Back in October, I told my friend Jim I was determined to go back to Mt. Washington again this year and revive my tradition of inaugurating the ice climbing season with some early ice in Tuckerman's Ravine. Last year, I couldn't rummage up a partner, and didn't feel like making the 12 hour drive by myself and climbing solo, so I ended up not going.
Jim told me he was totally psyched to go this year and he was DEFINATELY going. Cool. No worries about a partner this year.
Jim and I make plans to leave stupid early (4 or 5 am) on Friday morning and do the STEEP approach hike Friday night, climb Saturday, hike down and drive home on Sunday. Everything is pretty well set by the beginning of the week, when the weather starts to be totally un-cooperative. Back here in the flatlands of Buffalo, NY, then highs for the days were topping out at around high 50's. Totally unacceptable for the first week of December!
Tuesday before we leave, I scan a bunch of web sites (Northeastern Ice Report, Mt. Washington Weather Observatory, etc..). Well, the NE looks VERY warm, but the mountain appears to have lots of snow... not sure about the ice conditions in Tucks though. The trip is definitely still on.
Wednesday rolls around and John (Jim's brother) calls me. He's whining and wants to ride in the car, and just hike up Mt. Washington and do the peak bagging thing. There's room in the car, so I tell him to start packing - the more, the merrier.
John is always super fun to travel with as he's ALWAYS got a story to tell about something and usually trips with him turn into a non-stop laugh fest, and this one was not going to be an exception. :)
I ditch out of work on Thursday as early as possible, and shoot home to do a quick clean up in the Apartment (I hate coming home to a dirty kitchen :) and run out to the store for some food. Lots of energy bars and munchies as Jim is bringing some Freeze dried stuff for dinners. John & Jim both come over around 10:00 pm, we all crash at my place and set the alarm for 4:15 am.. UGH.
The alarm is blaring in my ear after what seems life 5 minutes of sleep, and I manage to wake everyone up... I quickly brew some hot water for tea and instant coffee while we pack the car. It's the first big climbing road-trip for the new Saturn 4 door, so it takes some figuring out, but everything fits in no problem, and we finally hit the road and Interstate 90 by around 5:00 am. Right on schedule (which is truly amazing considering that NONE of us are morning people).
I'm not a big coffee drinker, but between John and Jim, I'm convinced they consumed at least 5 gallons of the stuff before we even travel 200 miles east along I-90. Numerous bathroom breaks ensue as our bodies adjust to the early morning and initial wake ups. Each of us seems to need to hit the john at least twice during the first few hours of driving, but none of us or coordinated enough to have to go at the same time. After the potty breaks, Jim and I are regretting the lack of an ample supply of underwear for the trip. "yeah, yeah, definitely K-Mart" becomes one of our mantras for the entire weekend (If you don't get the reference, think Dustin Hoffman). We eventually hit Saratoga Springs and leave New York state behind. John's stories and wise-cracks keep us laughing for almost the entire state, and our stomachs literally hurt from laughing too much.
John takes a turn behind the wheel for the trek across Vermont and half of New Hampshire, but I want to stop in Lincoln NH to scope for some new Gortex pants. My current ones are a little on the small side, but I don't find anything that looks like what I want. We also stop into the new climbing gym there in Lincoln and chat with the friendly manager, and scope the facilities. Nice gym. We finally hit the road again and soon arrive in the crowded tourist haven of North Conway NH around 4:30 pm. We hit up Wendy's for some final chow, then head north to Pinkham Notch. Finally.
We pack up in the hikers lodge, and grab our tickets for the Hermit Lake Shelters. There are only 6 other people up there right now - GREAT! We won't have any problems with not finding empty lean-tos. John and Jim both pack down yet ANOTHER cup of coffee, while we pull the tents out of the packs and finish packing. Just before hitting the trail, we meet a family of 4 that are also heading up to Tucks tonight.. Mom & Dad will be climbing tomorrow on the headwall and the 2 sons will be snowboarding & skiing in the gullies. Nice family outing for the weekend :) We finally hit the trail about 6:00 pm.
