Climbing Haiku

Climbed up to the top,
Stopped to write on my way down.
Didn't fall; That's good.

-Sadie

Adventures in Misadventure

When I grew up . . . (okay I apologize for starting this entry this way, I sound like an old man) there was this old granite quarry near our house. As kids this was like a dream come true. We would run around on the granite blocks or through the woods to find a sudden cliff. There were tunnels to crawl down and cliffs to scale. Later on we would practice rappelling and climbing in our new sticky rubber shoes.

Okay, before this becomes a pointless nostalgic trip let me say that we had a lot of fun, unsupervised by adults, probably a little in over our heads. It's not that we did anything wrong per se, but we had a few misadventures that wouldn't have happened if there were adults around.

For example there was the time we were rappelling and didn't know how to use the figure 8 so we laboriously threaded the entire length of the rope through the devise pulling the whole thing all the way around the 8. Once we got to the bottom, we popped the rope off and realized how foolish we had been. Or another time that I was lowering my friend Randy over a short cliff with a 6mm static line and the sheath popped over the sharp edge. The core held and Randy hand over handed back up in surprise.

You might ask why I bring this up. Last weekend a couple of students asked me if I could drive them up to Burleigh so they could go for a hike. That sounded fine to me, they were upper class students who I trusted. The only thing was I couldn't pick them up, they would have to walk a few miles back to campus after their hike on Burleigh. They were pumped, I dropped them off and I figured they would be back in an hour or so. A few hours later and I hadn't heard from them. A little while after that I get a cell phone call, "Mr. Mundahl we're lost in the woods and we don't know how to get back."

Right away I started questioning my judgment, beating myself up for making a bad call, leaving students unsupervised etc. What follows is their story in their own words:

"One fine Sunday afternoon, my buddys and myself decided to take a hike up Burleigh Mountain, considering 95% of the population of the school was off campus that afternoon and we were broke. After some asking around we found that Mr. Mundahl could give us a ride to the mountain; granted we hiked back (normally a 30 minute journey). When we arrived at the camp ground / base of what once was a ski slope we decide to hike to the very top of the slope, the summit, just to pass some time. By and by we got to the top of that, made our way to the old ski shack, and eventually got bored and decided to see what was over the top of the summit. We got to the very top and, of course, kept going down in to the valley ahead of us. As we traipsed farther into the forest, it began to get dark, so we made the educated decision to turn around. However, the forest we now stood n front of in no way reminded us of the one we had just hiked through. Nothing seemed familiar. After about an hour of this directionless walking, we decided to call Mr. Mundahl and found out that if we found a creek or logging road, we could make our way down to the bottom of the mountain. Luckily for us we had stopped to call Mr. Mundahl on a logging road, so we didn'tÂ’t have to search for long. We finally made our way to the bottom of the mountain and eventually back to school."

Well they did eventually make it back, and the crazy thing was that they were pumped! They had had an adventure.

So now I'm going to write up an Accident Incident Report calling this a near miss, I'll file it in my binder, report it to the risk management committee, who will make a recommendation that will be reviewed by our underwriters. All as it should be, right? I made a bad call letting them go up to the mountain by themselves didn't I?

Honestly, I'm not sure. Is there a place for misadventure?

Adventure Clinic and Service Projects

Burleigh Mountain Community Service Crew:
We hiked the newly cut trail up to the old lift shack. Then we cleared brush and consolidated piles with a break for water in between piles. We then preformed rain dances in hopes of rain so it will be possible to burn. End.
Luke
Jaero
Mollie
Adam
Brendan
Mr. Swanson
Mrs. Torsey

Adventure Clinic:
Despite the cold weather today, everyone seemed to have a very fun and rewarding experience. We had roughly eight to ten young climbers, all of whom made great trips up the Alpine tower. I’m sure that everyone left in good spirits and with a greater understanding of teamwork and fun! Thank you to all of the students who hekped us here today as well!

Peaked Hill Fire

Hiking on the hill today we saw a lot of smoke from what I think is Peaked Hill in Bristol. Turns out there was a 15 acre fire burning on the hill.There was a helicopter running trips from the fire down to the Pemi to tank up on water. Despite my best efforts I couldn't get a picture in which the helicopter was visible.

Later today we heard of a fire on 93 probably caused by a cigarette. It has been really dry here this spring. Not much snow and next to no rain. It would be pretty bad if we had a fire on Burleigh, we'll have to be extremely careful during community service this weekend.

