The Old Man
 

I just caught a little bit on CNBC (Brian Williams) about Franconia Notch and the Old Man and his departure. Real nice piece. Neil Young tunes, Fleetwood Mac. Well done......
All last winter me and everyone else would crane our necks as we headed North through the Notch, peering in our rear view mirrors as we hurtle recklessly on 93. Through the most dangerous speed transition in all the world. Amazed nonetheless at it's beauty and the entire region it was within.

It's one thing that left us in 2003 that I am very sad for.

The Old Man is gone.........

The Old man....

Missin' The Old Man
 

Beachwalker....I too was a huge fan of the old man! I could not go North, be it Maine, Vermont or New Hampshire, without going to see the old man of the mountain! When I found out that the old man had fallen off the mountain that foggy night, I was very upset! Ever since I was a little boy and my parents would take us to visit cousins in Vermont, we would always stop at the Notch to see the old man! It was just a ritual that lasted for years....so when I got older, I would always stop for a look when I was up that way. What an amazing natural formation that was! I fortunately have some great photos of it that I took the last time I was up there. I guess nothing is really forever after all, and we were lucky to have seen it for so many years! I just wish my sons had the opportunity to see it once, but we never got the chance to take them. I wish I had seen that story on TV.

Same here, The first time I saw him as a kid I thought he was so small. From all the photos he looked huge. What are they going to do now with all the NH signs and the new quarter?

The old man was just so damn cold last winter he couldn't hang on anymore.:(

I was up there skiing last weekend (very muy the cold!) and missed the Old man as I drove thru the notch.
BTW it was -18 on my car thermometer as I passed thru the notch on Friday. Skiing was a bear.
In 29 years, I've never seen anything that cold.
Later,
Rick

I guess the next couple of days are going to be worse :(

How can that be ?

It is supposed to be 0 here. That has NEVER happened before !

Last feb during the kids break was the coldest I have been in. We stayed a couple nights at Bretton Woods and then Drove to Sunday River for a few days. Woke up on about 6:00am turned on the weather channel to hear a female robot voice say "your temperature is -24 degrees."...huh? Way too cold for me to even open the friggin door. I waited till 10:00am to go outside, started the truck (it made a nasty cranking sound) but reluctanty started up ...the outside temp measured a -17 . My nostrals would freeze just breathing. We took that day off skiing and drove to SR and did some shopping in N. Conway. Too hard core for me.

This am I saw the weather channel guy standing at the base of Mt. Washington in -20...he said he went to the top yesterday and it was -41 and the windspeed was 90mph. The have a science office office up there with people who actually work up there...it must be like working on the moon. He said he would rather cover a raging hurricane then stand outside in -20 . It gets painful at those temps.

A balmy +2.5 here this morning when I woke up...but it is *twice* as warm as that now:rolleyes:

It's minus 1 here right now, supposed to be minus 6 Thursday :eek:

The old Man, gone but not forgotten :(

Too bad it's gone. He was definitely an icon for the state.

The initial thought in the days after the collapse was to reconstruct the Old Man but the recommendations that were approved in the Fall are more of a creation of a memorial and museum.

http://www.nh.gov/oldman/

As for the cold, it was -11 here plus a strong wind.

try:

www.mountwashington.org/cam/deck/index.php

I check that often. It's a great site with good links and it shows the extremes of it all.

:)

-36 right now, just a little colder than my ski trip last friday.
For me, it wasn't that bad. On the other hand I was skiing with a bunch of girls (yum!) who didn't bring good hats or any goggles.
Nasty nasty nasty for them.
Later,
Rick

I have not been through since He fell, I am sure it will be a sad moment. I was amazed as a kid of the Ol' Man. I stopped or looked every time and took a few good photos a couple years ago. I'm gonna dig them up and post tomm if my scanner will work.