The hike up is pretty uneventful but windy. There was a full moon, so I didn't need my headlamp for almost the entire 2.4 miles. We all suck wind pretty good, but make pretty good time, arriving at the Hermit Lake shelters about 8:00 pm. We crash into shelter #8 with some dudes from Connecticut and Mass. who are up and are planning to climb Tucks tomorrow. We make ourselves right at home, and continue to be pretty loud and somewhat obnoxious well into the evening hours. I think we kind of scared the kids at the other end of the lean-to a little bit as John can be really loud sometimes. The marathon day finally ends at about 10:00 pm. I set the alarm on the watch for 6:15 am.
The alarm is blaring in my ear after what seems life 5 minutes of sleep, and I manage to wake everyone up... I stumble into the plastic boots and fumble for the door and step out into a great morning. Light winds, not too cold, perfect conditions. We brew up some oatmeal, and Jim & I figure out the summit packing and the gear etc. While Jim pumps water for the day, I check in with the caretaker who gives me some beta on the a gully called Left of Left. He says it has the best ice in Tucks and should be pretty fat, and not too covered with snow. It's on the far left side of the ravine, someplace I'd never climbed before. Sounds like a plan.
John debates whether to climb Lion's head trail (the standard winter hike) or do the "hiking" trail up Tuckermans... The Tucks trail looks pretty doable, especially considering John has ice climbed before, but the caretaker dissuades him and he decides Lion's Head is the safer choice. This turns out to be a VERY wise decision.
We part ways about 8:00 am, and Jim & I head up to the Tuckerman's headwall. The morning is getting pretty warm, and I'm glad I dressed pretty light for the day. We make a pretty steady pace up to the base of the headwall, I notice how much snow has already filled in the bottom of the bowl. It's far more than I've ever seen in Tuckermans this early in the season before. We'll no doubt be seeing lot's of skiers today.
The ice in Left of Left looks great. Blue, fat enough to climb, not too long, etc.. Perfect for what we wanted to do. It's pretty short however, and Jim promptly announces "looks like 1 pitch... well, It's your trip, so I guess you can lead it." Fine with me !! We trudge across the open bowl which is completely filled in with hardpack snow after donning our shells as the wind is really kicking down the main face and the bowl. The snow starts kicking back in steepness as we head up the Left Gully snow climb before traversing left to the start of the ice. We start donning our crampons and Jim notices a tiny figure across the ravine on top of Lion's Head waving to us. IT'S JOHN!! He must be really cruising to have reached the ridge line already. He waits for a little while, probably snapping some pictures of the absolutely gorgeous day that's opening up. We continue to follow him across the ridge as we rack up and flake the ropes.
Jim does battle with the other double rope that we brought, but finally wins the fight, and I start to lead up the spectacular pitch of ice. My first placements make it very evident that the ice is a LOT more brittle than it looked. I promptly start firing HUGE dinner plates down at Jim which keeps him busy for pretty much the entire route. Good thing we are both wearing helmets :) The first half of the route is pretty mellow, and I'm feeling great, but the ice is still very brittle for the first 2", then good underneath. I rest about half way up on a decent stance and soak in the view. Crystal blue sky, medium winds, and moderate temperatures. We really have gotten lucky with the weather this weekend. Massive amounts of skiers have poured into the bowl and are cranking turns on all kinds of boards: snow boards, alpine skis, and telemark gear I watch for a few while my forearms and calves recoup.