We were up on the mountain today checking out the trail that runs up to the old lift shack. It's a legit trail! The boys did a fine job cutting a clear path, weaving around obstacles and finding it's way quite esthetically to the old lift shack. Personally I don't like that name - I think we should call it the Hermitage in honor of the retreat it could become. Part of me will miss the adventure of blundering around in the woods trying to find it, but the trail is so nice that hopefully more people will be able to check out this piece of history. Eventually it would be great to move the engine out and create a spot where we could sit, reflect and ponder our place in the world. Potentially we could also continue the trail from there up to the summit.

Giving to the Mountain

A leaky roof fixed, wood split, trails blazed, trash picked up, boards greased. That's a quick look at the projects some hard working students tackled this week.

I say the same spiel every time we start up a new community service crew, "This mountain is built by your work - it wouldn't be possible without students doing this every fall and spring." The thing is - it's really true! We just couldn't keep up with work on the property only relying on the teachers and staff. What blows me away is when I get really stressed out about what I'm not doing on the mountain an opportunity presents itself to do the work better and put it in the hands of students.
This week I was actually too busy to even really think about the mountain. But I had some students working up there. So I had to keep them meaningfully engaged but I couldn't really spend the time to be up there working with them. It's at times like this that I think I have my priorities mixed up and I should ditch the meeting or whatever and get up on the hill.

So I really only had time to check in with them and hand them a list of projects - mostly things I've been trying to get to for months but haven't been able to. Next time I'd see them it was always, "We did everything on the list, Mundahl - what next."

Possibly the most exciting project the crew tackled was cutting a trail from the top of the ski hill over to the upper lift shack. I haven't had a chance to get up on the mountain to take a look a their work, but I'm looking forward to it.

Bob followed the trail up there a few days ago and found the Chevy engine in good enough shape he plans to salvage parts from it.

Thank you, crew. I appreciate your work.

New Hampton School Photography Blog

Amy is launching a New Hampton School photography blog. Check out the new link on the right hand side of the page.

She's planning on having students post their digital pictures there for us all to enjoy and having students comment on each other's work.

It was great to see her get excited about a new medium to share her student's work with a larger audience. Check back there often to see updated work.

Spring Community Service

We had our first community service saturday last week. We're running two groups on Burleigh Mountain these days. Dave has a crew of students working to clear the ski hill and keep up our facility. I'm running an adventure clinic to open the Alpine Tower to local children.
Going forward I'd like to have our students write up these posts - so stay tuned for that. For now here are some pictures from Saturday. Looks like the Burleigh crew was stacking those burn piles up so we can have another bon fire. They also stacked some wood that Brendan had been splitting earlier in the month.
Our students did a great job working with the little guys and gals on the Alpine Tower. Dan has a quiet but sure voice that has an impact on the kids he works with.

They even seemed to be having fun at the same time! Gunnar is always singing - or something. Megan and Olivia managed to not get in many pictures - we'll have to do better next time!

Just how strong is this rope anyway? I ask this at every program - one little boy answered with what must have seemed like an impossibly high number for him, "what about 200 pounds."

What really impressed me this week was how many folks came - we had about 12 participants turn out. Some folks who have been with us from the beginning and new folks as well.

The Burleigh crew had a good start to their work for the season too. Stay tuned for more from them in their own words.

There really was a Golden Chicken!

I found out a couple of weeks ago that several readers of the Burleigh Blog thought I was having an early April Fool's joke with my earlier post about the Plymouth State University challenge course facilitator olympics. Well, to put the hecklers to rest - here is a picture of the goods.

The gathering was a huge success from my point of view. Kimberly and I couldn't stay the whole day unfortunately. While we were in Plymouth, however, we had a great time meeting facilitators from as far away as Cape Cod. We also had the chance to check out PSU's impressive course and nicely organized gear room.

Angel and Chris are great ambassadors for their program and should be given a lot of credit for making the event happen. They run challenge course programs for the university, as well as for local groups. There is a link to their website on the right - check them out!

I have to admit when I was holding the golden rubber chicken for the picture was the last time I would get anywhere near the trophy. Our first event was the zip line ball toss. We zipped while trying to toss balls into hoola hoops on the ground below. Key Punch numbers in the hoops gave each a point value. After one participant's disappointing point score but visually impressive, "bomb bay door" tactic failed to hit the mark, I was up. I chose a more surgical strike approach with only four balls in my arsenal. Here I am getting ready to launch.

