Beginning with Beggars Banquet in 1968, the Rolling Stones made four records in a row that are all among the greatest to come from the classic rock era — and the last one, 1972’s Exile on Main Street, was a double album. The other two were, of course, 1969’s Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers, released in 1971.
Here’s the thing, though. It was an iconic streak, but the band’s true achievement was surviving it. Most of them, anyway; co-founder Brian Jones barely made it through the first two LPs before his death. Arrests, bad business deals, a disastrous free concert and a midnight run from England to France all happened, while the music just got better.
A show on Feb. 1 at Pembroke City Limits will feature four songs from each album, along with a look at the times that produced them. A house band led by John Zevos of Lichen will recreate “Sympathy for the Devil,” “Midnight Rambler,” “Dead Flowers,” “Tumbling Dice” and a dozen others.
“I was peeling through some of the Stones’ essential works of the late ’60s and ’70s and I just could not get past these four records,” PCL owner Rob Azevedo, who organized the show, said recently. “Mick’s potent lyrics, Keith’s blazing riffs and the magnitude of these incredible creations…. I thought, we need to pay tribute to these songs, and soon!”
Hosting and providing historical context for the event will be me, Michael Witthaus. I watched a lot of it unfold as a teenager in Northern California, like the horrific Altamont show that summarily ended the ’60s idealism once rising at Woodstock. When the Stones returned to San Francisco in 1972 and played Winterland, I was there.
Since then, I’ve learned a lot more from books and podcasts about the decade’s music. I’ll talk about living in that era, and tell stories about the Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World, like the one about how the organ player on Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” later joined The Stones and helped shape the opening bars of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
A seasoned group of Stones-loving musicians is promised, which will include a horn section for a few songs consisting of sax players Brian Booth, Dani Sven and Jason Reichelson, along with John Spring on trumpet. Zevos wrote the horn charts, something he’s done for Azevedo-organized tribute shows in the past. The band, he said in an email interview, consists of “people I’ve played with a lot over the years that I knew would be great playing Stones tunes.”
On keyboards and singing is his wife Diane Zevos. She’s also a member of Lichen, a band nearly as durable as the Stones, having marked 43 years together last August. “Di loves rock ’n’ roll, and adds so much to any band she plays in,” Zevos said. “We love playing together.”
Playing guitar and vocals is Wayne Hughes, a longtime collaborator of Zevos’. “We play together all the time in various situations, and he knows more about the Stones than anyone I know,” he explained. “As soon as Rob asked me to do this I said to myself, ‘I have to get Wayne,’ and he was eager to jump in.
Steve Forgione, though best known for his guitar work in local band Who Knows What, will move to drums for the show. “He grew up drumming in drum corps, and he is also a fantastic drummer,” Zevos said, adding, “Steve knows this material really well and I think because he is a guitar player he is a very musical drummer.”
On bass and vocals is a newer friend of Zevos, Peter Borden. “I met Peter while playing with him in another band and we found that we have the same taste in music,” he said. ‘Even more than that, we hit it off musically. When I found out he was into the Stones, he seemed like the logical choice, and it is working out really well.”
Zevos will handle the “Keef” parts on guitar. “A lot of them are in the open tunings that Keith Richards uses,” he said. “You can play all of the songs in standard tuning, but to get the same sound as Keith, on some songs you need to use the tunings. I like it, it’s really fun. I’ll need to bring four guitars.”
Rolling Stones Tribute Show
When: Saturday, Feb. 1, 2 p.m. Where: Pembroke City Limits, 134 Main St., Suncook More: pembrokecitylimits.com
Featured Photo: Rolling Stones, 1969 (Courtesy Photo).
Timothée Chalamet is Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, a biography of Mr. Robert Zimmerman from his 1961 arrival in New York through 1965 when he “goes electric” at the Newport Folk Festival
This is an extremely straight-down-the-middle look at Dylan as he comes to New York City, befriends an ailing Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) and buddy Pete Seeger (Edward Norton), becomes a big noise in the folk music community and then itches against the fame and the expectation that he stay in a strict musical lane. Along the way he meets and has relationships with (fictional) folk music fan/artist Sylvie (Elle Fanning) and with fellow folk singer Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) — both women who the movie doesn’t do a lot for in terms of fleshing them out and making them more than reaction shots to whatever Dylan is doing. (Baez as a character feels particularly underserved.) Bob enjoys the money and to some degree the fame but he doesn’t like the getting-chased-out-of-bars side of fame or the part where people basically just want more “Blowin’ in the Wind” from him.
