2008-02b7-Me On Mt Washington

Re: 2008-02b7-Me On Mt Washington
Congrats, that's quite an accomplishment. Looks like you at least had halfway decent weather to summit. Last week I happened to take a look at the temperature profile on Mt. Washington: there was a temperature inversion at the time, with freezing temperatures at the bottom of the toll road, 47F at about 4000 feet, and 40F at the summit!

Sounds like you took the Crawford Path up and back. Where did you start?

Re: 2008-02b7-Me On Mt Washington
Thanks, Kerosene

We took the Ammonoosuc trail first, and then switched to Crawford trail beyond Lake of Clouds. We started at the cog rail station parking lot as the state parking lot was unploughed. We didn't pay thefee for parking. The railroad guy had not arrived yet.

The following I intend to share is similar to a trip report. It'll get lengthy.

I was extremely lucky that i made it to the top. The weather was really nice. We orginally figured taking the Jewel trail to the top as it is less steeper than Ammonoosuc. I was brand new to both winter peak bagging, and to the trails over there. We soon turned back to the Ammonoosuc after spending 20 minutes searching for signs and sinking into knee deep upacked snow constantly, with snow shoes. We restarted at 7:15 AM. The temperature was about 16F. And there was literally no wind till above the tree line. The trail gets much steeper beyond the Gem Pool. But the trail was well packed as some other folks went ahead of us. Take advantage of it. My snowshoes shallow teeth could still bite into the soft snow surface. i slid back down occasionally.

I took dozens of breaks to hydrate, rest, and take pictures. It got a little chillier once we were above the tree line, which is about 10 minutes above the water fall crossing. We reached the hut at 11 AM or something. I gave the frozen bagel a couple of bites, and put it back into my pack immediately. Too hard to chew. Then i grabed a few Hershy bars. I didn't really feel hungry probably because i was too excited about reaching this high altitude in my life. Another wrong thing for not being reenergized frequently(eating food)? We had no clue where to go except following
other peoples' track. We were in clouds for about half an hour before starting barely seeing the cairns, and able to the communication antenas on the top. It was the Crawford Trail we took to the top, or might deviate a little due to the bad visibility in clouds.

The scary thing came when the surrounding was clear to me. The slope slated sharply towards Ammonoosuc ravine. Indescribale fear! The snow was about 1' to 2' thick. But under it was ice. We kept sliding back briefly along the trail all the time. I couldn't imagine what if i slid more. I did the best i could and kept telling myself, be calm, stay focused, go slow, go firm, I've gotta be outa here alive!

Reached the summit with my numb legs at 12:50 PM, i didn't want to move, and took 10 minutes break near a wind tunnel next to the building. We put some more heavy stuff on, has some snacks, and walked around the area. The temperature with wind chill factor was -20F? i guess. We also met bunch of other hikers. Gosh! those guys were dressed up like pro, fully equipped. Backpacks, ice axes, crampons, gaitors, goggles, ropes,... Now i believe it is the way it should be. Safety!

The worst part came when I stepped on the outer perimeter of the summit was ready to get down. Seeing hundreds of yards of open space at such a steep angle towards the bottom really chilled to my bones. I could imagine I could shoot out like a cannon ball into the small towm down there miles away from the sky if I fell here. I long ran out of blood sugar. The legs did not listen to me. i hesitated for a couple of miniutes there and felt the wind lacerating my skin under my glasses. Very painful! I used extreme caution to make sure every step was firm with multiple stomps into the snow/ice. I felt hugely relieved when reaching the flatter area. A chocolate chip I had at the hut on my way up was still stuck inside my mouth between the gum and cheek when I came down to the hut. It was damn cold all the time that the chip didn't get melted.

But it was not over yet. I started to show slugishness in moving. I was burning my body fat. No sooner did I pass the hut on our way down when my knees collapsed. I dropped my butt into the steep trail. The warmer daytime temperature melted the snow and made the trail surface more icy. I would not stop sliding fast till hitting a berm on a curve. I stood up, walked and dropped. It repeated seveal times. I was slow going. It was getting dark. My partener kept asking me, let's go, get down quick under the tree line... All of sudden, hey, is it waht I read from internet called glissading? I sat down and put my trekking poles under my arm pits as speed control device. Great! a great amount of demand of strength from my legs was seriously reduce. And my tired butt got a good massage from the mildly bumpy surface.

I didn't enjoy it for too long after I figured it was dangerous that I could run into tree at high speed or veer off the trail into a small ravine filled with 10'deep snow. I turned back around facing the slope, poked the trekking poles into the crusty surface, stick the teeth of my snowshoes to the surface to generate more friction. It worked, not perfectly along the steeper slope though. It was my partener's idea that we both got spooned together to increase the friction in order to slow down more. It is just like Olympic event, Lug? Once I hit Gem Poll and knew it was over. There was still some day light. The total time for the round trip was eight and half hours.

Totally exhausted, stunned, and fulfiled. I was convinced that I didn't have the knowledge and sbody trength to embark on this journey. I late learned from this trip, went out to buy crampon, ice axe,.. and did three, or four winter day hiking practices at Catskill area. Now I dare to say I can bag the peak again as long as the weather permits.

Thanks for reading.