Lawn Sale
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- Jun 14, 2005
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Another weekend I didn’t have to work was fast approaching, and I decided Cannon would be a good one for Josh to cut his teeth on. He was new to the winter hiking scene, but loved Mt Willey two weeks earlier. It would require crampons, had a decent view on the Hi-Cannon trail, and was short, so it wouldn’t be too overwhelming. Ian spoke with him on Friday and found he was sick, so he wouldn’t be going. Ian and I therefore decided to do “The Big W” (Mt. Washington) instead, since I knew Ian was a good hiker and always up for a challenge. We decided on Sunday since my girlfriend works Sundays so we only have Saturday’s together out of the weekend. The weather forecast was for winds increasing from 25 to 35 mph in the morning to 35 to 50 mph in the afternoon, with temps steadily decreasing due to a cold front moving in. I’d hiked in 65 mph winds on Lafayette, and while not my first choice, they were not high enough to stop the hike.
We left my house at 6:15 and had an uneventful trip to Pinkham, where we changed and checked the weather report, which was unchanged. We started up the Tuckerman Ravine trail at 9:45, and made good time to the Winter Lion’s Head trail. We had barebooted it the whole way, laughing and joking, and marveled at the sight of the mountain in the sunshine. Nearing the steep section I decided to don my crampons while Ian put on his snowshoes to try out his homemade televators. He’d already made ruthlessly aggressive crampons, which proved their worth on Mt. Willey two weeks earlier, and this time he had added some 3” televators to them. In short order we were at a traffic jam caused by an EMS tour group making their way up the small cliff portion. To this point we were sweating profusely in base layers, so we donned an extra layer until it was our turn. Once on the steep section, they let us go ahead and soon we were catching views of the Wildcats amongst the clouds that were wisping by. About ½ way up the trail the wind started picking up and we donned more layers, including hardshells, face masks and goggles, as it was getting colder. We met some people that had passed us on the way up coming back down, saying the wind was too strong for a summit attempt, so we discussed it while I dug out something to eat in the lee of some rocks.
I hadn’t had much to eat that day, and it was starting to show. I drank some water and ate a granola bar, which helped some, and onward we pushed. Once cresting the top onto the alpine garden, we were hit with the wind, which had to be blowing about 35 to 40 mph. We left our crampons on, not wanting to remove gloves to strap them onto the pack. I was really feeling fatigued and each step felt like an eternity. I really wanted to turn back, but didn’t want to disappoint Ian, and we were so close to the summit, only about a mile, so I kept it to myself and pressed upward. It was hard to catch my breath, and I kept switching between my glasses fogging under my goggles to taking the goggles off and having the exposed skin around my glasses freeze. We would hike for 20 feet and have to rest, with our backs to the wind, then hike for 20 or 50 more steps, rest again, and so on…slow progress to say the least. We were hiking into the wind and it had started to snow, making everything hard to see, and it was the hard corn snow, almost like ice pellets, not the cute fluffy nice snow. Visibility had dropped from a hundred feet to 20 at times, so we could only see the next cairn once we got to the one before it. Thankfully it had been a lot nicer earlier in the day so there were lots of people summiting. We met a lot of them on their way back down and were able to follow their tracks for awhile until they were obscured. I was having a tough time, so I asked each group how much further to the summit, and each one said 25 to 30 minutes. I told Ian if the fourth group gave me the same time I was going to club one of them with my ice axe, we had to be making progress, but it was hard to tell with no frame of reference. I had my GPS, but the batteries had frozen so it turned itself off, and I really didn’t want to dig in my pack for more due to the conditions. It was snowing, the wind had gotten stronger, and it was definitely growing colder.
We finally hit the parking lot, the only way we could tell was there were no rocks to hike across, and thankfully Ian took his motorcycle up this last summer so he knew where everything was, because we couldn’t make out any buildings until we were right on top of them. We finally hit the summit at 3PM sharp. I took out my camera and snapped a few pics, downed more water, and ate a few jelly beans, which were more like gobstoppers when I put them in my mouth.
On the way down we passed an older gentleman on the way up, he was complaining about the lack of a marked trail, but in talking with him, he was no stranger to the conditions or hiking and appeared very well prepared. We high-tailed it down a little faster with the wind at our backs, and met up with an Observatory employee just cresting the Lion’s Head trail. We chatted with him for a minute and when we left we talked about how his walking to work is a little different than most peoples. Apparently everyone behind us on the way up, probably 15 people, decided not to go ahead as those were the only 2 other people we saw after the summit.
