| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2006-02-08 12:10:28 UTC-0500 |
| Description | trip report for mt washington hike, 2-5-2005
The weather report for Mt. Washington on this superbowl sunday was rainy until noon, then clearing up for the remainder of the day. Clearly, this called for an alpine start. Waking in the yurt at 3am to the pitter patter of little feet (oops, no that was just rain) we hauled out to Pinkham notch by 4, and started up the Tuckerman's Ravine trail by 4:30, after a little name game. It was hot out, and raining. We stopped freqently to delayer. Despite the low grade trail, the warm slush made the going tougher than expected. We reached the base of the Lion's head winter route about 30 minutes after turning off our headlamps, but since the cloudcover was pretty complete, there would be no sunrise to watch. The rain picked up again as we put on more layers and crampons, and started up lion's head. The trail was beautiful but slushy, and a couple of steep rocky sections had very little snow or ice cover for the crampons to bite into. Luckily, we had intrepid explorers dan, anne, and bilial to lead the way, and with their coaching and some friendly trees willing to lend a root, everyone made it up without incident. We continued up to tree line, making good time, and stopped to layer a bit, but there was no wind and it wasn't cold. The view was mostly limited to some clouds at this point. We continued up towards Lion's Head, and after another 15 minutes or so the wind started picking up. By the time we reached Lion's head for a break and a snack, it was actually getting cold. We layered, but still didn't feel the need for our full mask and goggles, before continuing on. That changed as soon as we reached the top of Tuckerman's Ravine, where the wind was whipping up the ravine and over the ridge, and we got our first taste of the real above-treeline experience. We braced our backs to the wind and fished out full face gear before continuing on. Around this time, the view started clearing up as well, and we could see the surrounding mountains quite clearly, above some fog and below the consistent stratus cover. That didn't last long however. For most of the climb, we found ourselves with a view of the slushy snow in front and the cairns marching off into the distance to the left along the crossover to Lakes of the Clouds. The going continued to be somewhat mushy, and a bit windy, but everyone in the group seemed to be doing well. I think us washington virgins were a little surprised when we first reached the parking lot signs, I know I thought it would be further. Surprisingly, despite the wind and cold at the top, there were huge slushy puddles across the road, and far less ice than expected. With dan deftly leading the route, we finally made it up the last pitch of stairs, and found the sign at the summit around 11:20. Since there was no visibility off the mountain, we snapped a couple of pictures and then headed for the shelter of the entrance to the visitor center. We rested and had lunch for almost an hour, then started down. The going was straightforward, and it had started snowing so we pretty much descended in various degrees of white-out until lion's head. I don't even think we lost anyone down Tuckerman's ravine. The going was easy, and we went very fast, continuing down to treeline. Just below treeline, the weather started clearing up again, and we could see patches of blue sky moving toward us. Good thing we were outta there before that hit... Continuing down Lion's Head trail without incident, the tougher sections were easier to descent than I had anticipated. All the while, the weather was improving, with a couple brief patches of sun. We reached the bottom fo Lion's head and started back down the access road. The going was extrememly easy and fast, and we worked on our sliding technique. We reached the bottom at 3:30ish, where a Cornell professor heckled us for being nerds while taking our picture. We felt elated and damp, and we went inside to change into whatever seemed driest. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day as we piled back into the cars to go find some dinner and go home. -mina |