I can never get enough stories about Mount Washington, the little mountain in New Hampshire that kills just everybody, and which I’ll never visit unless it’s to get dragged into the weather station and gleefully drink cocoa as the sky goes all to white hell around me. Here are some highlights for you armchair outdoorswomen, rated on a scale of 1 to 5 !!!!!s.
Come visit the Observatory: !!
“Day and overnight snowcat trips are available, and we also partner with several area climbing schools for guided mountaineering ascents. All trips include home-cooked meals and exclusive access to our mountaintop weather station, with overnight accommodations provided in our cozy living quarters.
Register now for the trip of a lifetime, and join us in the Home of the World’s Worst Weather!”
Why Mount Washington Kills: !!!
“Dupuis has had to put his own life at risk too many times rescuing the unprepared to be nice to them.
And that’s the real reason Mount Washington kills. Close enough to the northeast urban conurbation that a summit can be had in a day trip from Boston, or an overnight from New York, the mountain offers some of the best, and most easily-accessible hiking and skiing in the region. 250,000 people are said to visit each year. Doing that is as easy as pulling into the parking lot, and hitting the trailhead. There’s warning signs, there’s stories, and there’s even guides you can hire, but most people are content just to head out for a walk, and see what happens; ignorant of the weather, the terrain, and the dangers. It’s tempting to say that the government should step in, and require permits, or better patrol the trails, but it’s also easy to conclude that if someone is going to set out on a mountain notorious for its death-rate and extreme weather in flip flops, that they’d find a way to die elsewhere if this hike wasn’t available.”
Mount Washington weather observer films what it’s like in 110 mph winds: !!!
“He says the building they work out of at the summit of Mount Washington has concrete walls that are three feet thick and windows made of bullet-resistant glass. ‘Even with this protection, the constant, dull roar of the wind is ever-present in the Observatory’s Weather Room.’”
The Young Woman and the Mountain: !!!!
“In the parking lot, she scaled the nearly 6-foot-tall snowbank left by plows. Across a snowmobile raceway and a few paces up the narrow trailhead, a sign warns hikers bluntly of the risk they are about to bear:
Try this trail only if you are in top physical condition, well clothed and carrying extra clothing and food. Many have died above timberline from exposure. Turn back at the first sign of bad weather.
Matrosova, 32, was fit and strong and smart. A trader at BNP Paribas on Wall Street, she was also driven and determined. She had undertaken some strenuous climbs before, and this was the vacation she had planned.
And if Matrosova saw the sign by the light of her headlamp in the pre-dawn darkness — if she read every word before she set out between the trees — it did not dissuade her, either.”
TripAdvisor: “If you have a death wish – go ahead!”: !!!!!
[Image via]
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STOP. Everyone knows that convenient mountains are not supposed to be the same as dangerous mountains! Get yourself together, New Hampshire.
Never. NH takes irrational pride in our Live Free or Die mantra, and we refuse to let anyone try to corral us into behaving better. Which is why our land taxes are outrageous and I’ll have to get a passport in order to fly within the continental United States.
isn’t the living free what causes the death, in this case?
yeah, and you don’t have to wear seatbelts either! something something self determination, etc.
Or insure your car. Or wear a helmet on a motorcycle.
Basically, we’re the poster child for Darwinism, you’d think, but it doesn’t seem to quite work.
why?
Our licenses don’t meet federal requirements (on purpose, NH voted to refuse to meet the guidelines) so in order to enter federal buildings or fly the next option is a passport.
Why did they not meet the guidelines? Are they made out of cereal boxes?
Ha! No. I forget all the details, but in order to meet fed guidelines the state would have to give us IDs with certain info on them and also put our photos and SSN into a fed database or something along those lines. NH said that was a massive federal overreach that was tantamount to “Papers, Please” of German WWII era bullshittery, and we were having none of it.
Oh my god.
That puts an unfair disadvantage on poor folks, unless they’re subsidizing the price of passports. Even the card ones (which are only good when traveling in the USA and Canada and Mexico afaik) are nearly a hundred dollars and take a few weeks.
Very true.
The TSA is rolling out new ID requirements (or new-ish, the law was passed 2005, they’ve just pushed it back when it would go into effect). The law requires a driver’s license to have an anti-counterfeit technology to get through airport security; the new license, when scanned by TSA, will also store the person’s information indefinitely. Because of privacy concerns and cost, 12 states actually passed laws that bar their DMVs from complying. And right now, only 23 states comply–some states have been given extensions on when they will be forced to comply, but by 2018 those states without extensions will have to travel with passports (or other allowed documents) to fly, everyone else has until 2020. https://www.dhs.gov/real-id-and-you-rumor-control
Yeah, Illinois did that too, inexplicably.