There are some nice elements to this movie that has the heavy lift of “introducing” Bob Dylan even though if you are inclined to see this movie you probably have your own built-in opinions of the man and his music. We get a bunch of standard biopic-rooted-in-time stuff, like Walter Cronkite delivering the news flash that JFK has been killed and snippets of the civil rights movement. And there is a fair amount of reaction to the news of the day that feels overly earnest. But I think generally the movie’s presentation of Dylan and his role in the capital S Sixties works — before he was Mr. Nobel Prize for Literature, Bob Dylan was just a talented, ambitious, annoying 20something trying to make it in the music business and also figure out his role in the culture, which was much more “mono-” than it is now. I also like the way the movie dips into the struggle between “old” folk and the “new” folk of the 1960s and how record companies were trying to bring in the kids but also keep whatever the old audience was with covers of classic folk songs. Folk can’t just be all Dust Bowl music, Sylvie argues, which helps inspire Dylan to write more about the Now (1960s). It’s a nice if stagey way to illustrate how today’s urgent issues become tomorrow’s nostalgia and helps to put us back there with Dylan in the 1960s headspace. At some point this tips into what basically becomes an argument about folk authenticity — “electric guitars!?!” — which is the same bummer to wade through as any argument about authenticity. And it feels like more of a stall in the movie’s energy than a lead-up to a dramatic climax. But overall I think the movie (and the Chalamet of it all) does do a good job of showing how Dylan’s lyrics and unpretty voice felt fresh for the time. B Available in theaters.
The Brutalist (R)
Adrian Brody gives a solid performance in The Brutalist, a movie with a three-hour-and-34-minute runtime.
There is a 15-minute intermission, which is either thoughtful of the movie or exhausting, depending on how you feel about what you’re watching and how much Coca-Cola Freestyle you drank in the movie’s first two-hour-ish chunk.
We meet Hungarian Lázló Tóth (Brody) as he arrives in America in 1947. Once a well-regarded architect of the Bauhaus school, Lázló survived the Holocaust with basically nothing, only finding out that his wife Erzébet (Felicity Jones) has also survived when he arrives in Philadelphia. There he meets up with long-ago-immigrated-to-America cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola), whose last name is now Miller and who has a Catholic wife and has himself converted or something — adding a layer of tension to the relationship between the cousins. Lázló lives in a small back room at their furniture shop and is meant to help up the design game of the shop while working to get Erzébet and their niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) out of what is now a Soviet-controlled country.
Lázló arrives in the U.S. with not just the psychological trauma of all he’s experienced but also a broken nose that has left him with severe pain — all of which leads him to eventually turn to heroin for relief. When we finally meet Erzébet and Zsófia, they also carry around the scars of their ordeal. Erzébet’s long starvation has left her unable to walk and she uses a wheelchair when she first arrives. She also takes pills for pain in her legs that, when it strikes, leaves her screaming. Zsófia, who we first see in the movie’s opening scenes being interrogated by the Soviets and who was a child when Lázló last saw her, has been so traumatized she doesn’t speak.
And then Lázló meets rich psychopath Harrison Van Buren Sr. (Guy Pearce) and his terrible son Harry Jr. (Joe Alwyn). Harry hires Lázló and Attila to turn his father’s messy study into a proper library for his fancy first editions. What Lázló creates is such a modernist piece of art that it eventually gets a feature in Life magazine, but Van Buren’s initial reaction is just to yell at everybody and refuse to pay. Eventually Van Buren realizes that he has stumbled on a genius and ensnares Lázló into building this ridiculous community center that will serve as a monument to Van Buren’s dead mother. It is immediately clear that Van Buren is very much a not-good guy but his lawyer, Michael (Peter Polycarpou), offers to help Lázló bring over his wife and niece and Van Buren offers Lázló a chance at regaining some of his past life as an architect, so Lázló begins the project that we see become an obsession for nearly a decade.
I realize it is deeply unsophisticated to complain about a well-made movie being too long — as though you’re admitting that your baby brain has been so TikTok broken it can’t hold complex thoughts. And, maybe, but also at some point the tonnage of a movie gets in the way of all the things a movie can accomplish. And The Brutalist — which really feels at least 40 minutes not just too long but too long without good reason — does attempt some interesting things. The production design and cinematography (both of which received Oscar nominations in this 10-nomination-receiving movie, including for Best Picture) are excellent, really putting the emotion on screen via colors and shapes and the way stone and shadow play such a big role in what we’re watching.
There is also a narrative that we’re used to in this kind of movie — where the refugee from the horrors of World War II comes to America and then just buckles down on the making of a new life and more or less assimilates — that this movie brilliantly argues with. In The Brutalist Lázló suffers in a way that feels more messy and genuine, can’t just close the door on the past and, as we eventually learn, works out some of his suffering through his architecture. And no amount of American hustle changes the fact that he was once a big deal with a full life of his own and is now at the mercy of the increasing awfulness of the racist, classist Van Buren to claw a little bit of that back. Likewise, Erzébet was a professional woman with a career as a foreign correspondent and isn’t here for everything’s-great-now housewife. Strong performances all around (even to a degree from Jones, I guess, saddled with another thin and thankless wife role) help break these people out of what you expect of them and give you something horrific but real. B In theaters.
