| Summary | None |
| Owner | Richard Kramer |
| Creation Date | 2009-04-28 01:40:53 UTC-0400 |
| Description | The shared goal of Dana, Ben, Kathleen, and Richard was to watch the sunrise from Mt. Washington summit. We left Boston Friday at 9:30 PM and were enjoying the star filled, dark NH skies by 12:45 AM as we started up the Amonoosoc trail. While prepping in the parking lot, Dana saw a really pretty, long, bright meteor, likely a straggler from the Lyrid shower which peaked Thursday morning. Trail head temperature was a pleasant 38 F. Winds were from the SW, and it warmed as we climbed higher into the subtropical air mass moving up from the south.
As it happened, we had an extra bit of adventure along with our sunrise. About an hour up the Amonoosoc trail, we missed a left bend and mistakenly continued along what we later realized was the Monroe River instead of staying along the Amonoosoc. The footprints in the trail grew fewer, the blue blazes disappeared, the trail grew softer, the post holes became more frequent, and before long, what had looked like the trail became a mere ski track up a steepening chute. Dana's capable map and compass sleuthing revealed we were heading almost due south towards the summit of Monroe rather than SSE towards Lake of the Clouds. By the time we realized that we had misplaced ourselves on the mountain, we didn't want to give back the altitude we'd gained merely to look for a lost trail. We decided to keep climbing until we crested out on the ridge. As we slogged, step kicked, and post holed up the chute we were occasionally hit in the face with tropical gusts as the high pressure moved over us. Three hours (and several water breaks) later and 2000 feet higher we noticed someone had piled a bunch of rocks on top of a high pointy spot... Monroe summit! We were about an hour later, 1/3 mile west, and 300 feet higher than our intended way point at Lake of the Clouds. After some summit festivities, we descended Monroe for the Lake of the Couds hut. It was wonderful to have the entire saddle to ourselves! We proceeded up the trail towards Washington summit. At sunrise, we were about 900 feet and 3/4 mile from the top. As the sky lightened, a menacing dark cloud moved over us and began dropping rain and hail. During our ascent of Monroe we'd seen sparks in this cloud which had been keeping its distance off to the west. Feeling rather exposed as the the highest things on the ridge, we decided to head back down to the Lake of the Clouds hut to see what would develop. We were right at the boundary between the high to the south which had clouds moving from west to east, and the system to the north which had clouds moving from north to south. When the weather changed on us, the winds switched abruptly from SW to N. The collision zone was right over us, or a bit south of us. We had a front row seat for the contest between the two systems. It was a great show. We settled in comfortably in the lee of the hut and had a hearty breakfast of, variously, cheese, bread, P&J, trail mix, an apple, and fresh, dry socks. To our relief there didn't seem to be any electricity in the clouds. We got showered on, saw a spectacular rainbow over Mt. Monroe, and heard the winds rise until they were roaring over the summit of Monroe like the proverbial freight train. The bottoms of the clouds were tearing past the summit of Washington. I checked the observatory website later. Winds peaked out at 80 mph during those morning hours. We were all glad that we weren't caught high on Washington in those conditions. The decision to punt and return to the lee of the hut turned out to be a good one. Over breakfast, we discussed our plan. We considered just chilling there to take a nap and give the weather a chance to improve before heading for Washinton summit. In the end, the nasty weather, high winds, and the pull of uncompleted P sets prevailed and we decided to head down, this time, preferably, via the actual trail, which we eventually found. Halfway through a glissade-filled descent, we ran smack into the Saturday morning rush hour foot and ski traffic heading up the mountain. Kathleen made good use of her sled on the way down. She was determined to fulfill her secondary goal of sledding and swimming on the same day. The Amonoosoc offered Kathleen a suitable pool of meltwater, and Dana decided that she had to support Kathleen by joining her in a swim. A great time was had by all, even if we didn't tag Washington summit. |