Date: 2014-02-20
To: The Mountain in Winter
Miles today: 0.0

It took me a while to get to this entry due to my recent relocation to Minnesota, but better late than never! Mount Washington is among the Appalachian Trail's signature summits, second only to Mount Katahdin (at least in my non-authoritative opinion). If you've been following this journal you know I'm an alpine climber at heart, and I can think of few better training opportunities on the East Coast than attempting to summit Mount Washington, with its notoriously apocalyptic weather, in the dead of winter. So it was that my buddy Brett and I headed north to New Hampshire earlier this month to experience truly brutal climbing conditions. We weren't disappointed!After overnighting at the Joe Dodge Lodge--with its awesome breakfast buffet--we headed up the mountain until we reached Hermit Lake. We were one of relatively few parties on the mountain and could have had our pick of shelters, but given our training goals we chose to establish camp on a snowed-under tent platform (we chose not to camp above tree line as planned due to conditions on the high mountain). It was bone-chillingly cold and snowing, rather we were being snowed upon by the spindrift that 70-80 MPH wind was blasting off the peak! We tucked ourselves into our sleeping bags as soon as possible after completing our camp chores and hoped for a good night's rest.We were up the next day by 0500. Things were ugly from the start, as I wound up with a bear spray contaminated contact lens in my eye (it's a LONG story, don't ask) and was forced to make do with only partial vision. We hustled through camp business, descended to the junction with the Lion's Head Winter Route, and were on our way back up the mountain by 0700. Which is where we discovered 1) we had bad beta, and 2) we grossly underestimated the mountain. The Lion's Head Winter Route features roughly three pitches of what I'd consider Class 4 scrambling, including one stretch that is arguably Class 5. I experienced two crampon malfunctions owing to my overboots, but we otherwise made decent time. Things got interesting as we neared Lion's Head and gained the Alpine Garden. We were buffeted by 60+ MPH winds with a wind chill somewhere in the -40 Fahrenheit range--so cold the perspiration inside my goggles froze into a sheet of ice within seconds of being exposed to the air. We eventually found the lee of the summit, where the winds dropped but where we encountered waist-deep wind-loaded powder. If you've ever post holed through snow of that depth, you know how taxing it can be. Long story short, when we reached the windward side of the summit ridge I bonked. Rather I anticipated that I'd bonk if we continued to the summit, which presented a problem given that we'd need to descend, climb again to Hermit Lake, break camp, and descend to Pinkham Notch. Brett and I discussed and we called it a day.So we didn't summit, but we did learn some valuable lessons. First, we could have done more to rectify our bad beta. If nothing else, a close review of the route's topography should have prepared us for the rigors of the Lion's Head Winter Route. Second, I brought WAY too little food and water and all but invited the dreaded bonk that did me in. Third, I carried too much weight on summit day. I was heavily laden with technical snow and ice protection (rope, pickets, ice screws) none of which was strictly necessary on that climb. Fourth, we exhausted ourselves breaking trail for the day's other climbers. We were the first up the mountain, having passed the only other climber as he descended from Lion's Head after being chastened by the conditions there. There were other lessons as well, but I won't bore you with them here!In the end it was a fabulous experience. I learned a great deal, and we made an informed decision to turn away from our goal in the interest of making it home safe and sound. I consider the trip a success if for no other reason than that. I expect the conditions will be a bit more permissive when I climb Mount Washington this summer, but I suspect I won't be fully satisfied until I summit the mountain on some future winter day!