Baby, It's Cold Up There!
Mount Washington Sets Another Record
We’re staying atop Mount Washington today!
After yesterday’s story about Hugh Dunphy and his famous WW2 hike up to the Rock Pile, I noticed an announcement of yet another record taking place at the summit.
On Saturday, Jan. 11, the Mount Washington Observatory set a new national record for Wind Chill at a startling -108 degrees! In order to hit that record, the flat temperature was a mere -47 degrees and wind speed was up around 89 miles per hour, or roughly category 1 hurricane conditions.
Back in 2017 when I spent a week in April at the summit researching for my book, The White Mountain, I attempted to take a walk on the observation deck in approximately 80 mile an hour winds and well, that didn’t go very well. I recall waking up in the middle of the night on my first night there to the sound and sight of the kitchen ceiling panels fluttering and shaking, a common occurrence I was told as wind made its way into the vents.
Of early winter wind, Samuel Coleridge wrote:
Come, come thou bleak December wind,
And blow the dry leaves from the tree!
Flash, like a Love-thought, thro' me, Death
And take a Life that wearies me.
Those Romantics could be quite dreary about such things! But I get it. Some nights even walking the dog in the cold January night feels pretty bleak!
Anyway, it’s been a while since I was at the summit of Mount Washington, one of my happy places. Last year was spent summitting New York State mountains. I think I’ll put Mount Washington back on my list for this year. I think I need to get back up there, maybe with the whole family, maybe in the fall when it’s cool and the wind is steady.
Maybe not -108, but cool enough for my bones to understand where I am. Cool enough to feel it in my lungs.
Surly, all you Day By Dayers have stood at the summit of Mount Washington, right? If not, you must. Go in the summer. But bring a sweater.
I've hiked to the top a few times, done the cog once as a teen in the seventies, and rode in a private car once. The other 12 times were when I went up with the Obs crew on a Wed to do a volunteer week, I did ten 10 summer weeks and two winter weeks. Those were the best times because I experienced such a variety of weather actually living on the summit for 8 days. I've stood on top of the tower in 90mph winds, you're right, those are darn hard to stand up in! Love that mountain. One year I went up, someone had actually walked up with a camel on the auto road, beginning before sunrise. Imagine our surprise when we got to the top in the Obs van, disembarked, moved gear and groceries in and then saw a camel standing around on the summit. Crazy!
I've been there in the summer - I took the Cog, and my husband hiked with our daughter and 12 year old granddaughter. Cooler at the top, but shorts were still appropriate and I think I had a zip sweatshirt. Not bad at all.