London's Calling

I'm finally packed with about an hour to spare and am heading to London this evening. I'll arrive in the morning and hopefully find my hostel easily. No idea how long I'll stay but I'm hoping to keep it short since the weather in Fontainebleau looks like 50 degrees and sunny starting on Sunday. And so it begins.

Mt. Washington Winter Ascent

Mount Washington has some of the worst weather in the world and it did not disappoint during our winter summit attempt. On January 18th, I joined Nicky Miller and Bill and Becky Waring in beginning the journey to the summit. We began our day on the 18th from the Pinkham Notch Visitors Center at the base of the mountain. Here, we packed our gear and changed into our boots before starting our 2 mile trek to the Harvard Cabin, which would be our shelter for the next two nights.

The trek was not bad at all. We were still below the tree line so weather conditions were mild and we reached Harvard Cabin in about 90 minutes. The cabin housed 16 and had a small wood stove that burned a couple hours a day to dry clothing and keep the chill out of the air. The temperature in the cabin hovered around 45 degrees which was pretty comfortable. It was here that we met Rich the cabin caretaker who lives at the cabin and is an all around great guy. We also met a ton of other climbers and skiers and learned about the avalanche the previous day.

The day before we arrived, a group of 12 was attempting one of the ice routes when a slab broke off and carried 3 of them 800 feet to the bottom of the gully. All 3 survived but it put a damper on our plans to attempt one of the ice routes and forced us into deciding on the normal winter route up Lion's Head Trail. It just goes to show how quickly things can turn on you on a mountain like this. All we had left to do was eat, sleep, and hope for good weather in the morning for a summit attempt.

We woke up in the morning at 6:45am waiting for the daily weather report on the radio. After teh report, we decided to wait a few hours in hopes that the warm front would settle over the mountain and give us a large enough window to summit. I don't know about everyone else but I didn't sleep at all laying there waiting. At around 10am, we put on our campons, packed our gear, and were off.

The climb was not too bad for the first 90 minutes. There were a couple slightly technical slabby ice sections and since it was my first time wearing crampons, I felt a little uncoordinated but I learned quickly. As soon as we reached the Lion Head itself at 5100 feet we stopped for a short water and food break. Up to this point, I had my jacket unzipped, small gloves, no hat or goggles, and was sweating. As soon as we left the shelter of the rocks at Lions Head, things got real. The weather went from mild to 60 MPH winds and -30 windchill, which we would experience for the next 2 or 3 hours on our way to the summit and back down. Apparently wind speeds of half your body weight is enough to knock you over so the 80 MPH gusts did just that.

We made our way across the Alpine Garden, which had the worst wind with maybe the exception of the actual summit. From there, it was a steep, rocky trail to the top. With such strong winds, the snow drifted a lot and there was a lot of bare rock which made crampon travel painful. We probably reached the summit at around 2pm and stayed about 5 minutes, long enough to snap a few pictures before Bill's hand froze. Wind on the summit was pretty obnoxious and the only thing keeping me upright was the sign cemented into the ground. Summit conditions for that day are as follows:

Maximum Temperature: -5°F
Minimum Temperature: -22°F
Peak Wind Gust: NW 89 mph
Average Wind Speed: 62.2 mph
Liquid Precipitation: Trace
Snowfall: Trace
Visibilit: 75 Feet

We sat for a couple minutes by the observatory, which offered some shelter from the wind, and I tried to eat some of my frozen food. At this point, my goggles and mask were frozen and my food was rock solid. I had to use my ice axe to chip some of the ice out of my goggles and almost broke my teeth eating a powerbar. To avoid getting colder, we began our descent after spending maybe 10 minutes on the summit.

The descent was pretty uneventful. The wind was relentless and knocked me over a few times. The Alpine Garden felt especially terrible since we had to walk directly into the wind and I wasn't sure if I could even make it. Bill crushed though and was soon out of sight. The descent to the Lion Head took an hour and when we got there, Bill was waiting with Hot Chocolate which at the time felt like it saved my life. At that point, we were below the brutal wind and would soon be below tree line. From here, it was an easy and comfortable descent back to the Harvard Cabin.

Once back, we all laid down to nap with the exception of Bill who skied to the car, got food and beverages, and brought them back up for a celebration feast. And feast we did!

Overall, it was a successful trip and a great time. We had a perfect crew with everyone being fit and motivated. I don't think anyone complained the entire trip despite the cold weather, the blisters, and the sore muscles. I'm fairly certain that this crew will be back next year to tackle Mt. Washington again and hopefully have better conditions to try one of the ice climbs.