after hiking mountains all over the world, i finally made it to the top of mount washington, the highest mountain in the northeast ❤️
i would come here often with my family as a kid, driving to the top in our old chevy celebrity, hoping we would make it without the brakes overheating.
sometimes we would see scruffy looking hippie types. “can you believe some people are crazy enough to walk all the way up here??” my dad wondered.
twenty years later, on a rainy summer day, amidst 100mph winds, i became one of those crazy people.
Day one
it took me 5 hours to hike the first 3 miles on the ammo ravine trail to the lakes of the clouds hut where i collapsed in exhaustion, trying desperately to massage the cramps out of my legs. the staff implored me to turn back because a weather system was moving in and i could be stuck here for days. my heart broke at the thought of going home with no summits. i decided to stay the night and pray for a favorable weather window the next morning.
Day two
on sunday morning, the hut was enveloped in fog and violent rain showers. finally, around 9:15am, the rain weakened and i saw a brief window of stability. i dashed out and it was like a scene from a movie. visibility was nearly nil and as i approached the summit, the winds hit 80 mph. i had never experienced anything like it before, and it was hard not to be terrified, but i kept putting one foot ahead of the other.
In the Facebook account I posted from the summit that day, I wrote:
You find yourself oscillating between insane self confidence and complete terror, sometimes in the span of moments. Near the top, I could barely see more than a few steps ahead of myself. Sometimes that’s enough. Your world narrows to just what you need to focus on in order to succeed.
I was deep in my head and had been alone for nearly 2 hours when I heard shouts behind me. Two young kids, in shorts despite the freezing rain, were grinning ear to ear as they fist bumped in. “Is this epic or what??” they asked. I grinned and let out a primal scream. And then I whispered, “I’m scared, man, I’ve never done anything like this, will I make it?” The kid didn’t skip a beat. “You’ve already made it, just keep going.”
when i walked into the visitor center at 11am, the tourists who had taken the rail or shuttle up looked at me like i was from mars. i had corn chowder soup and coffee and then went outside to get a picture with the summit sign—by now, the winds were approaching 100 mph, but i needed this picture.
i spent an hour warming up & building up my courage for the long descent down, but the staff talked me out of it. they told me conditions would only worsen and there would be miles of fully exposed hiking ahead of me in rain and with 100 mph winds. “these are textbook conditions to get hypothermia. the mountain is not going anywhere.”
i decided to quit while ahead and took the train down. alhamdulillah ❤️