Okay so I chose the sit down start - but not because I'd forgotten just how thrilling the launch off a zip can be - no really. My flight landed me an early lead with 25 points.
Later participants would blow me out of the water, including Chris's idea of dumping the entire basket of balls on the first set of hoops. An improvement on the bomb-bay door approach to be sure.

As Kimberly and I were heading back to school the other facilitators were breaking for lunch before the Pamper Pole Slam Dunk. I'm sorry to have missed it and I'm not sure who did walk home with the trophy at the end of the day.

PSU plans to make the event an annual one - hopefully growing each year. I'm told the trophy will make a reappearance next time as well. We can continue to vie for the (somewhat dubious) honor of holding the golden rubber chicken in our trophy case for a year!

Sophomore Expedition Staff Training

Sophomore Expedition season is here! Our teachers who help lead the expedition spent the day on Wednesday in staff training. We covered theory, methods, models and hard skills.

This year we particularly focused on hypothermia recognition and treatment, risk assessment and how to use our new tents and stoves.

In this picture Jason, Jayne and Ted are trying to decide how to work with an injured student in the field. By learning how to recognize when the potential for accidents exists we hope to be able to avoid situations where our students become injured.

Deciding when to contact the course director and request additional resources, a modified route plan or other input is an important part of leading young people in the field. Darren, David and Jason struggle with gray areas and make a solid plan to keep kids safe.
Stove lighting, safety and maintenance can best be learned experientially - hands on with our new gear. Hotter, more consistent stoves will lead to warmer bellies and ultimately happier students. Peter, Laurel, Darren and Betsy work on our new XGK's from Mountain Safety Research.

High Rapell

Ted sent me this picture from the fall when the Outdoor Adventures group did a rap from the top of the AT. We brought a bunch of students to the top where they went onto an anchor at the top of the tower. I was up there to make sure the switch happened well. Then one at a time they went onto the rap line with an additional belay from below.

The first step off the platform was the hardest part for most of the students, but once they were past that they did great. I'm facinated by something I've observed on the tower. Sometimes it seems easier for us to trust our belayers while climbing and lowering than to trust ourselves while rappelling. Why is that?

In any case as you can see Sadie is enjoying herself!

Thanks, Ted for this great picture!

Wood and More Wood

I Spent an enjoyable 45 minutes last night getting my father in law's chainsaw stuck in the logs yesterday. No actually I did manage to cut a good number of chunks to be split but I had a rather steep learning curve and I'm sure I'll still be working to figure it out.

Here's the good stuff:

This is the stack I was working on yesterday. Sarah pointed out that the snow was keeping some of the logs off the ground which would make them easy to cut so I had better get on it while the snow was around.

This is the second, and larger, stack. We should have a good bit of firewood here!

Good News and Bad News

Well, the bad news is we didn't get to maple sugaring this year. A bunch of things worked against us. I probably should have given the project to Dave who would have been able to run with it better than I could have this year. Admissions was super busy running up to our deadline and I just didn't have the time. Plus we didn't have the evaporator up to speed, any fire wood, etc.

Which leads me to the good news. Last week a tree crew was on campus cleaning up some big pines that were hanging dangerously over some campus buildings and roadways. They also were scheduled to take down a tree behind our dorm. So I asked Bob and the tree crew if it wouldn't be too much trouble to leave me the tree so I could cut it up and have Brendan chop the wood for his senior leadership project. I was expecting maybe a trouck load of wood at the end. Well they ended up downing about 10 trees, limbing them and leaving them to me for fire wood! Wow - I think it will be a lot of wood for us.

So now there is a pile of logs on the basketball court and another pile near where we park the car. It was a little more work than I was expecting, but with Brendan and Dave's help I think we should be good on wood for a while. I'll post pictures when I get the chance (and after we've done some work and have something to show for it!).

Kind of bitter sweet - I would have loved to boil this year, just another indication that I've got a bit too many things on my plate. Looking forward to better things next year - we'll certainly have enough fire wood!

OHR's Retired

Here are a few pictures of all that is left of the old high ropes course. That's Adam in the foreground and you can see cables coming down out of the trees and into the underbrush. After we took these pictures we cut the cables back with bolt cutters and lashed them to the tree so they wouldn't be a hazard for anyone who might be traveling in this, albeit out of the way, area.

I just heard from a friend of mine at an organization where I used to work. They had a whole course they called the OHR for Old High Ropes. It was a great old course built in trees. There was one massive program that I was working and I had to sit in the zip line platform the entire day and work participants through - maybe 100 zips that day! No - that must be an exageration. But I do remember it being a scorching day and I was enjoying life up in the trees in the shade. I guess they just retired and removed that old zip line.