We hoofed it back down the steep section of trail, and once we hit the bottom removed our crampons and extra clothing. We booked it back down to Pinkham just at dusk, and arrived around 5:30 PM. I inquired inside, and at 3PM, the conditions at the summit were snowing and freezing fog, 10° and 46 mph sustained winds, for a wind chill of –16°, with gusts higher. I’m glad I pushed on, and while the conditions were bad, they weren’t impossible, and we were well prepared with all the right clothing and gear, even if we got stuck and had to spend the night. Ian bagged his 5th winter peak, and we had a great time despite the conditions. The drive home was uneventful, except for stopping in N Conway for dinner at North of the Border. When we opened the door, the hostess asked if we were with the ‘superbowl party’. We said no and said we were there to eat, to which she exclaimed “Oh thank God”. We got excellent service and the food was great, exactly what I needed for the 3+ hour drive home.
The few pics I took are here.
We left my house at 6:15 and had an uneventful trip to Pinkham, where we changed and checked the weather report, which was unchanged. We started up the Tuckerman Ravine trail at 9:45, and made good time to the Winter Lion’s Head trail. We had barebooted it the whole way, laughing and joking, and marveled at the sight of the mountain in the sunshine. Nearing the steep section I decided to don my crampons while Ian put on his snowshoes to try out his homemade televators. He’d already made ruthlessly aggressive crampons, which proved their worth on Mt. Willey two weeks earlier, and this time he had added some 3” televators to them. In short order we were at a traffic jam caused by an EMS tour group making their way up the small cliff portion. To this point we were sweating profusely in base layers, so we donned an extra layer until it was our turn. Once on the steep section, they let us go ahead and soon we were catching views of the Wildcats amongst the clouds that were wisping by. About ½ way up the trail the wind started picking up and we donned more layers, including hardshells, face masks and goggles, as it was getting colder. We met some people that had passed us on the way up coming back down, saying the wind was too strong for a summit attempt, so we discussed it while I dug out something to eat in the lee of some rocks.
I hadn’t had much to eat that day, and it was starting to show. I drank some water and ate a granola bar, which helped some, and onward we pushed. Once cresting the top onto the alpine garden, we were hit with the wind, which had to be blowing about 35 to 40 mph. We left our crampons on, not wanting to remove gloves to strap them onto the pack. I was really feeling fatigued and each step felt like an eternity. I really wanted to turn back, but didn’t want to disappoint Ian, and we were so close to the summit, only about a mile, so I kept it to myself and pressed upward. It was hard to catch my breath, and I kept switching between my glasses fogging under my goggles to taking the goggles off and having the exposed skin around my glasses freeze. We would hike for 20 feet and have to rest, with our backs to the wind, then hike for 20 or 50 more steps, rest again, and so on…slow progress to say the least. We were hiking into the wind and it had started to snow, making everything hard to see, and it was the hard corn snow, almost like ice pellets, not the cute fluffy nice snow. Visibility had dropped from a hundred feet to 20 at times, so we could only see the next cairn once we got to the one before it. Thankfully it had been a lot nicer earlier in the day so there were lots of people summiting. We met a lot of them on their way back down and were able to follow their tracks for awhile until they were obscured. I was having a tough time, so I asked each group how much further to the summit, and each one said 25 to 30 minutes. I told Ian if the fourth group gave me the same time I was going to club one of them with my ice axe, we had to be making progress, but it was hard to tell with no frame of reference. I had my GPS, but the batteries had frozen so it turned itself off, and I really didn’t want to dig in my pack for more due to the conditions. It was snowing, the wind had gotten stronger, and it was definitely growing colder.
We finally hit the parking lot, the only way we could tell was there were no rocks to hike across, and thankfully Ian took his motorcycle up this last summer so he knew where everything was, because we couldn’t make out any buildings until we were right on top of them. We finally hit the summit at 3PM sharp. I took out my camera and snapped a few pics, downed more water, and ate a few jelly beans, which were more like gobstoppers when I put them in my mouth.
On the way down we passed an older gentleman on the way up, he was complaining about the lack of a marked trail, but in talking with him, he was no stranger to the conditions or hiking and appeared very well prepared. We high-tailed it down a little faster with the wind at our backs, and met up with an Observatory employee just cresting the Lion’s Head trail. We chatted with him for a minute and when we left we talked about how his walking to work is a little different than most peoples. Apparently everyone behind us on the way up, probably 15 people, decided not to go ahead as those were the only 2 other people we saw after the summit.
We hoofed it back down the steep section of trail, and once we hit the bottom removed our crampons and extra clothing. We booked it back down to Pinkham just at dusk, and arrived around 5:30 PM. I inquired inside, and at 3PM, the conditions at the summit were snowing and freezing fog, 10° and 46 mph sustained winds, for a wind chill of –16°, with gusts higher. I’m glad I pushed on, and while the conditions were bad, they weren’t impossible, and we were well prepared with all the right clothing and gear, even if we got stuck and had to spend the night. Ian bagged his 5th winter peak, and we had a great time despite the conditions. The drive home was uneventful, except for stopping in N Conway for dinner at North of the Border. When we opened the door, the hostess asked if we were with the ‘superbowl party’. We said no and said we were there to eat, to which she exclaimed “Oh thank God”. We got excellent service and the food was great, exactly what I needed for the 3+ hour drive home.
The few pics I took are here.
