Winter Presidential Traverse
My brother and I set out to complete the Presidential Traverse (about 26 miles, most of it on the Appalachian Trail, over several peaks including the infamous Mount Washington) in a non-stop push on the 27th of December, 2005. We drove up to North Conway, NH, got a hotel room, parked a car at Pinkham Notch (the endpoint), and woke up at about 3am to start our adventure.
Let me back up a bit. Mount Washington has a weather station at the peak. The weather can be viewed online at sites such as Wunderground. We were scoping out the weather before we headed out and for about 3 days it had been clear skies, in the low to mid-30s with 20 mph winds (gusts of 30), resulting in temperatures of about 21 degrees F. That's nothing. There was a 30% chance of a snowstorm the night before our trip. Fine, as the day of it was supposed to be great weather again.
Well, when we parked at Carter Notch it was snowing. We began our way up to the top of Mount Pierce and we realized that with the snow there was very little visibility. Fine, it is supposed to pass. It wasn't even supposed to be here, so it will pass soon. It won't be around when we get further along. Wrong.
We saw that the snow was still going strong when we broke into a clearing near the summit of Mount Pierce and the wind was driving the snow nearly sideways. We couldn't see anything beyond 50 feet. We had to search for the trail a bit (small alpine trees grow together closely, so the trail is really the only way you can easily proceed, meaning that you can't miss it; in the open you have to navigate by cairns, or small piles of rocks, that when covered with several inches of ice and snow look identical to small trees), but we found it and continued towards the summit of Mount Eisenhower.
Upon reaching the summit of Mount Eisenhower at about 9am, we realized that the snow wasn't letting up and the wind was much stronger. "Low 30s with 20 mph winds my ass," I yelled over the roaring gusts to my brother. Each of us had been knocked down twice by the wind. To walk anywhere, nay to even stand, you had to lean into the wind. You still were at its mercy, but occasionially you went in the direction you intended.
The summit of Eisenhower is pretty open, so searching for the trail took quite a bit of time, but we found it. That's when we had a talk. The trail to the summit of Mount Washington is miles of hiking about tree line (during the talk we were at about tree line), meaning that trailfinding was effectively impossible. Visibility was nonexistant, meaning that navigating by features of the mountain and map and compass was impossible. I had a GPS, but as it was quite cold I didn't know how long the batteries would last (I have only used it during the summer), and getting lost in a winter storm on Mount Washington is not a good idea. So we decided to head back, and try again another day. I was annoyed to watch the sky clear up and temperature rise in the early afternoon, returning the White Mountains to the great weather of the previous few days. We had no way of knowing what the weather would do, as it wasn't supposed to be storming like that to begin with, so we made the wiser decision. Besides, those mountains aren't going anywhere.
As a note, the weather on top of Mount Washington at 9am on Tuesday, December 27th was 9 degrees F, 80 mph winds (with gusts of 100+), resulting in a windchill of -26 degrees F. Washington is about 2000' higher in elevation than Eisenhower, which means about 10 degrees colder. I don't think that winds were quite that strong, however, but I couldn't tell you. Remember, we were each knocked down twice, for what it's worth.
I'll return someday. That is for sure.
Pictures will follow once they are developed/scanned/uploaded.
Let me back up a bit. Mount Washington has a weather station at the peak. The weather can be viewed online at sites such as Wunderground. We were scoping out the weather before we headed out and for about 3 days it had been clear skies, in the low to mid-30s with 20 mph winds (gusts of 30), resulting in temperatures of about 21 degrees F. That's nothing. There was a 30% chance of a snowstorm the night before our trip. Fine, as the day of it was supposed to be great weather again.
Well, when we parked at Carter Notch it was snowing. We began our way up to the top of Mount Pierce and we realized that with the snow there was very little visibility. Fine, it is supposed to pass. It wasn't even supposed to be here, so it will pass soon. It won't be around when we get further along. Wrong.
We saw that the snow was still going strong when we broke into a clearing near the summit of Mount Pierce and the wind was driving the snow nearly sideways. We couldn't see anything beyond 50 feet. We had to search for the trail a bit (small alpine trees grow together closely, so the trail is really the only way you can easily proceed, meaning that you can't miss it; in the open you have to navigate by cairns, or small piles of rocks, that when covered with several inches of ice and snow look identical to small trees), but we found it and continued towards the summit of Mount Eisenhower.
Upon reaching the summit of Mount Eisenhower at about 9am, we realized that the snow wasn't letting up and the wind was much stronger. "Low 30s with 20 mph winds my ass," I yelled over the roaring gusts to my brother. Each of us had been knocked down twice by the wind. To walk anywhere, nay to even stand, you had to lean into the wind. You still were at its mercy, but occasionially you went in the direction you intended.
The summit of Eisenhower is pretty open, so searching for the trail took quite a bit of time, but we found it. That's when we had a talk. The trail to the summit of Mount Washington is miles of hiking about tree line (during the talk we were at about tree line), meaning that trailfinding was effectively impossible. Visibility was nonexistant, meaning that navigating by features of the mountain and map and compass was impossible. I had a GPS, but as it was quite cold I didn't know how long the batteries would last (I have only used it during the summer), and getting lost in a winter storm on Mount Washington is not a good idea. So we decided to head back, and try again another day. I was annoyed to watch the sky clear up and temperature rise in the early afternoon, returning the White Mountains to the great weather of the previous few days. We had no way of knowing what the weather would do, as it wasn't supposed to be storming like that to begin with, so we made the wiser decision. Besides, those mountains aren't going anywhere.
As a note, the weather on top of Mount Washington at 9am on Tuesday, December 27th was 9 degrees F, 80 mph winds (with gusts of 100+), resulting in a windchill of -26 degrees F. Washington is about 2000' higher in elevation than Eisenhower, which means about 10 degrees colder. I don't think that winds were quite that strong, however, but I couldn't tell you. Remember, we were each knocked down twice, for what it's worth.
I'll return someday. That is for sure.
Pictures will follow once they are developed/scanned/uploaded.
posted by josh at 12:27 PM
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