My friends climbed this mountain in the winter in the ice, while the rest of us did one of the nice baby White mountains nearby. Doing the baby mountain in my snowshoes was terrifying enough. I think about how wrong that could have gone very frequently.
From what my brother and father have said, the more dangerous and difficult mountains are Mt. Adams and Mt. Madison. Mt. Washington is relatively easy because it has a more gentle slope.
Coloneldad has climbed and camped there. In the snow. Uphill both ways. He’s still obnoxiously proud of it in an ‘ain’t no big thing sort of way.’ Dads.
💙💯⛏☃
“Why Mount Washington Kills”
I like that the answer is basically just a dis on Bostonians.
Off to read about people dying on mountains!
I’ve never done Mt Washington, by foot or otherwise, but I confess that I’m still a little dismissive of those bumper stickers that say “This Car Climbed Mt. Washington” . Good for you, car.
Have you seen the ones in Somerville that say “This Car Climbed Winter Hill”? I get a kick out of those.
hah, I haven’t, but I love it. That’s much more my speed, tbh.
Those are the best.
They have bike ones too! Both available at Magpie in Davis square… I don’t work for them, I was just there yesterday and saw both versions of the sticker!
LOVE Magpie. Just moved out of Davis though ;(
I am entirely dismissive of them. My car can go up hills too. That’s what cars are made for.
Yes. I am a lot dismissive of those. I like the ones that say “These BOOTS climbed Mt. Washington,” though.
Mt. Washington in the summer isn’t that impressive, tbh. Mt. Adams or any of the other presidential summits are much better, since you can’t drive to the top of them.
Mt. Washington in the fall/winter is every bit as scary from what I’ve heard as this suggests.
Honestly, it’s because especially years ago going up and down Mt Washington would destroy your brakes, so if you made it down without killing yourself and everyone ahead/behind you in a vehicular free-fall, you got a sticker.
It’s an interesting/challenging drive, though, and a good option for those of us who can’t physically climb a mountain but like a good view.
oh for sure! Being able to drive up the mountain is pretty cool, and I might actually do it one day, if I could get some friends to come along.
Just, personally, I wouldn’t buy a bumper sticker commemorating the time I drove somewhere? Plus I always seem to notice them on the back of sporty suburban-mom subarus, etc., so I don’t know. That probably futzes with my perception a bit.
Those Subarus probably not only climbed Mt. Washington, but did so off-road, magically without damaging the flora.
So, you don’t buy the bumper sticker, per se- you have to pay to drive up, and the sticker is included in the packet they give you. Or at least this is how it worked when I was up there a few years ago.
My mother drove me and my brother over 1:3 mountains in the Lake District in a Renault 5, for fun. We could see this was straining the car’s abilities, but it was a friend of hers doing it in a more substantial car that asked on a postcard “How did your little Renow even manage this?”
Yeah, in a way. The car has to be able to drive it in any kind of weather. I don’t consider the fact that my friend Clark and i drove up in his fancy German car and hit the summit in midsummer to be a particular event. But, I took a good look at those chains that keep that weather station there and said ‘never again’. We were very lucky people. The links of those chains are bored into granite and are large.
FUCK THOSE BUMPER STICKERS I get so irrationally angry at those. I had to haul my ass up and down that mountain twice at the ages of 11 and 13.
We got one when we drove up there (it was TERRIFYING, I do not understand why anyone would walk there) and we ended up sticking it on the cat carrier, so now I always read it as “This Cat Climbed Mt. Washington,” which is delightful if untrue.
Why people mountain cold snow? Dumb.
I found it really endearing/horrifying in Iceland how everyone I met kept pointing at things and earnestly reminding me to please not die.
“See that rope in front of the boiling ground water? That is because boiling water will hurt you. If you see boiling water and there is not a rope, do not touch it”
“See all those crevices? Sometimes they get filled with snow. Do not leave the path, because you will not be able to see the crevices, and you can fall in and die”
Usually followed with stories of people dying. It was said so sweetly and compassionately, but also with a great big do not screw this up for us, tourists, vibe.
One of my favorite things about my Iceland trip was getting the map from the rental car guy; it had about 80% of the island grayed out with big letters that said RENTAL CARS NOT ALLOWED IN THIS AREA.
the fun thing with geothermal water is that it doesn’t always look likes it’s boiling, it doesn’t really bubble. So if it’s a hot muggy day and you can’t really see the steam you might just think it’s warm.