I start up the last section of the climb which looks like the crux.. It begins by squeezing through a small slot between a large ice bulge on the left and an exposed rock buttress on the right. Very fun since the ice is nice and plastic in the runnel. I slam in a 22 cm Black Diamond screw at the top of the runnel as I ponder the very vertical dihedral above me. Looks kind of rugged, but I feel good. My first 2 tool placements in the dihedral turn out to be wicked placements that absolutely REFUSE to come out easily. ARGGH. The next 4 placements follow suit, and I'm rapidly pumping out just trying to remove my placements. This SUCKS! As I'm struggling with one of the nasty removals, my left calf gets one of those earth shattering charlie-horses in it. OOOOUUUCHHH!!
I quickly look down at my last gear, pondering my opportunities for relief of the calf muscle, and decide that I should have definitely brought at least one pound-in screw. DOH. I grab one of the short BD's instead and quickly place it, clip it, and immediately call for Jim to take my weight for a second. PHEW, I shake out the leg muscle for a minute or two, and try to regain my composure. GEESH, that was fun. My leg returns to normal, and I fire the rest of the dihedral without incident, pulling the final bulges onto steep snow and bushes.
I throw a belay around some sketchy looking bushes, and bring Jim up, who doesn't seem like he has a hard time at all, but was VERY happy he didn't lead the pitch. We rack the gear, coil the ropes, grab some water and head for the ridgeline above us. We climb unroped up the steep hard-pack snow for approximately 300 or 400 feet before we can finally take a break and grab some more water and some grub before making the final push to the ridge. Everything seems great, but Jim's knee is giving him MAJOR problems. He had twisted it on the approach hike up to Hermit Lake, but it hadn't seemed that bad...until now. By the time we reach the ridgeline, he is in some serious pain, and has gained a pretty severe limp.
We discuss our options, and Jim decides to head back down the Tuckermans headwall - he doesn't feel up to the summit push from the ridge. It is definitely the right decision. The final push is still at least 600 vertical feet and Jim doesn't look or feel very good at all. There are still boatloads of hikers trudging up the summit cone, so I don't feel apprehensive about continuing on alone. We repack the packs... I take my 2 fleece jackets, 2 quarts of water, my Gortex pants, my headlamp, and some energy bars, while Jim takes our super lean ice rack and thankfully takes both ropes down with him. This is a god-send for me, as I'm in ultra-light-weight mode for the final summit bid. My watch shows 12:30 pm, so I have plenty of day light. We part ways, and I make a bee-line for the Tuckerman's summit trail which joins the Lion's Head trail about half way up the final cone. It's a long trudge and I'm really beat. My cardio is in REALLY bad shape for this sort of thing, but I eventually top out at the weather station and stand on the highest point on Mt. Washington. WOOHOO. I finally summited in winter.
I don't stick around too long at the little shelter on the summit. There is a decent size crowd there, several guys putting on skis to ski the bowls on the other side, and other hikers taking a break out of the wind before they descend. I throw my light fleece on under the shell and re-hydrate and chow down on the big-block Hershey bar I brought along. HMMMM. About 1:45 pm, I begin the descent and start smoking past the hikers.. they obviously aren't that comfortable in crampons yet, and I make good time to the Tucks / Lion's Head trail junction. Decision time... I could either descend down the hikers trail which is longer, or head back down Tucks. I opt to continue straight down into Tucks for the shorter distance. This turns out to be a BAD move.
I hit the Tuckermans ridgeline and catch up with some guys from the AMC who are also descending down Tucks. This is usually a pretty easy walk down, but because of the quantity of snow on the main face, we literally have to DOWNCLIMB the entire face. It's a chore that I did not enjoy, to say the least. Luckily, the traffic of the day had creating a pretty easy "ladder" of steps that went down the face, but this really took a lot of energy out of me and killed my time. If John had tried to climb up this way earlier this morning, it could have been really ugly. It's very exposed, and a fall here could be dangerous. I am really glad that he opted for the Lion's Head trail.