Our old course even had a climbing wall. This is the back side, the front still has some teak or mahogany holds bolted to it. The only thing I couldn't figure out was how it was belayed. There wasn't a cable up above it in the trees. Maybe they just threw a rope over the top and belayed from the other side?

25 Years of Ropes Course History

FRONT: M.McFarlin, J.Berish, S.Moran, Skidder, D.Gustafson. SECOND ROW: F.Sarget, P.Farey, M.Fricke, P.Stone, C.Willingham. THIRD ROW: B.Finn, B.Tuxbury, H.Thompson. FOURTH ROW: R.Schwager, T.Eberhard, M.Cooper, D.McMillan.

Bill was here today from Alpine Towers inspecting our course and the climbing wall as well. The annual inspection is critical to keep us up to date, safe and connected to the larger Alpine Tower community. It's only the second time it's been inspected - so that's kind of an anniversary right?

I thought it might be an interesting occasion to post some photos that Katie and Nicoya found searching through old year books.

The oldest reference to outdoor activities we could find was from 1969. This unidentified hard man might be on a ropes course on Burleigh or climbing some stout winter crag.

I'll give you a dollar if you can tell me what knot that is.

Later on though we have clear evidence of the old ropes course on Burleigh, check out these pictures!

Awesome shots of climbers challenging themselves. I love the look of focus on their faces.

The picture at the top of this article and these ropes course shots are from the 1980 Belfry. The group was called "Outing Club" and had this to say about their activities:

"The outing program is an alternative to competitive sports. By no means is this activity a way out of sports, but it is a way that we can compete with ourselves rather than our peers. The challenge isn't to win or loose but to push ourselves farther than we've gone before. Wether the obstacle is a long hike, shooting a set of rapids in an open canoe, or scaling a 400 foot cliff we always win. Even if we don't make it, we grow from the experience and afterwards we know ourselves better. What we find is often surprising."

This reflection on the nature of outdoor activities is a timeless statement of purpose for those of us who love the freedom, adventure and challenge of what we do. Even the implied justification compared to mainstream sports is still as relevant today as it was 25 years ago.

Sometimes I wonder if the commercialization of rock climbing, hiking and other 'adventure,' 'extreme,' 'adrenaline' sports hasn't moved us away from our roots. I didn't learn climbing from a guide, a class or a program. I learned the basics from my Dad and then went to the local granite quarry with my friend Randy and messed around until we thought we knew what we were doing. Later in college I learned from more experienced climbers. We didn't hurt ourselves, I think, because we were forced to take it slow and figure it out for ourselves. We were so excited to be out there and doing it - I can remember being out of breath not from exertion but from the sheer joy of what were doing. This is the kind of experience I hope to provide to our students, even though we are doing it within the context of a class or an activity.

In 1980 at NHS Hugh Thompson was in charge of things. Here's his picture, I'm guessing that's his dog, Skidder, in the photo at the top of the article?

The course they had on Burleigh was pretty extensive. In 2002, the first fall I was working for NHS, we rediscovered it. I was standing in the woods working with a group of freshmen students. Typically distractabe and excitable as they are they didn't need much to get them gleefully off track. I had them circled up and I was deep in imparting my "wisdom" to them when Skylar looked up and exclaimed, "There is a rope hanging from that tree!" I was about to earnestly deny the claim and get us back to the matter at hand when I noticed, sure enough, off in the woods was a bright yellow rope hanging from the tree! The circle was over and we excitedly searched from tree to tree until we had discovered the whole course. Here is a sketch I made of it a litte while after the discovery.

A: Zip line and rope brake. B: Huge birch tree and start of zip. C: Postman's walk? D: Climbing wall and practice area. E: Course barely visible from logging road / snowmobile trail in the fall. F: No Trespassing sign found.

The zip must have been pretty exciting. Adam and I hiked around it again later that fall and found an old webbing harness and soaked up the atmosphere. What an amazing course for the time - I wonder how many other ones like it were operating in New Hampshire at the time. I'll bet not many.

That's all for now. Looking back a litte bit on a day when we're looking forward to an exciting spring and summer of Burleigh Mountain programs. What will the next 25 years of adventure on Burleigh bring?