I have been reading with horror the coverage of the Portland man who recently died by going offtrail in Yellowstone and falling into a hot spring. The recovery of his body was delayed for a while because of the conditions. . . and now they have called it off because “there is nothing to recover.”
Please stay on the trail, visitors. (Oh, and leave the bison babies where they are, thank you.)
There has been no follow up in our news–where did you find an update?
Apologies if you get this response twice; I tried to respond via e-mail but IntenseDebate doesn’t like me today, I guess.
Anyway — it was an update on our local news station’s website, but they appear to have pulled it from an AP report. I found it because I was specifically searching, though, because I hadn’t seen any updates on google news, etc.
That’s really weird because I am AT THIS MOMENT in the middle of a murder mystery involving a mysterious death-via-hot-spring. (Colour Scheme, by Ngaio Marsh.)
There….aren’t hot and muggy days in Iceland, though? I mean. I lived there for a couple years as a kid. The warmest it ever got was the low 60’s F.
Confession I haven’t actually been to Iceland. I was thinking of New Zealand, where it’s warm and muggy 90% of the time and people fall into pools in Rotorua. I guess if the water is super steamy don’t touch it?
We went on a tour of the south coast, and our tour guide’s guiding basically consisted of “If you go into the water here, the current will suck you out immediately and you will die!” “If you are renting a car, the volcano could suddenly erupt and you will be covered in dust and you will die!” “If you go here without a guide the glacier may collapse and you will die!” etc etc. I believe every word, Iceland is beautiful and terrifying.
Icelandics are an interesting bunch, as their entire history is filled with “and then lots of people died.” They got the plague after the rest of Europe did and that knocked off a bunch of people. Then Denmark had a trade monopoly for a couple of centuries and some people starved to death. Then in the 1870’s and 1880’s a couple of volcanoes erupted and killed off a quarter of the populartion. No wonder that from 1870 to the early 1900’s another quarter of the population left and settled in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
That scence in the reboot of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” when they’re trying to outrun the volcano in Iceland is one of my favorite parts.
There was a great New Yorker article a couple months ago about Iceland’s volunteer rescue corps. Ernest Icelandic citizens, spending their free time rescuing tourists from floods and tundra and mountains. As you do.
That article was so fascinating.
SO TRUE STORY I was in Iceland as a kid for a couple of years, 1989 to 1991, and one of the things I remember most about Gullfoss was the lack of fences. If you were gonna slip and die that was on you.
New England doesn’t screw around.
I’m perfectly happy with seeing Mt.Washington out my office window being the closest I get to it. No need to die to see a mountain. What are you even proving?
That you’re not very good at contingency planning.
I am so glad I live where an inch of snow brings the entire country to a grinding halt.
THIS IS MY HOME. I grew up in the White Mountains and my dad, brother, and uncle are all huge hikers. In particular, my uncle is a hiking author. I have so many stories!
My brother used to work at the top (not for the observatory, but for the state park).
My dad’s friend died during a spring landslide while skiing or hiking Tuckerman’s. My main memory of this friend was that he would come over and play Risk with my dad and I would sit on his foot and he walk around the house while I clutched his leg.
In the summers, we would take the Cog Railway up to the top because my dad’s friend would let us on for free. I always loved passing the scenes of disaster (I was and am a bit morbid) and would have my dad tell me the stories again and again.
It really is the most beautiful mountain up there. I love going up in the summer and the temperature just goes down so much and it feels great.
I truly had no idea that Mt. Washington was a killer mountain – both of my sisters and I climbed it with my dad when we were 9!
awww, the outing club at my college used to (and probably still does) portage a canoe up Mt. Washington every summer. I never did it though, alas.
Dartmouth fist-bump!
my boyfriend assisted the undergrads with that in 2010 and 2011 (he was in grad school) the Mt. Washington Portage is legendary! (I was also involved in Scuba Diving in the Lakes of the Clouds)
high five!
But… why? (I’ve portaged my share of canoes, but it was so that I could get in the canoe when I got to the next lake.)
Well, there IS a lake up there… 🙂
Well I guess that makes some sense then. I was picturing just, like summiting a mountain with a canoe, for no good reason.
My group once portaged all the makings of a turkey dinner through Algonquin, including the frozen turkey and the chicken wire and charcoal with which to construct an oven of sorts, so I know how these ridiculous things happen.
Sometimes Mallory you give me a spook how much we love the same things!