I finally make my way to the right gully in Tucks, and glissade the last few hundred feet down to the bowl level. I finish the hike down to the shelters with the mom of the family of 4 we had met Friday night. We both enjoy the banter as I try not to concentrate on my rubber legs. We finally hit the caretaker's lodge about 3:30 pm and I meet up with Jim who is coming up the trail to pump water. He says he'll be right back and I finish the walk to the shelter where John already has the stove roaring with hot water for tea and is lounging in his sleeping bag.
John had made really good time and hit the summit by about 11:00 or 11:30 in the morning, and waiting for a while for us, but hit the trail back down and was back in the shelter by 1:30 pm. He tells me about his summit experience: "So I'm standing on the actual summit, scoping out the view, and I just wet my chapped lips with my tongue.. I turn around, and this gust of wind hits me, and BAM, my lip instantly dries out and splits my lip open and blood starts pouring into my mouth!!!!" YIKES! We had a good laugh about our respective summits and swapped stories about some of the "funny looking" hikers we'd seen until Jim came back with more water.
Jim had a pretty wicked time descending down the Tuckermans face. He went through the same ordeal as I did... having to downclimb the entire face, but he had his bum knee that was torturing him on every kick step. OUCH. He really took his time, and eventually made it back to the shelter about 2:30 pm.
We all swap our mini adventures until well after the sun sets behind the mountains and we continually gorge ourselves with all sorts of food we had brought up with us. It also turns out that we had all brought stoves and fuel, so we lounge around an MSR Whisperlite that just burns free and we all dry out our sweaty feet around it. LUXURIOUS. Occasionally, John would put some of our cheddar cheese into a pita and expertly melt the whole thing into a quasi-grilled cheese sandwich over the stove. HMMM. We each downed our dinners and probably 3 gallons of tea between us until we all finally hit the bags around 8:00 pm. I don't set the alarm for the next morning... we can sleep in. YES.
My bladder finally boots me out of my sleeping bag around 7:15 am Sunday morning and John declares "It's about friggen time you got up... I've been lying awake for hours". Sorry :) We quickly pack up and hit the trail down to the Pinkham Notch camp. Jim is glad to be going downhill with his bum knee, and John and I consult with him before continuing on ahead of him at a faster pace. He is in good spirits despite his painful knee. John and I make great time down the trail, John even RUNS the very last part, and we pass mountains of people going up the trail to ski or hike for the day. We chat with bunches of them about the conditions in the bowl, snow, ice, etc.
Jim surprises both of us, and cruises into the lodge not more than 15 minutes behind John and I. Great we're all down, in one peace, and safe. We wash our VERY stanky bodies and change back into normal clothes - "Definitely K-Mart !!", pack the car, and head back to North Conway for a HUGE Breakfast. We decide to eat at Peaches, a small little place that has great food on the south side of town. HMMM.
We finally hit the road again at around 11:45 am, and head back to flatland. I take the first shift of driving and have fun cruising back along the Kankamangus Hwy, and through Vermont. John takes the wheel in Fort Anne, and has the WORST traffic problems along Rte. 29 out of Saratoga Springs. We all discuss the various armaments we'd use to completely vaporize the evil Cadilac which ponders along the road at 30 mph ahead of us. Once again, laughing it up hard enough to make us yearn for the next bathroom break. "Laugh and pack" continues to be the theme of the weekend, as the laughing packs our food and drink and forces us all to hit the john more often than normal.
We stop for some food at Sbaro's on the thruway near Syracuse and I take over the driving for the last shift back to Buffalo. We are making awesome time... and we finally pull back into my parking lot at 9:49 pm. Smoking travel time.. less than 10 hours.
We sort most of the gear and John and Jim head home as the very thought of a warm shower and a nice bed sends shivers down all of our spines.
All in all, an excellent trip. Jim's bad knee was really the only "bad mojo" for the entire trip. The drives flew by (mostly due to the non-stop laughter), John and I both summited, Jim and I had an EXCEPTIONAL time doing some fantastic ice and snow climbing, and we all came back in one piece. All of us are already thinking about next years "Laugh and Pack" trip.
Peter Millard.
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