![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
We're lookin' at the big sky
"On top of the world,
looking over the edge
you could see them coming." - Kate Bush "Cloudbusting"
On Wed. last week I was looking that the weather reports predicting a perfect day in the region on Sunday, clear, sunny, cooler so there would be little chance of afternoon thunderstorms. It struck me as a rare opportunity and I got the harebrained idea to try to climb Mt. Washington. To my utter surprise,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
derien didn't run away screaming as soon as I mentioned it. Perhaps she was too tired.
Saturday was spent doing housework and acquiring two new backpacks because my big one was broken andderien's little one was disintegrating.
According to plan (I'm a planner, I plan everything), on Sunday we rose at the ungodly hour of 3:30am and were out the door within minutes of 4am. We arrived at the Pinkham Notch Camp at 6am and after changing shoes and using the facilities we began up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail. The trail is a highway among trails, very broad and open. Although it was cool when we started, the steady uphill of the trail meant we soon started shedding layers.
I had decided since this was a big hike I should do it right and wear boots instead of the shoes I usually wear to work. In less than a half mile I had determined that the leather hiking boots that never really quite fit right despite years of trying to get them to break in really, really, didn't fit right. I changed back into my regular shoes, but by that point I already had blisters started. Bummer, blisters make for a long day.derien was having some problems with her pack. A little adjusting made it better for a while, but during the steep bits throughout the day the weight tended to land in one spot. We'll probably have to adjust the stays, but that's not something I wanted to do without a good flat surface.
We continued to climb through the forest at a good steady pace, reaching the hermit lake shelter, the halfway mileage point, at a little after 8am. After Hermit Lake the trail get steadily steeper. It climbs sharply, then levels into the narrow bottom of the ravine, then begins a very steep climb up the headwall of the ravine. By this point the sun was getting quite strong and beautiful day was in full swing.
By the time we got to the top of the headwall traffic was picking up on the trail. There were groups regularly passing us and the trail junctions were populated with people sitting for a rest before continuing on. We continued up the slightly more moderately sloped trail to the base of the cone. The cone is deceiving. Because it's made of lots of "small" rocks, it's really hard to judge distance. It is a significant vertical distance in a short amount of mileage. We huffed and we puffed. We cursed and cajoled. We pissed and moaned. We finally made it to the top about 11:30am.
That last section headed up provided seemingly endless views each of the many times we stopped for breath and rest. There were large chunks of white quartz and rose quartz the size of a computer monitor sitting amongst the more common rocks. Looking back down the trail to where we'd come just the last stop well above the headwall seemed so small. It really can't be described, it's something you have to experience to feel that sense of awe.
The top was the Main Street Disneyland of high places. There are parking lots. There are shuttle buses. There's the cog railroad. There are hundreds of people who got up late, just rode up there, and will be spending the rest of the day at Storyland or the outlet stores in North Conway. I was glad to have made it. Glad to have the chance to sit down and eat in the sunshine. But more than anything, wishing to be away from all those people and be back on a nice relatively quiet trail. We ate, filled our water bottles, stood in line to get a picture at the top marker, and left the tourist spot behind us.
On the way down we met many people coming up. The trail was quite crowded (not like the pictures I've seen of Fuji, but more crowded than any trail I've been on before). We slowly worked our way down, nursing our knees. It was a beautiful day, so any excuse to stop and sit on a rock was a good excuse. We made it back down to the bottom around 5pm.
The picture doesn't do it justice. This is at the top of the headwall looking down into Tuckerman Ravine. In the middle of the picture the spot of grey surrounded by green is the Hermit Lake Shelter. That's halfway up the trail and where the picture is taken from is about 3/4 of the way up the trail.
At the top, looking west or southwest. Yes, we're looking over the cloud.
On the cone, not very far from the top, looking down at the outlet of Tuckerman Ravine. The Pinkham Notch Camp is on the left, center height. The rocky point to the right of center is Lion's Head, which forms one wall of Tuckerman Ravine. The trail we walked lies between that and the green slope behind it and about 1,000 feet down.