Even on this clear, calm day, with the forecast calling for it to remain the same overnight, Dupuis insisted we carry rain shells, base layers, down jackets, insulated gloves, a warm hat, and bring extra food and water. To avoid the ankle twisters, he also insisted on over-the-ankle boots. And, even in mid-may, much of the 4.2-mile hike remains covered in ice and snow. Microspikes were another essential he insisted we carry. I didn’t use mine, but there were probably a couple of places I should have.
I was going to joke about never trying to go up that mountain without a snowsuit like the kid in A Christmas Story had, but it looks like it’s no joke. It seems that there was another hiker lost on the mountain last month, when the temperature went from the mid-fifties during the day to -20 at night.
I went to elementary school on the MA/NH border, and I remember a guy who worked on the summit coming to talk to our class about the weather. What I liked most was that he had GHOST STORIES about the place! Something about arriving every morning to heavy furniture moved or flipped over, and the elevator malfunctioning at night.
Maybe it was the ghosts of unprepared hikers trying to warn them?
EDIT: I found an article about it; it’s called ‘The Presence,’ which is an excellently spooky understated New England name for a ghost. (http://guide.sportsmansguide.com/adventures/the-presence-on-mount-washington/)
Please enjoy this image of railway workers sliding down the side of Mt. Washington in the late 1800s:
These little rail seats were called “Devil’s Shingles” and allegedly reached speeds up to 70mph. They were banned after the world’s most inevitable fatal accident, but I’m very happy they existed long enough for this picture to be taken.
100% would ride.
oh my goddddddddddddddddddd
“world’s most inevitable fatal accident” – ha
I want a go!
My favorite line: “but it’s also easy to conclude that if someone is going to set out on a mountain notorious for its death-rate and extreme weather in flip flops, that they’d find a way to die elsewhere if this hike wasn’t available.”
Let’s just not legislate anything then b/c death comes for us all ¯_(ツ)_/¯
From what it sounds like upthread, NH has taken your motto to heart!
Lol, I just looked up thread, NH sounds ridiculous, guess that’s another place I’m never moving to!
We totally have. This is also the state where getting my LTCC (License to Carry Concealed) consisted of giving them 3 references they didn’t call and $10. (as compared to the 3 months, $250, 8 hour class, police interview, fingerprinting & photo on my laminated ID for MA)
I grew up living in MA and vacationing in NH, and now I live in NH. I love it, but JFC it’s not for the faint of heart sometimes.
Aww, my high school outdoor club did a winter ascent of Mt. Washington. Our leader/english teacher was amazing and let us jump into a not-quite-frozen-swimming hole after. Her dad at one time had the record for fastest ascent, because he worked at the top and was late for work, so he sprinted on up.
Gahhh wilderness disappearances and deaths is one of my favorite internet research topics but it’s also tooooo spooky. I could spend all day creeping myself out more and more reading about various wilderness accidents, murders, and mysteries.
I feel like “reading about creepy wilderness disappearances on the internet” is one of those ties that bind us Toasties together. (PS I’ll take any good links if you’ve got ’em) (PPS I’ll link some good disappearance-at-sea stories if you want, I found a bunch after mallory linked to the mysterious disappearances wikipedia page earlier this week)
Share some of your favourites with the class, please!
I’ll have to jog my memory and get back to you! You see, it turns into this mindless, morbidly curious binge until i overload my brain with scary stories…
I’m just saying.
I love you.
I also have that as a motivational poster, which a friend posted to facebook.
I think it’s long past time that a committee of concerned citizens assemble for the purpose of giving Mount Washington a more descriptive name. A NAME THAT WILL SAVE LIVES. I mean, probably half the states in the Union have a “Mount Washington.” Canada has a Mount Washington.
My point is that this is a name which engenders a deceptive sense of familiarity, with the inevitable accompanying contempt. What does the name suggest that a person might find at the summit of Mt. Washington? A scenic overlook; a gift shop; possibly an engraved historical plaque or monument. Probably not CERTAIN DEATH.
Therefore, I propose a Society to Rename Mt. Washington. Possibilities include:
Death Mountain
Mt. Dracula
Mt. Killeveryonejaro
Mt. Everestinpeace
Magmageddon
“The Reaper”
Mt. For God’s Sake Stay The Fuck Away
Granted, it’s possible that these sorts of names might attract a certain personality type, and thus function contrary to intent. Therefore, the Society should also consider names that are purely aversive in nature. Examples include:
Mt. Thorny Needle Burrs
Mt. Sulfrous Ground Vapor
Mt. Dullsville
Mt. Swarming Deer Ticks
Mt. Airborne Herpes
This made me laugh so hard and fast that my popcorn flew out of my mouth. “Mt Killeveryonejaro.” HA!