Winter Carnival Hike

For the first time ever we included a hike to Burleigh during Winter Carnival. Now although there weren't technically any medals on the line I would have to say the Junior class dominated with their numbers, enthusiasm and the gusto with which they tucked into the s'mores. Also Paul and Brendan represented the Freshman and Sophomore classes.
Kate also brought her whole family along on the hike. It was a real treat to see her sisters hike to the top of the ski trail and then continue on to the very summit of Burleigh! And SeiWan was an honorary family member for the day. I think they even encouraged the junior boys to push on to the top simply by having done it themselves!
There was a couple of crusty inches on the ground - not even enough to cover up the stumps of brush we cut in the fall - but much more snow than on the south facing aspects on campus.

It was fun for me to see our students coming up to the mountain and just enjoying themselves, goofing around the fire and telling tall tales. No plans, no agendas, no learning goals. Refreshing. I love Burleigh - and I don't think we even use it to 10% of what we could be.

Paul and Brendan were stout fire starters and the rest of the crew earned the grub on their hike. Now I should admit that I couldn't find marshmallows anywhere - seems they don't stock them around these parts in the winter! So I had to go with Pop-Tarts in the s'mores flavor. Oh well, not quite authentic!

There have been a lot of parents on campus for winter carnival and a hockey family weekend. I enjoy seeing our students in the context of their parents. Sometimes I forget that the students I try earnestly to work with as young adults are also their parent's little babies. I been touched especially recently by watching dads and their daughters horse around, play together and have real relationships with each other.

After everyone else had left, Paul and Brendan and I stared at the fire. I really like those guys and I'm glad they made it. Just when I was starting to worry about the dog, Daisy comes trotting out of the woods. We hiked out by lantern light - great night on the mountain!

Burleigh vs. Vail?!

So with midwinter break coming up and the big NHS Vail trip let's just say that tension is running a bit high back on campus. Some faculty and students are heading to Vail to go skiing and riding in a few days. We hardy flannel wearing, pine board skiing, birch bark gnawing, bamboo pole using, 'packed powder' shusshing hard men and women back east know a good time when we see it - don't ski Vail this break - ski Burleigh! Holly posted this on the school email the other day - thanks for that!

After so many responses to the ski report sent out late last night, there has been a Concord Trailways bus reserved for late Thursday morning. All teachers (suckers) that have to cover classes for our beloved Vail participants can pick up their complimentary All-Day ski passes to Burleigh in the College Counseling office Wednesday afternoon (there is no need to meet the bus at 5 am). Please RSVP to ABC for hot chocolate and refreshments at his house following a day on the slopes.
Weather Report:
Burleigh Mountain has 6" of fresh powder and 1 trail open.
Bonus:
No lift lines. Great views of the Alpine Tower. No need for trail maps. Boiled hot dogs after each run.

Prelude to syrup

Russ and I made it up to the mountain today to finally identify some sugar maple trees. I couldn't find Bob - and Dave has been feeling sick for a few days so he didn't make it. It was great to have Russ along - I'd have been lost without him. I was looking apraisingly at one tree and I caught Russ chuckling to himself. Turns out I was studying an oak. Hmmm - anyway we tagged some trees to tap this spring.
We figure if we tag a bunch of trees we can get a bunch to pick from. I think we can handle about six to eight good flowing taps with the size evaporator we are going to build. Not very much but enough to get the idea, have some fun and get some product!

Here is the old barrel stove I found on Burleigh that I think we can convert into an evaporator.

Bob was saying they are going to take down a tree behind our house. If I can get a couple of students to work up some fire wood I think we might be in business! None of the trees have been tapped before so if we hit them right we should have a good run.

Golden Rubber Chicken?

Just found out we've been invited to the Challenge Course Facilitator Olympics being held at Plymouth State University. It sounds like the all day competition will be held April Fools day! Four person teams will compete in events like gear recovery, ropes course set up, pamper pole slam dunk and others!

To the winners go honor, glory and yes - a golden rubber chicken.

I'll keep you posted.

Like what you see?

Welcome to the Burleigh Mountain Blog! If you like what you see or wish we would talk about something else please let me know. Click down at the end of an article where it says "comment" and leave your thoughts. You can do this anonymously or leave your name.

I think the key difference between a blog and a web page is that it is a place to share ideas, thoughts, feelings and impressions. It's not just my or Dave's personal soap box - it's all of our collective soap boxes. If something strikes you please participate - it's easy and you don't need to sign up for anything. Leave an anonymous comment.

Also if you would like to refer someone else to this site click the little envelope at the bottom of a post and you can email them the article.

Chance Meeting!

I was hiking on Burleigh today with Daisy when I ran into Dave and Caren with their daughter and two friends from Princeton ("We're not from New Jersey - we just go to school there").

