A woman reached out looking to set up a guided Mt Washington hike with her sister. But there were changes and challenges. The dates of the hike changed a couple of times, and as it turned out the sister setting it all up wasn’t able to go, the result of a situation out of her control, unfortunately. That said, she was supportive of the sister she invited still going up there. But up there were more challenges to overcome, or not. The temps on the mountain were pretty nice, and with cool and interesting cloud action, it was a pretty day. Plus, no bugs.
Leading was Redline Guide Ken Hodges and he decided that reaching the summit of this notorious weather-challenged mountain wasn’t going to happen. The barometric pressure had been dropping all day and wind speeds were ramping up. On the summit of Washington it hit 104 mph within the previous 24-hour period. When our team was up there the summit winds were hitting the 70s, and it’s only until now (as this is written) that things are starting to settle down a bit, now just hitting the mid-50s.
After hanging out in and around the Lakes of the Clouds Hut and touring that general area a little bit, Ken felt comfortable that he and his reasonably skilled guest could at least take on Mt Monroe — so they did, and summit it they did, too. Ken estimated, trying to be realistic, that winds speeds up there to be around 40, and maybe some change. Here are a few photos of the day.
