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micahmcguire
Feb 3, 2004, 3:45 AM
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"steepest established and maintained trail in the world." Isn't that kinda like saying "the stongest non-alcoholic beer ever?"
any mountain you can drive to the top of doesn't seem quite right
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chugach001
Feb 3, 2004, 3:59 AM
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Oh my, even I have to hop in and call some smelly BS when I see it...
In reply to: , but it is no less ferocious than Denali. Mt. Washington is no joke. _________________ Craggin' Cragin
Geez, you must have has a sweet weather window on your Denali trip! I've been on Washington in winter but am such a wuss I waited until june to freeze my a** off on Denali. Also, I found the air a bit thinner on Denali, how about you?
In reply to: Rainier has lovely weather compared to Washington's average.
Well I did attempt Rainier in winter. It took us five days just to get to the trailhead due to about 10' of new snow clogging the roads. Having lived in New Enland, I don't remember many ten-foot dumps - did I miss something? We got knocked around just trying to reach Camp Muir, holed up in a cave for the night and skied out the next morning in a blowing whiteout. Ok, I'm not Mt. Washington material, I admit it.
I guess only God is to thank for providing me with nice weather everytime I've visited the Whites. Perhaps, he shined on you equally during your Denali and Rainier summits?
Look, I'm into hyperbole as much as the next guy but, please show some self restraint. It's not like they were dissing your mother, just a windy mountain.
Cheers,
Jeff
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harrisha
Feb 3, 2004, 1:32 PM
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the trail rises between 400-500 ft. in .3 mile at one specific point and the rest is going up the ravine and pretty darn steep.
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micahmcguire
Feb 3, 2004, 5:14 PM
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bwahahahaha, except that on washington you don't have glacier travel to worry about. on washington you can drive, well, to the summit (muffling the laughter roaring within). on washington you don't need to pack for three weeks. on washington its very difficult to find a crevasse to fall into. on waashington you don't have to ascend over 13000 feet. and what I think takes the cake is the fact that washington is an appalachian, and hence was probably cool about 250 million years ago but has been rounded and eroded into a hill.
today it is decidedly a windy hiccup. wear a windbreaker. windchill is a joke if you wear the right clothing. its just a relative measurement that people invented to make the cold sound scarier. when you wear a good shell layer, the wind-chill is always null. this is not to say that stupid people can't die on an easy hill due to general unpreparedness. Hell, people here in Alaska die on the side of the road all the time for the same reason. Car broke down, have to hike for help, not enough clothing...
One of the hot spots for deaths here in Alaska is a short waterfall called Thunderbird Falls. Stupid people try to climb around them because they don't realize the falls are slippery and the rock is loose. Does it demand as much respect as Denali? I would have to say no.
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edge
Feb 3, 2004, 6:10 PM
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In reply to: Cockly little bastard, eh? Have you ever been on Mt. Washington?
Obviously he's using the size of Denali to compensate for some personal shortcomings... :roll:
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deleted
Deleted
Feb 3, 2004, 7:18 PM
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(geez, loran ... the wind's blowin' a lot harder in this thread than it [i:4b9fbcb320]ever[/i:4b9fbcb320] did on mount washington, wouldn't you say? :lol: how the hell are ya'?)
to the naysayers: speaking as a coloradan who gets up fourteeners [i:4b9fbcb320]several[/i:4b9fbcb320] time a week, winter or summer; who has [i:4b9fbcb320]been[/i:4b9fbcb320] on denali multiple times; and who has [i:4b9fbcb320]been[/i:4b9fbcb320] on everest (going again as expedition leader/lead climber, spring '05; www.everest-expeditions.com) ... please allow me to chime in here.
there really is no one mountain more "killer" than another. there are, however, stupid people who do stupid things at the most inopportune times, and get reaped as a result. if you are not prepared -- physically, mentally, or lack the proper equipment and experience -- you will eventually be skimmed from the gene pool. perhaps not tomorrow ... perhaps not in the next decade ... but, keep rollin' them bones of fate and playin' them odds and eventually you will fall throught the cracks of the old "god looks after those who cannot look after themselves" thing. after all, if the likes of greg lowe, mugs stump and john harlin can die in the mountains, don't you think regular people can, too?