I had been hiking way up on the hill above where we've stopped clearing. I could clearly see where the trail had gone - man there was some serious drops up on that part of the trail! But I'm not sure how you got up there since the rope tow seems to have stopped much lower. Lots of moose tracks back in there too.

Elaine (from MA, studying in NJ) took some pics - if they turn out I'll post them. We did some great sledding - fast ride! The snow was pretty packed except in the water bars where it was drifted powder - so you'd be cruising along way too fast on top of the snow and then *poof* you'd plow into this huge drift and the sled would shoot out. Actually the conditions could be good for skiing - crusty but not icy with a dusting of snow on top.

It was great to run into them up on the mountain! We were talking about a family and friends day - maybe we should do one in the winter and one in the summer? What do you think?

History of Burleigh Mountain Part II

See the first part of the history in the previous post.

Burleigh Mountain and New Hampton School by Nate Spencer ('03)

After receiving the land on Burleigh Mountain, the school began the clearing of the land for the trails in the early 1960's. There were two trails, one would be a racing hill and the other would be a slope for recreational skiing. There were two rope tows to carry the skiers up the mountain. The school had originally planned to further develop the ski area to enlarge the trail system (personal communication, T. Holmes Moore, March 14, 2003). Peter Bixby was a math teacher and ski coach at the school in the 1970's. He was an energetic individual who was the leader of the ski program (The Hamptonia, Fall 1996, 18). The A-Frame building was used by the skiers so that they could go in to warm up next to the wood stove. There was also a trail built so that the students could ski all the way back to school. Due to the cost of a large settlement in a lawsuit involving an accident in a ski area in Vermont, the school was not willing to risk the liability of running a ski area (personal communication, T. Holmes Moore, March 14, 2003).

When the school hired Jeffrey Pratt Beedy Ed. D., to be the new Headmaster (Fall 1992), he wanted to use the area for skiing again. The following summer, the school hired a company to re-clear the slopes. However, due to steeper terrain half way up, the company was unable to finish. The school still wished to use the area so they decided to have an adventure education program for the students at the school. The facilities that this program would use were the A-Frame building, which was the original warming hut for skiers, two Yurts and a series of lower ropes course elements. A community service group would build the lower ropes course. A Yurt is a Mongolian building that is round with a peaked roof that was easily dismantled so that it could be reassembled in a different location. This enabled Mongolian nomads to follow their yak herds. Traditionally the exterior is made from animal hides.

This past fall (2003) the group that worked on Burleigh cleared the saplings from what had been the recreational slope that had reclaimed the trail. This past winter (02-03) the school used the slope for sledding, the school is currently working on getting the insurance paper work cleared to put in a new rope tow for skiing.

[Note: in 2005 we still haven't seriously pursued the rope tow, Nate's writing reflected his enthusiasm for the mountain. Current plans include sledding, possibly a Nordic ski team, and maybe - who knows maybe skiing and snowboarding!! - HM]

Burleigh Mountain History Part I

Cleaning out the Adventure Education office today and found a couple of things that made me smile. The first was a note Dwayne wrote to Adam last winter regarding his tele-skis that Dwayne was gifting to Adam. It reminded me of our second intern in the office (Dwayne) and also Adam who is now studying adventure ed at Prescott College in Arizona.

I also found the Senior Leadership Project of Nate Spencer ('03) who researched and did work on Burleigh Mountain. I'm enclosing here the history of Burleigh that he researched. The references are his and I'm including his original works cited information.

If any readers of this blog know more about the history post here and fill us in!

New Hampton School and Burleigh Mountain by Nate Spencer ('03)

New Hampton School received the land on Burleigh Mountain in the 1960's to develop a ski area. The land was a gift from Irving Bartlett '42 according to T. Holmes Moore, former Headmaster of New Hampton School (personal communication, March 14, 2003). The purpose of the development of Burleigh Mountain was to replace Mailbox Hill on Old Bristol Road. Mailbox Hill consisted of a rope tow that was powered by a 1931 Ford Model A motor and a warming hut. This was one of the first ski lifts in the country. Mailbox Hill was a commercial ski area that charged $1.50 for a day of skiing or $.75 for the afternoon.