The first thing Brian Link and his business partner Cam Carter want you to know is that their new Viking-themed brewpub is centered around medieval Scandinavian warriors, not the Minnesota football team.
“Yeah, we’re Patriots fans!” Link stated, emphatically.
Along with their friend and manager Jessica Cotto, Link and Carter opened Sunstone Brewing Co. in Londonderry just over two months ago, in the former Long Blue Cat location. This is their first time running their own place.
“Brian and I had worked at a brewery together for the last four or five years and hit it off really well,” Carter said. “And we started thinking up this idea of opening our own place and working for ourselves. All three of us are big Viking fans; we love all the Nordic things. We just wanted to create a space that was very original and fantastical and just build a community that people can come into and feel warm and inviting.” The name Sunstone is meant to reflect that quality. In the Middle Ages, Vikings and other Nordic people used faceted crystals called sun stones to locate the sun in an otherwise cloudy sky. These might have been used in navigation, and gave comfort to them in dark and cloudy times.
Following a “less is more” philosophy, owners and brewers Link and Carter made the decision not to overextend themselves at the beginning of their business and have concentrated on brewing and serving a small number of craft beers.
“This is our first business, our first brewery, so we just wanted to take it step by step — ‘keep it simple stupid,’” Link explained. “We took an approach where we have only eight draft lines, so we’re trying to create as much diversity as we can with only eight. So what we’ve done is we have four real set styles. There’s our Sunstone Golden Ale. It’s a lighter beer that really tastes like a beer. It’s got a little bit of graininess to it. It has a very light hop character, so that way it’s easy drinking.”
Some of Sunstone’s other beers have even more Viking-ish names.
“Our next [beer] we have is our God Slayer,” Link continued. “That one’s a New England-style IPA [India Pale Ale]. It’s got some nice mango and peach flavor coming off the hops, a little bit of citrus. It’s a good big eight and a half percent beer [8.5 percent Alcohol By Volume or ABV]. And then the next one is our Light Your Torches; that one’s an espresso porter. It’s got a little bit of coffee in it, so it’s got a lot of robust coffee flavor, some roasted characteristics to it. Basically, we saw how popular espresso martinis are these days…. And we’ve got our Keep It Low-Key [Get it?], which is a New England-style session IPA, so [an ABV of] 4.5 percent. It’s big on citrus. It’s meant to be for someone who wants an IPA, still wants that hazy and that hop flavor, but you’re not drinking an 8 percent, you’re drinking 4.5 percent. So you can actually have a few and enjoy them without being hammered.”
The team has taken the same approach to Sunstone’s food, building a small initial menu of dishes that can be prepared in a very small kitchen.
“When you look at our food menu, it’s kind of the same thing,” Carter said. “We try to keep it simple, but really good stuff for people when they’re hungry.” The menu focuses on pub-style appetizers, like nachos and hummus and pretzel bites and then sliders, wraps, and mac and cheese. “The Mac & Beer Cheese is a favorite,” he said.
Sunstone is planning a slate of events to appeal to their already growing customer base. For example, “for Valentine’s Day,” manager Jessica Crotto said, “We’re partnering with Van Otis Chocolates in Manchester to serve a flight of four beers paired with chocolates. We haven’t nailed in the name yet, but I think we want to call it a ‘Chocolate Flight Delight.’ And then we have a full stage … so we’re looking to do live music, comedy shows, I mean I’ve thrown out the idea for magicians, illusionists, everything you could think of. I mean I think it’d be really fun to do.”
Sunstone Brewing Co.
Where: 298 Rockingham Road, Londonderry, 216-1808 Hours: Wednesday from 4 to 9 p.m.,Thursday through Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. More: sunstonebrewing.com Food and growlers of beer can be ordered for takeout. Veterans, active duty military, first responders and teachers get a 10 percent discount.
Every year for more than two decades, students from Colby-Sawyer College in New London head to Italy for a semester at the Florence School of Fine Arts. The city serves as the study abroad program’s laboratory and studio. For the first time, an upcoming exhibition will show some of their works, along with those of the artists who run the school.
“Florence is filled with antiquities, art objects, museums and cathedrals; it’s very inspiring,” Jon Keenan, a professor who also runs the Davidow Fine Art Gallery at Colby-Sawyer, said in a recent phone interview. “These students are translating their experience of their studies there, and we’re able to exhibit it.”
Keenan got the idea during a visit last year with Florence School of Fine Arts founder Melania Lanzini, and photographer Charles Loverme, Lanzini’s husband, who runs the school with her. “I’ve been working with them pretty much since they started up,” he said. “We were saying, ‘We should have an exhibition, to highlight and celebrate our relationship.’”
Lanzini and Loverme will both display works.
Art by Colby-Sawyer students. Courtesy photo.
