Two people just spent a couple days with us. One day they did some winter and mountaineering skills training, and the next day they hiked up Mt Washington by way the Ammo. Quite a normal thing if not for the fact the objective was to take in the sunrise from the summit. And that they did. Kind of. Redline Guide Pat Ferland offered a summary of this epic, as follows:
We made an alpine start this morning. Our guests beginning their sunrise ascent of Mount Washington via the Ammo. We started off at 2:30AM in order to get to the summit before sunrise. We made it to Gem Pool by 3:30AM, we were right on schedule. There we put on crampons and continued to tree line. The wind picked up and the clouds came in. We made it to the Lakes of the Cloud hut around 5:00AM. From there we walked through increasing winds, probably around 45 to 50 miles-an-hour with about 50 feet of visibility thanks for the clouds. We made it to the summit at 6:30AM, about 20 minutes ahead of sunrise. After a food and water break, we made our descent. Once we made it to treeline I showed him how a mountaineer comes down a mountain. We kicked off our crampons and boot skied (boot-glissaded) all the way back down to the Pool. We made our way out getting back to the car by 9:30AM. Not bad for a morning. —Pat
What a great way to start the day. Here are some photos covering both days…
