Whites – Mt. Madison to Mt. Washington
July 21, 2010 3:53 am Leave your thoughts
Location: White Mountains National Forest Presidential Mountains
After summiting Mt. Madison I made my way down to the AMC lodge Madison Hut just down the peak and before the next peak Mt. Adams. Brookie, Walker, Flora, and Fauna were all supposed to meet up there.
No one else from our group was there. I figured Walker had to be ahead of me and moved on since he went ahead the previous day in the rain to the tent site near the base. Brookie and the girls could show up at any time I really had no idea.
It was only 2:30, I wasn’t wild about staying at this hut and after talking to Murph I was contemplating pushing on. Since this is all above tree line exposed ridge it would have meant making it 6 more miles and included a push over the big daddy Mt. Washington.
I thought it over. I might make the Lake of the Clouds Hut a little late, maybe 8-9 but I might make free dinner leftovers too. The weather was good. I repeated to myself, “the weather is good, the weather is good!!!” and I decided to make the push on.
I filled up with water as I left Madison Hut and realized my bladder had sprung a leak:( Not the one in my mid-section, but the water bladder in my backpack. Everything in the pack is kept separate in a pack liner bag and ziplocks so nothing got wet but this meant I would have to make this push with only the water I could carry in my 32oz Nalgene. I was guessing that being above tree line there wouldn’t be any water sources I could filter. I drank as much as I could before leaving, filled the bottle and headed out.
It was a very rough all rocky terrain. Unlike the AT in Maine though it didn’t go over every peak and instead went around most. I was already moving pretty fast when after about 1 hour I heard thunder begin to rumble in the distance and saw storm clouds building over near Mt. Madison where I had left.
The thunder got me moving even faster and for a while it looked like it might miss the more western mountains and Washington where I was headed. I out ran the storm for 2 hours but as I made it to the 1.1 mile marker to the peak of Mt. Washington rain quickly began to fall on me. I threw on my poncho and pushed on up towards the peak of Mt. Washington.
The rain quickly became very heavy, then frozen, then small balls of hail. The hail pelted my face and I soon lost all visibility. I stopped and laughed loudly. I could hardly believe the situation. I pushed forward repeating out loud over and over “I’m not done with this fucking mountain!!!” The winds picked up, I pushed harder and harder.
Eventualy I made it to the top of Mt. Washington. It was such a mess out I could hardly see anything, but I could barely make out the structure of the top observation visitors building. I had trouble finding the front of the building as wind gusts blew me into the adjacent weather observatory.
I managed to stumble my way into the visitors center. People were staring at me as I was covered in my soaked poncho and looking quite battered no doubt.
The sign in the visitors center said “Welcome to Mt. Washington Home of the Worst Weather in America” Thanks, as if I had missed that on my way up;)
I dragged my beaten self to a table in the cafeteria and pulled off my soaked poncho and sat down trying to catch my breath. As I sat and looked towards the big observation Windows I saw Walker!:) I was so happy to see a familiar face. I ran over to say hi and told him of my experience getting caught out there. We laughed and I grabbed something to eat.
Walker and I were both headed to the AMC Lake of the Clouds Hut since there were no other camping options at this altitude above tree line. The visitors center soon closed and we headed out for the hut