“Melania does a lot of lithography and collage work,” Keenan said. “She’s combining both traditional and contemporary approaches, working with some found objects, as well as depicting scenes in and around Florence and the area that they live in.”
In an artist statement, Loverme described the work he’ll bring to the exhibit: “For the past two decades, Italy has been both my home and my muse. Living in the historic center of Florence for 20 years, and now amidst the rolling hills of Chianti, I’ve found inspiration in the juxtaposition of city and countryside. This series explores these contrasting worlds.”
His black and white images primarily capture what Loverme calls “the timeless geometry of urban life, the interplay of light and shadow [that] highlights the city’s elegance,” while his color work focuses on rural subjects that “draw the eye to the small, overlooked details of the natural world — fallen leaves, scattered fruit, and the quiet poetry of decay.”
Representing Colby-Sawyer are Brian Cal-Mallo, who’s both a painter and photographer, printmaker Alex Jenkins, and Sota Morishita, a photographer. All are studio art and graphic design majors who studied in Florence during the summer program in 2024.
“Though varied in their chosen media, each artist shares common ground in finding inspiration in the contrasts of beauty in Florence, the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, and the Tuscan region,” Keenan said. “This exhibition reminds us not only that art is a joy to experience but also a universal language and a vibrant expression of our shared humanity.”
The exhibit will open on Jan. 30 with the three student artists in attendance.
“We always do a nice reception to celebrate the audience and create community through the arts,” Keenan said. “We’re going to have lots of great food and beverages.”
It runs through April 2, and Loverme will visit on the final day for a meet and greet, and to discuss his work.
Funded by William H. and Sonja Carlson Davidow, the latter a 1956 Colby-Sawyer graduate, the gallery opened six years ago. Keenan was involved in the conception and execution of the state-of-the-art facility where it resides, which also has a black box theater and multiple facilities for students to create in.
It sits amidst natural beauty, with Mt. Kearsarge in view, and Keenan hosts six events a year in the gallery.
“My goal is to create community, bring people together through the arts,” he said. “This venue is the ideal place to do that — to provide learning for the public, and to support the arts. Whatever we can do to keep it happening is our privilege.”
Opening Reception: The Florence School of Fine Arts & Colby-Sawyer College Art Project
When: Thursday, Jan. 30, 4-6 p.m. Where: Davidow Fine Art Gallery, 541 Main St., New London More: colby-sawyer.edu
On Jan. 23, JetBlue launched service from Manchester-Boston Regional Airport with flights to Orlando International Airport as well as seasonal flights to other Florida airports. The Orlando flights will be year-round and daily, according to a press release on the airport’s website. Flights to Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Myers (three times weekly) and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (four times weekly) will be seasonal, the release said.
Math & science teachers
Five New Hampshire teachers received the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, according to a Jan. 22 press release from the New Hampshire Department of Education. The awards were announced the previous week by former President Joe Biden and honor teachers from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 award application cycles, the release said. The teachers are John Tietjen from Lebanon HIgh School (for 2021); John Blackwell from Phillips Exeter Academy (for 2021); Susan Leifer from Mast Way School in Lee (2022); Joanne Goelzer from Coe-Brown Northwood Academy (2023) and Sandra Swiechowicz from Raymond High School (2023). For more information on the awards, see paemst.org.
Lotto scam
The office of New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella issued a Consumer Alert for New Hampshire residents regarding a rise in reports of scammers perpetrating lottery and sweepstakes scams, according to a press release. “In these scams, a scammer contacts the victim and falsely claims that the victim has won a lottery or sweepstakes, such as the Publishers Clearing House (PCH) sweepstakes. The scammer tells the victim that before the prize money can be issued, the victim must pay certain fees upfront, such as taxes, legal fees, or processing fees. In many cases, the scammer instructs the victim to pay these fees by wire transfer, Bitcoin ATM, or prepaid gift or debit cards. In two recent reports, the scammers demanded fees in increments of $8,500,” the release said. The release said the Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes never calls in advance to tell you that you’ve won and if you receive a call claiming to be from the sweepstakes, hang up and call Publishers Clearing House at 800-392-4190. Also, generally, “You will never have to pay a fee to claim a prize from any legitimate sweepstakes or lottery,” the release said. Report the scam to your local police department, the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau of the Attorney General’s Office at 271-3641, and the Department of Health and Human Services, Bureau of Adult and Aging Services at 1-800-949-0470 or to doj.nh.gov/consumer/complaints/index.htm, the release said.
The Last Ice, a short documentary by New Hampshire science teacher Greg Stott and Vermont filmmaker Nick Natale, will screen Friday, Feb. 7, at the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord (starhop.com) as part of this month’s Super Stellar Friday programing, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Stott, the 2023 NH Charitable Foundation recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical award, used his sabbatical to make a film about the last ice age and its effect on the Connecticut River Valley, according to the website. Admission costs $13 for adults, $12 for 62+ and ages 13 through college, and $10 for ages 3 to 12.