New Hampton School leased Mailbox Hill in the 1940's as the ski area for its students. Students would travel approximately six miles west from the school on the back of an open truck. In the 1960's Penny Pitou and Egon Zimmerman operated a ski school at Gunstock. They came over to Mailbox Hill to give ski lessons to the New Hampton boys. Some Saturdays the students would travel to Gustock for real mountain skiing. This was part of the required athletics program. According to Jeff Tulis who was a student at New Hampton School from 1964-1968, "if you could actually hold onto the rope, the ungoverned tow pulled you up the hill faster than you could ski down it!" (New England Lost Ski Area Project see link to the right). Mrs. Moore, the daughter of former New Hampton School Headmaster Fredrick Smith and wife to his successor, T. Holmes Moore, recalled an event in her early 20's of having her scarf getting caught around the rope and nearly being strangled to death as she was dragged through the wooden safety gate and into the engine house (personal communication, March 14, 2003).

Sledding!

Dave rallied a crew of boys from Draper to get on the hill the other night and do some sledding before break! I even got Brendan from Dow and a visiting female to come to - what's with the gangsta' thing Catherine?

It was awesome! There wasn't quite enough snow however so a few stumps were sticking up just below the surface of the powder. This didn't cause any injuries but a little bit of sled damage as you can see in this picture.

Dave even talked Pappy into getting onto the tabogan with him (don't tell Coach A.!) resulting in an epic ride!

I've been telling visiting families for two years that we never have a snow day but Friday proved me wrong! We probably have a good foot on the ground now. This will be a good base for future trips to the mountain!

Thanks Dave for rallying the boys and your infectious energy!

Fall Log Book Wrap Up

Haven't had time to write in ages. Junior Urban Adventure was taking up all my time. That went really well though and so I'm able to think about Burleigh again. Here are a few last entries from the log book from students:

10/15/05 Today we continued the burning of branches up on Burleigh hill. Today we burned 3 large burn fires rather than the 1 we burned last week. It's still raining or in other words God is still crying over the Red Sox. Well next week I picked Hans [Seth has the nickname of 'Hans' which can be kind of confusing sometimes! -HM] for writing in the book and time keeper will be Pat, Jimbo will be the foreman.

10/29/05 Today we helped clear a paintball course while the others dragged brush and stacked wood. Kirsten and Alex installed a new window in the upper yurt. I think all in all the day was successful.

1/30/05 Bring a lot of big jackets and a temperpedic thing to sleep on. Watch out for the smoke - it burns! Climb the Alpine Tower! "Charles wants it to snow like this much." Yurt time is boring! If it is windy bring a lot of warm clothes, also don't be afraid to climb to the top.

11/5/05 Gary climbed the Alpine Tower age 4 years 1 month.

11/5/05 Today we did some good work. We started moving burnt wood into the woods, then we made piles of wood for bon fires. The weather couldn't have been better, it was cloudy at first, but it became sunny and warm later on in the day. Everyone did their job, it was a good day for our community service. (Mr. Swanson's birthday!)

Wrapping up - or looking ahead?

Dave and I were up on the mountain last week for one last round of brushing. It was pretty frustrating, the blade is pretty dull from the fall's work and there were a lot of old saplings down on the hill. This made the brushing really difficult as the machine wanted to slip in line with the downed trees and not go across them. Then when I went back up a little snow had fallen making the ground too slippery for the tires to grip going uphill. So I tarped up the machine this morning and I'll move it indoors after thanksgiving.

I looked into having the hill cleared over the summer. It would have been much less work but I was worried that it wasn't a sustainable plan. In other words we would have always relied on having money to pay every few years to keep it cleared. That was the problem that the school must have faced years ago when they cleared it last. It must have cost a bunch of money and so they stopped paying to have it done. My hope is that with our new brush hog, an active student community service group and some staff who are on board we can look forward a few years and see a future of sledding and maybe even skiing.

After thanksgiving I'll get back up and close up the yurts and secure the tower for winter. We'll put out reflectors around the benches and the tower to make sure it's visible for snowmobilers and other winter users. I'll post some pictures when I get that taken care of. We're almost closed up for the winter but I'm hoping to get up and use the hill as much as possible with kids this winter!

One thing Russ and I didn't get to this fall was to suss out the sugar bush that is marked on some of the maps of the mountain. It appears to be quite a big area. I'm still hoping to do some boiling this spring though - I think we can identify some sugar maples still and convert the old barrel stove into an evaporator. Come to think of it - we're not really wrapping up - more just finishing one season and getting ready for the activities of another.

Rope Tow Memories

Sandy and I were hiking around on the mountain last week and we found one of the old lift shacks back again. Maintenance had pushed it over years ago but the engine and fly wheel were still to be found.

