Washburn’s Ford Model A to shuttle themselves back and forth from Cambridge. Laura and Guy Waterman wrote of the process, “a prodigious effort of hauling lumber and supplies went into the construction of this little edifice.” In 1962, the Tuckerman cabin was cited for being a fire hazard and blocking a ski trail, so it was moved to its current location in Huntington Ravine.
Since then, the Harvard Cabin has been an institution and staging ground for Northeast ice climbers. It is open from December 1 to April 1, and the cost is $15 per person per night to stay inside. You’ll likely be greeted by Rich the caretaker, and you should check in with the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center to register. For more information, go to the HMC’s website and also check out Rich’s posts on NEice.
Note: The original title of this article was “Breaking: Lindsey Lohan spotted at Harvard Cabin,” but Climberism’s editor is grumpy today.
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