The Center for the Arts in New London will host master fly fisher Scott Biron on Monday, Feb. 17, at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the art of fly tying, according to a press release. See centerfortheartsnh.org.
Sunday, Feb. 2, is the final day to view the exhibit “Dan Dailey: Impressions of the Human Spirit,” featuring the works of the “New Hampshire artist whose creative ideas and innovations in glass have expanded the canon of art,” at the Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St., Manchester; currier.org). The show will feature more than 75 of Dailey’s pieces, according to a Currier press release. The Currier is open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Recycled Percussion will perform four shows this weekend at the Nashua Center for the Arts — Saturday, Feb. 1, at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 2, at 1 and 5 p.m. See nashuacenterforthearts.com.
Outdoor enthusiasts don’t let snow or single-digit temperatures stop them from getting out there. Looking to hike (or take a woodland walk) in the winter? Here is some advice from the experts.
Photo by Matt Larson.
Hitting the snowy trail
Matt Larson has hiked all 48 and wrote a book about it called 4000s by 40, which came out in September.
“I had this mission before I turned 40 to climb all the 4,000-footers,” he said. His book can be found on wanderingmattlarson.com. These mountains loomed before Larson.
“I grew up in Massachusetts and I always loved it when we came over to New Hampshire and went skiing in the North Country or were in the Lakes region. I was always very aware of the mountains. They earned a spot in my heart from a very young age,” he said.
As a Granite Stater Larson had the perfect opportunity to accomplish his goal.
“I live in the southern part of the state now. I was so excited when that happened because I finally got to be close to all these mountains that I always loved as a kid. When I was coming close to turning 40, I realized that I really hadn’t explored all of the mountains that I wanted to. I climbed a few of them, but I just felt like this deep connection with the 4,000-footers. It just felt a shame to me that I hadn’t really fully explored them yet. That was my first call to arms, so to speak, for getting out on the trail,” he said. He started in the winter because his birthday is in February and gave himself a timeline for the year.
“I started off hiking in the snow and quickly learned that I needed microspikes the first time I went climbing in the winter. I did not have them and had to learn about the proper gear that was really necessary to take on the mountains during the wintertime and learned a lot fast. I’ve been doing it for quite a while now,” Larson said.
Photo by Matt Larson.
Larson was persistent even as his dream met with reality.
“I had big visions when I first started off, and so I thought I was going to be able to climb two mountains in one day in the middle of winter without microspikes. I went up East Osceola and I was hoping to climb over what’s called the chimney from there to Mount Osceola. About halfway up, I thought I had something called Yaktrax in my bag so I thought I had something to help me with the ice. I didn’t have spikes yet, but I at least thought I had my Yaktrax with me. I went into my bag to take them out and realized I had left them in the car. So without anything to help me, I really was contemplating turning around. I ended up actually finding a way through. Along the sides of the trail, there’s a bunch of thickets and narrowly spaced pines that you can grab onto so I was able to actually get to the top of East Osceola by navigating my way through the trees off the side of the trail, but I wasn’t going to shoot for the other peak of Mount Osceola, because it just was way too treacherous-looking.”
This close call led Larson to gear up.
“Shortly after that climb I went right out to my local EMS store … and I grabbed myself some microspikes,” he said
Most of his journeys were solo missions.
“That’s not to say I was alone out there. I mean, I was always really surprised. Even that first day in Osceola, I think I got to the parking lot at 6 in the morning and started climbing, and there was already somebody there who beat me to the lot,” he recalled. “It’s really amazing. I think as time has gone on more and more people are getting into this and getting outdoors. When I completed the 4,000-footers, I think it was sort of a banner year for the AMC in terms of people that were submitting a claim for having finished the 4,000-footers.”
Larson is excited that more people are embracing hiking in the cold.
“It’s been really nice to see how many people are taking on the adventure but being sensible about it too. The most impressive climbers to me are the ones that are doing it in the winter because they really are a much more thoughtful bunch about how to prepare for it and be safe. There’s plenty of stories of people who have taken on unnecessary risk during the winter, but it’s all very doable if people take the sensible approach and mitigate the risk through proper gear and awareness of the terrain and the weather. You do see a lot of people out there, which is great,” he said.
As with a river, no hiker steps onto the same mountain twice.
“It definitely changes week to week too. Even this winter. We went up around the Mount Tom and Mount Willey area and there was a little bit of snow on the ground. Then the next week I went out with a buddy to Cannon and it felt like a blizzard had hit the place. Very quickly it went from not needing any spikes or anything really on our feet, or just needing spikes for like a little portion of the trail up Mount Willey, to needing spikes the entire time up Mount Cannon and us contemplating if we even needed snowshoes,” Larson said.