It's an old Chevy engine on a Studebaker frame as best as I could make out. You can see the six white spark plugs still sticking out of the engine block on this side of the picture.

The rope was driven by the rear left wheel and ran over the big fly wheel you can see in this picture.

Does anyone remember having ridden on this rope tow? It would have served the left hand slope. Or does anyone remember having operated it?

Opening the Ski Hill (30 inches at a time)

Thanks to Dana, Jonann, Dave and our new "DR Brush Mower" we're making huge progress on opening back up the old ski hill! Looks like if the snow plays along we'll be able to do some crazy good sledding here this winter.

Check out this picture of the progress we've made so far!

Selective Attention Advantage

We had a great discussion at the last meeting of the Academic Support Program at the school about kids with ADD. It was like a light going off for me. I was the kind of kid who could memorize hours of Monty Python dialog but couldn't tell a noun from a pro-noun. What we were talking about in this meeting was how it's not so much that kids can't focus but that they focus on the wrong things.

The really amazing part of this conversation was when we started talking about how maybe the way kids learn isn't the problem but rather they way we teach. What if we turned the dynamic around and talked about how 'school' is just one part of 'education' or even more globally about 'life.' With that in perspective how we teach and what kinds of institutions we create to teach kids has to become the front part of the discussion!

I could see this very clearly this past weekend on Burleigh camping with the last part of our freshman class. Sure they had a hard time staying on track and doing the grownup / teacher things I wanted them to do. But when we got into a conversation about how social drama makes everything more difficult, how to embrace it, avoid it or deal with it - boy could they focus!

Earlier I had been showing some kids how to tie a figure eight knot for the Alpine Tower and they were wandering all over the place. Then we started competing to tie it behind our backs, with eyes closed or the ultimate twirl and toss "party trick" version. I had to drag them away and on to the next thing.

What makes this experience happen? How can kids turn their 'ADD' into 'Selective Attention Advantage' and focus in on things that really matter to them? I'm not really sure - but it was cool to see it happen on Burleigh this past weekend.

Second Freshman Weekend

We had the second freshman weekend last week. The weather was finally not raining! All of our camp wood was pretty soaked though, so it was a smokey fire that we sat around for our discussions. I have to thank Dave and Katka for their big hearts and hard work this weekend. They both do double duty in the dorms, weekend duties and everything else and are still excited and positive to go camping with our students. For me that's the double bind of going out on these trips - I love it and get so much back from it and they are a lot of work!

I think the freshmen feel that too - we had a good time at one point last weekend griping about all the homework, studying, laundry etc. we all had to do when we got back from the trip. Our students do so much - I wonder if sometimes they realize how effective they are! They manage to play, study, do their homework and then come on an intense weekend trip too!

So as we're looking forward to the last trip of the fall I would like to honor the great work of our students and the staff who work with them on Burleigh!

Freshman on the Hill

We had the first Freshman Transition Weekend a few weeks ago. It was dumping rain the whole time and we ran in and out of the yurts to stay dry and do all of our activities. The group was so authentic and real. I could ask them questions like, "Who would you thank so far at school," or "What do you miss about home?" And get these real, heartfelt answers. Maybe it's just me but I think anyone who is feeling jaded or cynical about young people should go camping for a couple of days and risk asking some real questions.

Exerpt from the Burleigh Log Book

Today we started a fire and we kept it going throwing in brush and rotted logs! We tried several different ways, such as chains! The way we ended up sticking with was a couple people pull out the brush and the others threw it in the fire! Even though it was pouring rain we all had fun and did a great job! We all enjoyed watching Jimmie do pushups after telling the worst jokes ever!

Today's jobs were: Beccah (Reporter), Seth (Forman) and George (Timekeeper). Next week Beccah, Kiersten and Patrick are jobs leaders.

Fall Cleaning

The fall is getting really busy on the mountain. Alumni hikes, adventure programs and most recently our first community service day!

Students worked incredibly hard in the pouring rain to burn a brush pile and clean up the bottom of the ski hill. I'll get the log book entry posted soon that the "reporter" wrote up from the first community service day.

Students often surprise me by being into things like a huge burn pile on a crazy rainy day - perhaps that's one of the things I enjoy about working with young people.

Outdoor Adventures on the Mountain

Today our Outdoor Adventure Group came to Burleigh to climb the Alpine Tower. A few of the group members tested their limits by doing the most challenging climbs. Several members climbed up the tower blindfolded, using only their touch and memory to get them to the top. They all successfully made it up. We enjoyed our stay on the mountain. - Climb On!