This picture was taken on the hike down. It is looking southwest from the trail. The building you can just barely see under the cloud is Lake of the Clouds hut.
looking over the edge
you could see them coming." - Kate Bush "Cloudbusting"
On Wed. last week I was looking that the weather reports predicting a perfect day in the region on Sunday, clear, sunny, cooler so there would be little chance of afternoon thunderstorms. It struck me as a rare opportunity and I got the harebrained idea to try to climb Mt. Washington. To my utter surprise,
derien didn't run away screaming as soon as I mentioned it. Perhaps she was too tired.Saturday was spent doing housework and acquiring two new backpacks because my big one was broken and
derien's little one was disintegrating.According to plan (I'm a planner, I plan everything), on Sunday we rose at the ungodly hour of 3:30am and were out the door within minutes of 4am. We arrived at the Pinkham Notch Camp at 6am and after changing shoes and using the facilities we began up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail. The trail is a highway among trails, very broad and open. Although it was cool when we started, the steady uphill of the trail meant we soon started shedding layers.
I had decided since this was a big hike I should do it right and wear boots instead of the shoes I usually wear to work. In less than a half mile I had determined that the leather hiking boots that never really quite fit right despite years of trying to get them to break in really, really, didn't fit right. I changed back into my regular shoes, but by that point I already had blisters started. Bummer, blisters make for a long day.
derien was having some problems with her pack. A little adjusting made it better for a while, but during the steep bits throughout the day the weight tended to land in one spot. We'll probably have to adjust the stays, but that's not something I wanted to do without a good flat surface.We continued to climb through the forest at a good steady pace, reaching the hermit lake shelter, the halfway mileage point, at a little after 8am. After Hermit Lake the trail get steadily steeper. It climbs sharply, then levels into the narrow bottom of the ravine, then begins a very steep climb up the headwall of the ravine. By this point the sun was getting quite strong and beautiful day was in full swing.
By the time we got to the top of the headwall traffic was picking up on the trail. There were groups regularly passing us and the trail junctions were populated with people sitting for a rest before continuing on. We continued up the slightly more moderately sloped trail to the base of the cone. The cone is deceiving. Because it's made of lots of "small" rocks, it's really hard to judge distance. It is a significant vertical distance in a short amount of mileage. We huffed and we puffed. We cursed and cajoled. We pissed and moaned. We finally made it to the top about 11:30am.
That last section headed up provided seemingly endless views each of the many times we stopped for breath and rest. There were large chunks of white quartz and rose quartz the size of a computer monitor sitting amongst the more common rocks. Looking back down the trail to where we'd come just the last stop well above the headwall seemed so small. It really can't be described, it's something you have to experience to feel that sense of awe.
The top was the Main Street Disneyland of high places. There are parking lots. There are shuttle buses. There's the cog railroad. There are hundreds of people who got up late, just rode up there, and will be spending the rest of the day at Storyland or the outlet stores in North Conway. I was glad to have made it. Glad to have the chance to sit down and eat in the sunshine. But more than anything, wishing to be away from all those people and be back on a nice relatively quiet trail. We ate, filled our water bottles, stood in line to get a picture at the top marker, and left the tourist spot behind us.
On the way down we met many people coming up. The trail was quite crowded (not like the pictures I've seen of Fuji, but more crowded than any trail I've been on before). We slowly worked our way down, nursing our knees. It was a beautiful day, so any excuse to stop and sit on a rock was a good excuse. We made it back down to the bottom around 5pm.
The picture doesn't do it justice. This is at the top of the headwall looking down into Tuckerman Ravine. In the middle of the picture the spot of grey surrounded by green is the Hermit Lake Shelter. That's halfway up the trail and where the picture is taken from is about 3/4 of the way up the trail.
At the top, looking west or southwest. Yes, we're looking over the cloud.
On the cone, not very far from the top, looking down at the outlet of Tuckerman Ravine. The Pinkham Notch Camp is on the left, center height. The rocky point to the right of center is Lion's Head, which forms one wall of Tuckerman Ravine. The trail we walked lies between that and the green slope behind it and about 1,000 feet down.
This picture was taken on the hike down. It is looking southwest from the trail. The building you can just barely see under the cloud is Lake of the Clouds hut.