stupid people die on all kinds of mountains -- whether they be in the rockies, sierras, alaska range, appalachians, whites, andes or himalayas.
to the experienced mountaineer, mount washington (or any mountain) can be a walk in the park ... or a fight for life itself. throw an inexperienced, ill-prepared noob into the same situation, and it can be the last breath they'll ever draw.
on mount washington, i myself have experienced a 4th of july snowstorm while eating lunch at the summit; avalanches in the ravines; and an unexpected 3-day tent-bound episode outside the observatory, complete with -80 degree windchill, tent-leveling winds and the constant pummelling from ice chunks breaking off the instrumentation tower.
many times in my guiding business, as i've quizzed potential clients about their experience, the ones from the northeast have apologized, offering outings in the presidential range as their magnums opus. i've always told those folks to hold their heads high next time they talk about those experiences. a bad day in the whites is a bad day indeed.
you people need to cease yer pissin' contest and wake up.
but back to mount washington: you don't have to believe [i:4b9fbcb320]this[/i:4b9fbcb320] old blowhard. call rick wilcox, brad white, marc chauvin or uwe schneider -- all members of mountain rescue service, and all consumate mountaineers who have been to the great ranges of the world -- and ask [i:4b9fbcb320]them[/i:4b9fbcb320] about that little hill. :wink:
carry on.
geo
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edge
Feb 3, 2004, 7:33 PM
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Thanks, Geo, for what should surely be the last word in this thread (my own excepted).
I'm not bad, by the way, thanks for askin'.
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micahmcguire
Feb 3, 2004, 8:29 PM
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Alright, if it makes you feel any better, be proud of your east-coast bump. I guess its the best you've got to work with. I'm just glad to be nestled in the Chugach.
and mtngeo is definitly right. the difficulty of a place changes with the conditions and the person. I'd rather be in the Death Funnel on Baleful Peak in the Chugach after a heavy snow than on Mt. Washington in 230 mph winds.
You know what makes an even more dangerous hike than that? Any highway during rush hour. But you'd feel pretty silly comparing that to Mt. Washington wouldn't you? That's what "Mt. Washington demands as much respect as Denali or Everest" souds like to me. In that sense, doesn't everything, provided the conditions are crappy enough, "demand as much respect as Denali or Everest?"
The Chugach just lost a great climber and a valuable avalanche researcher named Jeff Nissman. This summer he fought a bear for an hour with a stick and won (by which I mean he didn't get eaten), he climbed on Denali and many other mountains in the area, and he operated Chugach National Forest's avalanche website. He died because a slab of ice fell from his roof and struck him as he was leaving his Girdwood home. I guess his front door "demanded as much respect as Denali or Everest." I suppose everything does. If you're at the wrong place at the wrong time and are ill-equipped to handle the circumstances you find yourself in, you are in "the most dangerous place in the world"-for you.
The wind and weather on Mt. Washington is pretty gnarly. That doesn't put it up there with Denali or Everest. Seems like as many people die on Flattop (the bump near Anchorage that everyone climbs) as on the Great One. That doesn't make it as dangerous overall. It makes it dangerous for the stupid person who wanders into in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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climbforchrist
Feb 5, 2004, 12:46 AM
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Craggincragin posted:
But are 10' drifts the "average"? One word: snowshoes Without out them, you'll catch "my drift". Mt. Washington receives an average of 256 inches of snow annually. In the winter of 1968-69, it received 566.4 inches. And not all of it packs down, so snowshoes are a necessity for the approach.
Uh dude in case u didnt know this, Mt rainier, and many other mountains in the coast range of BC and Washington get some of the most snow in the world. try 1000 inches over your measly 256 inch average! just setting the facts straight. I believe it was a few years ago that Mt baker set the world record of over a 1000 inches in a season.
Ok we all know mt washington kills, being anywhere outdoors can kill you if your not prepared. In that regard Mt Washington deserves its props!
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treeman
Feb 16, 2004, 9:17 PM
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yes, its doable i was up there last tuesday. but you have to watch the weather. you can't just say lets go on sat or sun since your off from work. you must pic your day. i was up there for a week so we watched the weather and decided on our attempt that way. if the weather was real bad we would not have even tried. we did it car to car in 6 hours. get an early start and if things look bad turn back, it's not going any where.
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