This is why I read The Toast!
Mt. Swarming Deer Ticks: A+++ aversion tactics
You are a genius and this made me laugh really hard.
Everestinpeace HA!
You’re superb
Maybe after this election we could change it in the theme of the presidential range, but to something truly repulsive: Mt Trump
Somehow “mount” and “Trump” make me immediately envision pigs rutting and then, immediately after that, experience a strong need to vomit.
NH represent! I have climbed Mt. Washington, up Tuckerman’s Ravine, no less! Even in the summer it was freezing at the top, and I totally understood how so many people had died of hart attacks/ strokes on the Mountain.
I’ve only been skiing once- and during that visit, the second time we went out it was like -10 Fahrenheit. I shuffled out of the little locker room and immediately froze in place, began to cry, and had to be pulled back into the warmth.
…Methinks this place is not for me.
I love that the building at the top is literally CHAINED to the ground. There is no modern architectural faffery sufficient to keep it from blowing off the top of the mountain. You expect that hut to survive biblical weather? Then you need to clap that thing in irons old-skool.
But there’s a cat up there! Seriously, read the proud history of Mount Washington’s resident cats. And you can arrange to have a slumber party overnight in the deserted observatory–that’s actually a thing. And there’s the Mount Washington road race! Seriously, there’s a lot that’s endearing about our fearsome mountain of death.
my summer camp had us climb mount washington and the reward was getting to eat clam chowder and fudge on the top. SO GREAT.
also we had this hike called insanity where you’d ridge walk 9 presidentials in one day including mount washington. the oldest you could be at this camp was like 14. WE WERE TOO SMALL FOR THIS.
the first time I climbed mount washington I cried the last two miles because I could see the summit but thanks to being above treeline it was SO FAR AWAY.
Wait this sounds remarkably like my summer camp. The fudge was definitely the highlight. And my nine-year-old self was SO MAD about those last two miles as well.
I do LOVE the Prezzies…worked up there as Hut Croo and a rescuer myself! Read “Not Without Peril” by Nick Howe for more stories of people getting killed up there…(it can be 95 in the valley and SNOWING on top…it’s like it’s TRYING to mess with people 🙂
I highly recommend driving up in your car! Barely any risk of dying at all. Plus cool gift shop at the top. Although we did have to have my mother lie down in the backseat with her eyes shut while we talked about how flat it was because she had a panic attack on the way down…
When I was in grad school, one of the students (a die-hard back country skiier) hiked Mt. Washington so he could ski down – on the 4th of July!!!
As I was riding in a car which was driving to the top of Mt. Washington a few years back, I discovered that I have an intense fear of riding in cars that are driving on the edges of mountains. I guess it's good to learn new things about yourself.
There are some great scenes based on Mt Washington in Julian May's Galactic Milieu series. After those, I would never have regard those mountains casually, and I live in the opposite hemisphere.
And there's a writer who should also be shifted more prominently to the top of "great women writers in SFF".
My family used to camp in the white mountains every year and often drove up Mount Washington (only drove though), sometimes dutifully listening to the informational cassette they gave you. We’d get out at various places along the way, take pictures, examine botany, and generally glory in the space and wind. It is one of my favorite places ever.
Years later, my South Western uncle hiked the Appellation trail, an impressive feat for anyone, and came back with a story of having gotten rid of all his warm gear long before he got to NH and hiking Mount Washington with, I think, a windbreaker. He only had to get that far into the story to get me cringing so so hard. Of course there was a thunderstorm or a freezing fog or I don’t even remember what, I’ve blocked it out, but whatever it was I was fearing for his life despite having him there at our kitchen table, months later and clearly alive. (And I was one of those kids who decided not to wear long sleeves or pants all through a NH winter–even with an outdoor gym class [which was awesome–only time I’ve ever been cool enough to enjoy gym].) It’s a beautiful beautiful place but it does not mess around. I felt simultaneously rather mad at him for not taking better precautions and mad at my self and all my family for not WARNING him.
Did anyone else ever moon the railway? I went to summer camp in NH and when I was 9 we hiked Mt. Washington and I remember the highlight of that trip being mooning the Cog (aka Smog) Railway as it passed us on its way up the mountain. I remember reading some article a few years ago about them cracking down on this activity recently though… shame.