Two friends reached out planning to compete in the Sea to Summit Race — a version of a classic triathlon which generally includes swimming, biking, and running. In this case the running is up Mt Washington making it extra gnarly. These fellows wanted to become more familiar with the route so they hired us to take them up there and show them around. This preparedness will surely help them on race day. They didn’t actually summit, but according to Redline Guide Bethany Bourget, they got a lot out of the trip. What follows is her summary of the day.
The day was a full one. They’d never hiked Mt Washington fully though one of them had been to the bowl once to watch the springtime skiers. All new terrain to them but they were going at a great clip. These guys, in fact, are beasts with many, many prior races under their belts.
The rocks and slabs were a new medium so we did work a little on footing. The plan was to hit Tucks but there is still a fair amount of unstable snow. while there were plenty of (unprepared) hikers heading up past us I told them we were moving to Plan B — I didn’t want our guests on that snowpack so we backtracked to Lion Head Trail and went up that way.
I gave them the 101 on trail and how cairns are their best friend in the alpine environment. Once we passed Lion Head the weather really started to roar and the rain was getting very heavy. Still we continued on reaching the junction for Tuckerman Ravine and Lion Head Trails to show them were they’d top-out during their race.
We were soaked, the rain came down harder and with their current footing I decided this is where we would turn around. They were more than happy with that. One guest was nursing a knee, the result of an ongoing ailment, so it was a little slow back down but everyone was in great spirits. Back on the Tuckerman Ravine Trail — a.k.a. The Death March — to the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center we were all laughing and just really enjoying ourselves.
They were super stoked despite not summiting — they got the gist of what they needed to know for their race in July and were really content and grateful for my watching over them. —Beth
