Kenny called me tuesday at 9 pm from his tent. He was well equipped but when I read it was -45 on mt washington the next morning, I was nervous. I thought it was too cold to camp but not too cold to hike. The problem with where he was is the only way out was over an exposed ridge. He was found 3/10 down the summit of south twin towards galehead. He discussed the way out with me. I told him there was a hut down zealand, he hadn't been off guyot in that direction and wasn't sure how easy it was to follow that into the woods. He also didn't want to go down the steep pitches below zealand mountain, he had been up that way with me last summer. Down south twin was 2 miles shorter out and I was sposed to pick him up at the trailhead, whichever way he came out. I wish he had headed towards zealand, but hindsight is 20 20, maybe the same thing would have happened that way, or he would have gotten lost trying to find his way down. I remember having troubling getting up zealand one winter because the trail was lost near zeacliff. Depending on how strong he felt, he might also have gone over North Twin and out the north twin trail. I think he got up real early the next morning, because he had his headlamp on when found. I am very curious about what happened exactly, but I'm sure I will never find out. He had packed meticulously, indicating that he was fine when he was packing. His tent was not with him, he might have gotten out of his tent and figured I'm out of here, it's 30 bucks. It also might have fallen off. His windpants were lashed to the top of his pack. He would have been out of the wind on the trail, except for Guyot and South Twin summit. I wish he had put them on, as they add warmth anyway. He was very skilled at knowing what to wear in order to keep his body temperature from sweating or being cold, from all the times I hiked with him. My guess is, and this is only a guess, he got pinned by the wind on south twin for awhile, got cold, and by the time he fought his way over it, was hypothermic, and only made it another 3/10th farther. Having never been hypothermic, I don't know if the process takes longer than that. When I heard he had died, I thought it would be near his camp on mt bond summit, getting hypothermic while getting ready to head out. That was not the case. He had gone 3. 6 miles to South Twin summit, and was headed down from there. I think he was wearing polypro top and bottom, fleece pants, good koflach boots, and up top fleece and his nice gore tex shell over his polypro. His shell went halfway down to his knees. He would have had his gore tex balaclava I would imagine. This is what he wore when I was with him. I'm guessing he got cold fast, or he would have put another layer on. Maybe he was cold and figured he could blast off South Twin in a hurry, and the hypothermia happened quickly. Maybe if he was pinned, wind pants would have saved his life, maybe not. All this is conjecture. He headed out with 72 pounds, and had around 50 when he was found. He would have had a couple more layers in his pack i believe. This indicates that he was warm breaking trail(3 foot snow he said) and carrying the heavy pack. Going toward south twin was fairly level and he must have(?) built up some warmth. There is a moderate 400 foot climb towards south twin, with the peak mostly blocking the wind, in addition to the stunted trees that are a little over your head, and snow packed. It was his call when he got to Guyot. I wish he hadn't left so early in the morning, but that's the kind of guy he was. He was a marathon runner and a very strong hiker. I wish he had had wind pants on and another layer under his gore tex. Maybe he was pretty cold the whole time, and getting into the wind on south twin for even a minute pushed him into a state he couldn't recover from. Maybe his hands were cold and he didn't want to stop to put a layer on because of working the zippers. I hope this information was helpful. It is very difficult to think of my friend alone up there. I have gone over in my mind what I could have done to save him prior to calling in the rescue the next night, but if I had headed up early the next morning, he might not have even been on that trail, and was probably gone before I could have gotten to him. In any case, he was fine the night before, but said it was a little colder than he expected. He used a tangerine dream(-30) bag, and obviously survived his camp fine. I wonder if his stove didn't work in the morning, and I wonder lots of other things. I guess if you want to head out in conditions that cold, make it a place where you don't have to cross a ridge prior to heading down quickly, and make sure you don't have to get into the wind much even for only a minute or two.
