Josh the Hiking Camel

The Story Of The First Dromedary To Climb Mount Washington

Josh the camel at the summit of Mount Washington in NH. Photo by Patti Chapell

Let us today return to a simpler time, a time when camels could receive awards from U.S. Senators for climbing mountains. More specifically, a camel named Josh and a Senator named Jean Shaheen and a mountain named Washington.

Let’s back up. Last week, we received an email and picture from our good friend and Day By Dayer Patti Chapell. Like myself, Patti is a veteran of the volunteer crew that works at the summit of Mount Washington assisting the Observatory Crew. Unlike myself, she’s done it, like a dozen times, so she knows what’s what when it comes to Mount Washington.

During one of her gigs a few years ago, the gang arrived at the summit to discover, much to their surprise and delight, that a camel named Josh had reached the summit. Patti thought the time period was July 2009, but didn’t know much else about the camel or his handlers.

Well, that’s when I leapt into action! How hard could it be to find info about a mountain climbing camel? Not hard at all, it turned out.

My first (and last) stop was Howie Wemyss, the long time manager of the Mount Washington Auto Road - the guy who knows everything about that famous 7.6 mile winding hard top that reaches the 6,288 foot summit. It took Howie about 30 seconds to get back to me with all the exciting details!

Josh the camel climbed to the summit with quite an entourage it turns out. Besides his handlers, Chris Butler and Jennifer Bolay, Josh walked up with two horses, named Kid and Mariah, and an Irish wolfhound named Tadhg.

Howie let them use the auto road before it opened for the day, so the team headed up at 3 a.m. Apparently July 8 was a misty and rainy day, but the crew made good time until the final 100 yards. Unaware that the summit was so close, Kid decided he no longer wanted to climb. Josh refused to go anywhere without his buddy.

It took quite a bit of cajoling, but the handlers finally got the whole team up after a 45 minute delay. They reached the summit about 8:30 a.m. and just about exactly the time that Patti and her own crew arrived by shuttle for their week long stay, which gave her a chance to snap a couple pictures.

According to the observatory blog, Josh was interviewed and asked about the hike, to which he replied, “Chomp, chomp, chomp.” Apparently, he worked up quite an appetite.

Josh spent most of the day on the summit posing for pictures. Howie said he was the first camel to reach the summit. He also met Marty the summit cat mascot and received a This Camel Climbed Mt. Washington bumper sticker

Marty the summit cat meets Josh the Camel. Mount Washington Observatory photo by Cara Rudi

As for Sen. Shaheen, about a month later, Josh received a Certificate of Appreciation from her commemorating his feat. The certificate reads - In appreciation of your hard work and dedication, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen presents this certificate to Josh the Camel on being the first dromedary to scale Mount Washington.

And yes I had to look up dromedary. Apparently that’s a camel with one hump, instead of two, which is called a bactrian.

Sidenote: Josh made his climb on a Wednesday. Get it?

Finally, we’ll conclude with a short YouTube video of the event, filmed by then Union Leader correspondent Lorna Colquhoun. Hope you enjoyed hearing about Josh’s big adventure!

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