http://www.gokers.com/ry/Washington/2007_03_03/


by:  Christopher J. 
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This climb was particularly exciting!

 

My roommate Ryan and I woke up around 2:30am on Saturday morning.
Following the 3 hour drive up (and changing into my proper mountain man
attire to match my GRR TOUGH beard), we started off at the trailhead
about 7:00am on the western side of the mountain. It took us 30 minutes
just to find the start of the trail. No one was around and we had no
idea where it was (off to a great start huh). We had to walk all around
to find it. To top it off, there was a ton of new snowfall from Friday's
storm. We were "postholing" every step. Postholing is when you take a
step and your leg falls all the way into the snow. We were exhausted and
we haven't even started the hike yet. Finally, we found our way to the
start of the Ammonoosuc trail at 7:30am. The plan was to take Ammonoosuc
up to Crawford Path, which heads to Mt. Washington's summit. For the
return trip we'll be taking the Jewel Trail, which ends at the same spot
we started out. Total distance: 9 miles. Time expected to complete the
hike: 8 hours.

 

The snow conditions were the same on the trail...about 4 feet deep, soft
dry snow. Luckily for us we were the second people to start out on the
trail...and the person that was somewhere ahead of us was a bit smarter
than us...he was actually wearing snowshoes (brilliant!). So instead of
falling 4 feet with every step, we only went in about 3 feet for the
most part, ha.

 

Eventually we got out of the deep snow and cleared the treeline. Finally
we could walk more normally, and boy did we need it. Postholing was
adding about 10 seconds for every step, so not only was it exhausting,
but it was also very time consuming. We hung out for a short bit outside
of the Lakes of the Clouds (a small shelter house above treeline). This
place is closed during the winter, but it was a good spot for us to get
some wind protection so that we could put on our crampons for the
remaining hike to the summit. 

 

The weather was amazing throughout our climb. Temperature wasn't too
cold, and very few clouds in the sky (could see for miles). We were very
excited to finally get a chance to get to the summit and be able to see
our surroundings (last summit experience wasn't so nice due to
semi-whiteout conditions). 

 

But wouldn't you know it...when we were about 40 minutes away from the
summit, huge clouds starting rolling in. It came in very quickly, and
soon we couldn't see more than 40 feet in front of us. We stuck to it
and hit the summit as planned without any problems. But the way back
down was another story...

 

We had planned on taking a different route back down which would
complete a loop. We started in the right direction and got about 30
minutes into the return hike when the whiteout conditions grew even
worse. Now we couldn't see 20 feet in front of us. It was so bad that we
lost sight of the next Cairn (pile of rocks that mark the trail
direction). We searched for a bit, but were unsuccessful in finding it.
We were forced to use our backup plan. Luckily we knew that we were
close to the Cog Railway which heads straight up the west side of the
mountain (from the trailhead we started at, all the way to the summit).
Instead of trying to keep searching for the next cairn (and continue
this process over and over for each cairn), we decided to move west to
find the railway. The railway would be the best bet; we could surely
follow this straight back down and get out of this whiteout. 

 

We found the railway quickly and were able to follow it down a bit. We
came across a small dip in the earth where the railway was elevated off
of the ground. Being unsure of the ground conditions (not having
snowshoes and seeing nothing but huge snow drifts piling against the
railway), we decided to re-enact the famous scene from Stand By Me! We
slowly got up on to the tracks and crawled along them until we reached
the end of the dip, where the tracks came closer to the ground. I was so
happy when I got off of those tracks. In hindsight, this was about the
stupidest thing we could have done...we were just asking for something
bad to happen. We would have been safer if we took our chances with the
snow drifts. Oh well, live and learn...right?

 

After some time of following the railway down the mountain, three other
hikers made their way towards us. It turns out they had the same idea we
did (get out of the whiteout and follow the tracks down), except they
were wearing snowshoes...allowing them to move much more quickly. We
were excited to see others. We are still pretty inexperienced with Mt.
Washington, so we were happy to meet up with others. And they were just
as happy to see us. These guys were in the middle of traversing a few
mountains when they got stuck in the whiteout conditions. They were a
ways away from the trailhead where they parked their cars, and they were
going to need help in getting to them.

 

We decided to finish the hike together and we were going to give them a
ride to their car once we hit the finish line. By together, I mean they
pull ahead 400 yards and then slow down a bit to wait for us, repeat.
Did I mention how annoying postholing is!!! The snow near the tracks was
soft, deep (big surprise), and untouched. Ryan and I were pretty excited
to finally get the opportunity to do some glissading down the mountain,
but unfortunately the snow was not being very helpful. It was just too
soft and we couldn't stay on top of it. We were forced to continue
postholing the entire way down the mountain. 

 

Eventually the sun said goodbye and we were left even more alone. We got
out our trusty flashlights and continued on with our frosty voyage.
About 20 years later we arrived at our final destination...the feeling
of tarmac under my feet never felt so comforting (did I mention how much
I hate POSTHOLING?!?). I ended the trip by finishing off my last energy
bar while Ryan drove away in the darkness to help our new friends
retrieve their automobile. 30 minutes later, Ryan actually returned and
we were finally able to leave for home. 

 

All in all, the hike ended up taking us a grueling 11 hours to complete.
And this was with the shortcut of taking the trailway back down, which
probably cut off about 1.5 miles. 

 

Well, we made it out alive, and I can't wait for our next mis-adventure.
Stay tuned.