Arriving at Pinkham Notch on the eastern side of Mount Washington on the morning was looking very promising with mixed skies and surprisingly good weather!
The weather station on the top of the mountain have recorded the highest wind speeds on the northern hemisphere, and hurricane strength winds are more common than rare.
The start of the hike was not indicating anything like that though, I followed Tuckerman Ravine Trail, the first half of the way and then took the winter route of Lions head trail up to the summit. The first part was beautiful and snow covered with little wind and apart form ice and slipperiness it was a very nice first part of the hike.
Higher up the trail got steep and once it reached the alpine terrain the wind swept mountain sides. The clouds kept the summit in a nice fog-like veil.
Parts of the trail was easy to follow between low spruce bushes, while other parts was indicated by a large number of stone cairns (see lower left of the picture above) that was placed so close that they could be used even in near white-out conditions.
On the picture below the trail can faintly be seen in the center of the picture going through the alpine vegetation.
The winds on the summit were around 50 mph on average (22 m/s), with gusts around 70 mph (31 m/s). Of course the wind was head winds going up meaning that it was even harder to make the way upwards, but more precariously it was tailwind on the way down which constantly attempted to throw you off of the mountain. Having ice-crampons for grip and poles to keep balance and stop myself from going sideways was very helpful!
The summit was offering wind chill temperatures of minus 25 to minus 30 Fahrenheit (-30 Celcius), and ice quickly built up on the surfaces of your clothes, once the clothes stiffened up though they provided even better protection against the cold of the wind.
On the summit one could see many snow feathers which built up from the prevailing winds and the snow and ice that gets deposited. Below is a small signpost which had more than a foot long "feathers" which were quite spectacular!
I didn't use my water bladder with a drinking hose since it would quickly freeze shut, and even energy drinks with high sugar content which should have a lower freezing point actually froze inside! of my backpack. Drinking ice-slurry was quite chilling but that happened on the way down and I had water which was nicely wrapped in a scarf to keep it from freezing.
The smile below was after having descended about a third of the elevation at which time I was feeling more confident that the warmer weather would arrive shortly.
Stats:
State: New Hampshire
High point: Mount Washington
Elevation: 6 288 ft (1 917 m)
Date: November 28, 2010
Total elevation to date: 70 532 ft (21 498 m)
Access: Trail, class 2 (in winter), 8.5 miles, about 6h.
Difficulty rating (of 10): 6
Potential Difficulties: "Worst weather on the northern hemisphere"
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