Mount Washington

In August of 1973 Craig Benner and I drove to New Hampshire with aspirations of climbing Mount Washington in our lederhosen. Ill equipped and even less well informed we ended up driving all night to get there and then driving up the Auto Road in my Peugeot instead. Twenty-six years later while Jolene and I were enjoying a short vacation having delivered Ben to his first year at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, I made the commitment to finally accomplish the peak during one of the many trips I forsaw in the coming four years. After all, I had all of Ben's college years to get in shape. They slipped by all too quickly.

On August 17th, 2002, at 6:30 AM with Ben's Senior year quickly approaching, we both set out for the peak. Loaded down with two liters of water each, lunch, lots of snacks, rain gear, gps, camera, and other necessities, we posed with confidence at the Pinkham Notch Visitor's Center.

According to map figures, the hike on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail would be 4.1 miles to the summit with an gain in elevation of 4200 feet. Estimated time: four hours and fifteen minutes. We were going to come back a longer trail which would total about 5 miles and take another 5 hours or so. We told Jolene to pick us up in about nine hours or so; between 3:30 and 4:00 PM. She was off to more relaxing sightseeing at Bear Notch, the Kancamagus Highway and the shops of North Conway.

After two hours of hiking we were nearly ready to ascend the highwall. Looks pretty much like a big quarry, minus the sloping ramps. Hiking has already been strenuous and the clambering from one rock to another up requires too many breaks. The view is stupendous, though, and I warn Ben that I will be reminding him of this moment the rest of my life.

One great thing about most of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail is water running nearby most of the way. On the highwall, it's waterfalls. People much more acclimated to hiking than I are constantly passing us, like it's a walk in the park, but we're taking our time and for the most part enjoying ourselves.

We are relatively quiet hikers though, and I totally don't understand those who are not only constantly talking, but carrying on a conversation that might be overheard in a coffee shop, not one appreciative of the surroundings. Ben says that the next person who passes with "Great day for a hike" is going to get a reply that he prefers wind and rain. Actually, I do prefer foggy, wet, windy weather on the summit, but certainly not today. It's a little warm, 80's down below and 60's on the summit, but in the end I agree, "great day for a hike."

When we climb out of the ravine we take a break at the turn the trail makes to make the final climb to the summit. Unseen until this point, the cone seems much larger than I remember. Ben, Jolene, and I hiked down a portion of it from the top years ago on vacation. As I remember, we did about half of it until protests from the other two finally convinced me to turn around. Now, it's my body that's protesting.

(place mouse over photo for perspective note.)

We wisely choose to descend the opposite side of the peak on Crawford Path. It's much easier than doing the cone on Tuckerman and takes us to Southside Path and on to Davis.

Davis leads us across a relatively flat area called Bigelow Lawn for about an mile until we reach Boott Spur.

The descent isn't as steady as Tuckermans or as the topo map suggested. There are steep descents followed by short climbs, making the average elevation change marked on the map less than actually traveled. Of course going down at a controlled pace is always harder than up, apparently except for the kids bouncing past us from rock to rock. Speaking of which, Ben gets nervous every time I point out an amazing hunk of quartz. I have no choice, however, but to leave them for others to enjoy and only manage to hide three small rocks in my pocket.

After what seems like more miles than it took to go up, we finally leave the exposure above tree line and enter short trees. The trail here is just as rocky and seems to go down forever. Ben stops at one point where the trail drops 8 feet and launches his backpack into the air before negotiating the drop more gracefully himself.

Finally, miles after I'm on my last leg, we emerge onto the wider Tuckerman Trail just above the visitor center where we began. We push on to meet Jolene there just after 6 PM. I actually made it, and it only took me 29 years and eleven and a half hours!