The snowy terrain has the possibility for change after change and it is important to be cautious while enjoying the spectacular beauty of nature.
“There’ll be times that you’re out there and you’re using snowshoes for 50 percent of the climb up and then you have to switch back and forth between spikes and snowshoes because it gets really icy in some sections and then it can get really deep in others,” he said. “Then there’s other times where it doesn’t look like it’s that icy or that snowy but the rock is so slick. There’s sort of a form of black ice on some of the granite. People slip. I slipped a couple of times even with spikes on. You can have some moments where your feet can get pulled out from under you. It’s definitely important not to rush, especially on the descent. It’s always more dangerous on the descent.”
One perk of winter hiking is the chance encounter with wildlife.
“When I’m in the 4,000-footers … I’ve seen some minks. I’ve seen plenty of gray jays out of Mount Tom, Mount Willey and Mount Field in particular. … and of course everything from chipmunks to squirrels, all the usual suspects.”
There’s always a chance some critter will dart right out toward you. “I think the funniest encounter I had with any animals was one time I was on the trail and it was super quiet. It was kind of spooky how quiet it was. I was kind of thinking there might be a bear around, and I started inching my way up the trail, looking every single direction I could. Just as I started getting comfortable, all of a sudden, all of these pheasants just emerged out of this bush in front of me. There were probably 30 or 40 of them, or quail, I guess. You’ll see them out there too. Then there’s some turkeys along the way and mostly birds, birds and squirrels,” he said.
Regardless of the locale, hiking a mountain trail in the winter is a joy that Larson hopes others in the Granite State can experience for themselves.
“I love winter hiking. I love hiking at any time … but winter hiking is very peaceful. There really is a serenity to winter hiking that I think is unique. I definitely encourage people to try it if they’re thinking about it. One of the reasons why I wanted to write 4,000s by 40 was because I feel like there’s a lot of stories out there about the dangers of the mountains. I think there is inherent risk in climbing, but I do think that it’s something that’s a venture that everybody can enjoy if they just take sensible steps, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to enjoy winter hiking, too,” Larson said.
Snowshoes and postholing
Sometimes using snowshoes is not just for your own benefit but for keeping the trail in good shape. They’re mainly used for traversing powdery or deep snow, to keep you from sinking.
The City of Concord’s online guide to local trails (concordnh.gov/1033/Trails) includes this note: “On fresh snow, please use showshoes. Bare-booting can cause post-holing, which is a potential hazard for trail users.” Post-holing is trail-speak for when your boot sinks deep into the snow and leaves a hole. Not only is post-holing no fun, but later, someone else’s boot, ski or snowshoe can get tripped up by that hole.
Even with snowshoes, you shouldn’t hike on top of ski tracks. In a Feb. 28, 2022, blog post on Sharing Winter Trails (nhrtc.org/sharing-winter-trails), Ellen Kolb wrote, “Where cross-country ski tracks are present, showshoers and hikers will walk next to rather than on top of them. Slower traffic always stays to the right.”
On gearing up
Renee Robertie works at REI in Bedford. She is a committee member of the New Boston Rail Trail and an avid hiker. She gives quarterly free talks on all things hiking-related, such as waterproofing and the 10 essentials to bring on every hike (her next talk will be on Saturday, April 26; email [email protected] for more information).
According to Robertie, rail trails are a great introduction to the world of winter hiking.
“It gives people an opportunity to get outside, get some exercise, do some hiking, ride the trail maybe, and these are folks that may or may not necessarily be in a physical condition or have the desire to do something more strenuous such as something in the White Mountains. So it’s a glade in between. It’s a beautiful path that’s an old railroad bed of course, and there are benches along the way and you can sit and just kind of watch the river because it follows the flow of the river. It’s just a nice time to be out in the woods,” she said.
Robertie laid out the basics of hitting the trail in winter.
“The first area [is] the clothing. Layering your clothing so that you can have flexibility to regulate your heat and any moisture if you’re aggressively walking or even running the trail,” she said.
Wool is an excellent choice for the first layer. “A typical base layer would be something that is wool or a wool blend or a synthetic type of clothing. There are pros and cons to either one, wool being a little bit more expensive than synthetic but it’s a really good insulator so even when it gets wet it still insulates and can keep you warm. Wool comes in various densities. It might be a light, a medium or a heavy type of wool,” Robertie said.
“The next layer is an insulating layer. Typically that’s fleece or it could be even like a down jacket or something thicker that’s going to insulate your heat and keep it in because you’re the one that’s generating the heat,” she said. Layering allows you to adjust the thermostat of your own body.
“Then the third layer is a shell layer and that keeps out moisture. So say if it’s raining or snowing or even if snow is dropping from the tree branches or something like that. You keep your base layer and then you can regulate your heat by adding or removing the other two layers or even just opening up, so unzipping if you’ve got a quarter zip, the zip that is from the neck down to above your chest, or even fully unzipping if you’re that warm,” she said.
