Day 40. The Presidentials

Mile 1842 – Ethan Pond To Mile 1852 – Nauman

We built some flexibility into our schedule for Mt. Washington because of the notoriously difficult weather. Our main goal was to get past Webster cliffs with the possibility of continuing beyond there, above treeline, to get closer to the summit.

We started hiking today in sunny, clear weather, but on the way up we started to hear thunder in the distance. Soon we were in a fairly intense thunderstorm. The walk up Mt. Webster is mostly within tree cover, so we decided press on. There are, however, about a dozen areas where the trail leaves the trees and proceeds along a ledge above the cliffs for a while. For these exposed areas, we waited until the lightening was out of the area, but we still had to deal with 40 degree temperatures, 50 mph wind and drenching rain. There are not many photos for today because I was mainly focused on dealing with the conditions.

Storms passing over the cliffs

Exhausted, we chose our earlier possible stopping point for the day, which was a camping area just below treeline. We were relatively close to Mizpah hut, so we decided to go there first to warm up. As we entered the hut, wet and cold, we were greeted by cheers from other through hikers who knew we were walking up Webster that morning and were also there seeking shelter from the storm. It was so nice to see some familiar faces!

Hot soup to help warm up

Because we stopped early today, we have a long day tomorrow. But for now we are happy to be dry and warm. The storm cleared in the afternoon and Rocket was excited to meet some kids her age who were staying at the hut that night. They played hide and seek all evening until sunset and we returned to our tent. Before leaving, we checked the weather report for the summit which they post there every day. Looks like a good chance that we’ll be able to go up Washington tomorrow!