“The mountain is going to be here all day.” - Jon
One mountain that has been on my list for a long time is Mt Washington. Mainly because it is within driving distance of New York City and boasts of a technical winter route.
Mt Washington is the tallest mountain in the North East but has some of the worst weather anywhere on the planet. The strongest gust of wind ever recorded is at its peak! But in spite of the wind, this is a very interesting climb even in the winter. I also learned that in the summer you can drive to the summit. This subdued my excitement a little but nonetheless it was a super rewarding climb. Jon and I decided 4th of January is the best time for a summit logistically.
This post-new-years trip began on Friday night with a 6 hour schlepp to the White Mountains. On Saturday the plan was to do a couple of acclimitization and warm up hikes to get used to the cold, snow and layers. We did (to be filled). As we negotiated around some slower hikers, one of them apologized to us (they really shouldn’t), and Jon said “No worries, the mountain is going to be here all day”. The mountain is going to be here all day. One thing that mountaineers always struggle with is when to push on and when to call it. The mountain is never something you conquer or win over. The mountain is gracious enough to let you climb it on that day. When you make a summit it is definitely a lot of skill and hard work but it is also luck. Gratefulness is an essential part of climbing and what I learned is that I need to express it to myself and to my surroundings often. The mountain is going to be here all day (or year) because today may not be the day I summit but I am still grateful for an interesting climb, the company of my friend and the growth from the experience.
Little did I know that my great revelation of the previous day would be put to a test instantly. The night before our summit attempt, the weather report warned of extreme wind-chill (-40F) and extreme winds 75-90 mph. We decided to take our chances anyways because we did see a less extreme window around 12-2 pm in the forecasts. And because we drove 6 hours for this.
The next morning we started out at 7.30am to put us at the peak by around 12.30pm which would be in this supposed ‘weather window’. We started out with crampons from the loj because it would just save us time. After some route finding shenanigans (since the Lions Head winter route is different from the summer route) we finally got on the crux of the route. The crux happens to be this steepish colouir of ice and snow. I would classify this as an ice scramble because it required using the front point of the crampons with the pick of the axe stabbed into the snow to make a hold and the free hand using the terrain as holds. It was among the more interesting climbs that I have done recently and would recommend it for a climb that tests your cramponing skills.
When we broke out of tree line however, it became evident that conditions would not allow us to go further. The wind chill was manageable, however, the wind was kicking up a ridiculous amount of snow that completely killed the visibility. Making it to the peak was possible, however due to the reduced visibility, it was possible that our return would be far more treacherous. It was a tough break but the mountain will also be here another day. We had a fairly uneventful time coming down. Noted that Tuckerman’s Ravine is an awesome spot to visit in the spring and returned to NYC the same night.
I am extremely grateful to have done this trip with Jon. What I learned is that gratefulness is an important part of climbing, colouir climbing is incredibly fun, and that I will be back for another take at this route soon. Also I learned that Jon is wise. Maybe without even knowing it?
– G