The human head is like a chimney where a good amount of heat escapes. “Not having a hat can account for losing about 10 percent of your body heat, so if you’re getting too warm you can take your hat off, if you need a little more warmth you can put your hat on,” she said.
Leg gaiters are also an option to consider. “A gaiter is simply a waterproof fabric that has a strap that goes under your boot and then either zips or more typically these days Velcros around your leg. It’s made of a rugged material so if you are wearing something like microspikes and you happen to get it caught on your ankle or shin it’s not going to damage a good pair of pants.”
Foot covering is an obvious necessity in the winter too. “There are different insulation types for boots and you can get very warm … but the insulation in the boots can help keep your feet warm. Certainly things like hand warmers or toe warmers are a good idea too if you’re not quite sure what you’re going to encounter,” she said.
Renee Robertie. Courtesy photo.
After clothing, Robertie will speak on staying secure in your footing.
“Traction is what keeps you from slipping. Some boots have deep lugs, so kind of the bumps on the bottom … But sometimes you need a little bit more, so I talked about things like microspikes, which are quarter-inch spikes on chains that are attached to a … rubber-type thing that you put on the toe of your boot and then draw it back and up around your heel. That holds the spikes in place underneath your foot. So the microspikes are good when there’s definitely ice and they are very grippy.”
Bigger spikes are needed for the mountains. “I didn’t go into crampons or anything like that because that’s more of a steeper mountain, mountaineering kind of traction…. That’s a big spike that’s maybe a 3- or 4-inch spike that, it’s not just one spike, it’s a series of spikes underneath your boot that provides a lot of traction and is meant for very steep and very icy trails.”
And sometimes a wide, flat surface is what is called for in the winter.
“I spoke about snowshoes as well, which typically don’t come into play too much on a rail trail because there’s so much foot traffic, but if you’re breaking ground in snow a snowshoe is going to help you stay buoyant on the snow instead of possibly falling in…. The rail trails are typically packed down, but after a snowstorm, if you’re the first one out, there’s definitely a possibility that you could be running into some deep snow.”
Trekking poles can help you stay upright. “Trekking poles are great for stability. If you’re older or even young people nowadays, it’s really great for staying stable on your trail. It helps you walk a little more briskly. And if you’re doing a water crossing, which typically you don’t do on a rail trail but you might do on one of the town trails. It’s great for descent and especially if you’ve got bad knees because it takes some of the pressure off your knees.”
Robertie also mentioned the benefits of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Hike Safe Card. “The Hike Safe, which is through the New Hampshire Fish and Game, is something that you can purchase to help support the Hampshire Fish and Game. It’s $25 for an individual, $35 for a family, and if you have that and have not been irresponsible, if it happens that you do need to be rescued, then you won’t be charged the rescue costs.”
She hopes to spread her enthusiasm about winter hiking to others.
“It’s all about getting outdoors. The fresh air, the health benefits of being in a forest are well documented and studied. We want people to do that and we want them to do it safely and more than anything to have fun and enjoy it. It’s a great resource. The more people out there, the better,” Robertie said.
Birds in winter
Grace McCulloch works for the New Hampshire Aubudon is excited to get more Granite Staters interested in a winter activity that pairs well with winter walks and hikes: birding.
“One of our favorite projects here at New Hampshire Audubon is the Backyard Winter Bird Survey, which this year is taking place on February 8th and 9th. It’s a weekend out of the year where we encourage people to report the birds that they see in their backyards to us at New Hampshire Audubon. The reporting form will be open for a few days after just so that everyone can get their results in,” McCulloch said.
The Survey has been going strong for decades. “This will be our 38th year doing the Backyard Winter Bird Survey,” she said, “and so over that time we’ve gathered a huge amount of data to really get an understanding of bird trends throughout the state. Being able to look through that kind of year-to-year variation and noise and see what bird species are increasing in number and what species might also be declining in the state.”
The process is simple. “The survey is really easy. We have a simple online survey form on our website where people report what they see over the weekend. They can watch for as little as 15 minutes, or if they’re really dedicated they can watch the entire weekend as well.”
Red-bellied woodpecker. Photo by Grace McCulloch.
Birders do not need to be experts.
“We know that not everyone is out there birding every day, and that’s one of the things I love about the survey, is that it really is supposed to be easy for people who maybe this is the first time that they’re taking time to notice the birds in their backyard.”
The NH Audubon has plenty of helpful information on birds.
“We have a ton of resources on our websites, including a guide to the most common winter birds that people can check out, as well as a guide to commonly confused birds. Because there are species that can look quite similar. You can know that you have a woodpecker, but which woodpecker is it?”
The landscape of birds has changed in the state over the years. “You’d be surprised how dramatically the bird communities have shifted,” McCulloch said. “One example that I like to talk about a lot are American robins and eastern bluebirds. These are species that were once thought of as signs of spring. They arrived just in time for the beginning of spring. When we first started the survey in 1987 they were almost unheard of in February in the state. But today they’re frequently seen by people on the Backyard Winter Bird Survey in February. So just in 35 years, a huge shift.”
“We’re also seeing new species appear on the survey, species that are typically found further south. And … our work is even more important as we look to understand how bird species range and how long they’re staying in the winter might shift over time. We’re … seeing new species arrive, like red-bellied woodpeckers and Carolina wrens.”
Fan favorites will be making a return as well. “Our most common bird last year was the American goldfinch. We actually had about 10,000 of those reported on the survey. Then other favorite birds like black-capped chickadees, northern cardinals, those are always very distinct birds, easy to identify. We had a lot of blue jays on the survey last year, and also things like mourning doves.”
McCulloch said residents can take steps to entice birds to their homes. “I always encourage people if they want to put up a suet feeder. It’s kind of like a block of suet that you can put up and that really will help attract the woodpeckers. You can see several different woodpeckers just within one weekend. Things like downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers and red-bellied woodpeckers, you can see all three in your backyard. The amazing thing is most of our feeder birds, multiple species, are all feeding together at once, so you have a good chance of seeing more than one species at a time.”
Now is the time to make your guesses on which birds will be showing up.
Tufted titmouse. Photo by Grace McCulloch.
“Our senior biologist, Pam Hunt, always likes to make predictions for the survey. … this year, based on some food availability up north, we’re predicting a higher number of red-breasted nuthatches. … We’re also expecting a fairly good showing of species like red-bellied woodpeckers and Carolina wrens as our winters get warmer over time,” she said.
The Carolina wren has been drawing attention here, she said. “They’re a species that 10 years ago people weren’t seeing in the state, so when you see a brand new bird at your bird feeder, you’re like, ‘What is this bird?’”
“If you’re talking about hiking the 48 4,000-footers in winter, a bird you could always mention is the Canada jay or the gray jay,” McCulloch said. “That’s a bird that you typically only find on the top of mountains in New Hampshire, and you find it in the winter, and they love peanuts and other food that hikers bring them up. They’re known to eat out of hikers’ hands on the top of the snowy mountains,” she said.
Where to hike
Here are some ideas for finding winter (and all-season) hiking spots that match your skill level and interest.
• Renee Robertie suggested checking out rail trails. See nbrailtrail.com for information on the New Boston Rail Trails, including maps and a link to the group’s social media for updates on conditions. For information about rail trails throughout the state, check out the New Hampshire Rail Trails Coalition at nhrtc.org, which offers links to rail trail groups around the state and brief descriptions of the trails.
• The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests offers a visitor’s guide that lets you filter through its properties for location, difficulty of trail and specific activity like snowshoeing or bird-watching. See forestsociety.org/visitor-guide.
• On the New Hampshire State Parks website, a specific guide to winter parks includes popular hiking parks as well as spots for snowshoeing, fat biking, ice fishing and mushing. See nhstateparks.org/things-to-do/winter-recreation.
• The New Hampshire Audubon (nhaudubon.org) will hold its annual Backyard Birding Survey Saturday, Feb. 8, and Sunday, Feb. 9. See the website for details. While you’re there, check out the information about their trails at sanctuaries near the Audubon’s centers including the Susan N. McLane Center in Concord and the Massabesic Audubon Center in Auburn as well as wildlife sanctuaries across the state. The sanctuaries page offers maps and guides to each property.
• Beaver Brook Association (117 Ridge Road in Hollis; beaverbrook.org) has 35+ miles of trails, according to the website, as well as ongoing fitness hikes that can get you started by letting you hike with a crowd.
• The state Division of Travel and Tourism Development describes 10 winter hike options including Mount Major, with its views of Lake Winnipesaukee; the ever-popular Mount Monadnock; and hiker favorite Mount Cardigan, “a very popular area for hiking and snowshoeing,” at visitnh.gov/blog/10-popular-winter-hikes.
• Picturesque local parks with trails are good places for winter strolls, usually not too hilly, such as Mine Falls Park in Nashua (nashuanh.gov/491/Mine-Falls-Park), Livingston Park and other city trails in Manchester (manchesternh.gov/Departments/Parks-and-Recreation/Parks-Trails-and-Facilities/Recreational-Trails), and several park trails in Concord (concordnh.gov/1033/Trails). According to the Concord trails website, there are three group hikes currently scheduled: On Saturday, Feb. 22, at 9:30 a.m., Bob Lyon will lead a 3-mile hike on Broken Ground trails; on Saturday, March 29, Peter Bartlett will lead a Morono Park trails hike, and on Saturday, April 26, at 9:30 a.m., Wendy Olson will lead a hike of the Winant Park trails.
