Mt. Washington Post #2

Hi and welcome back!

Reading Camp Presentation

Before I get to my Mt. Washington climb, I want to tell you about a presentation I did two weeks ago.  I was invited to speak at a nearby town's elementary school reading camp!

I put together a slide show of pictures from my year in the tent and my Royal Arches climb, and also the Royal Arches video. I also set up our family's L.L. Bean tent that I spent the last few weeks of 2013 in.

It was a lot of fun, and I want to thank Ms. Robins for inviting me to give the presentation!

Now on to my Mt. Washington climb.

My dad and I started at Pinkham Notch Visitors Center at about 9:45 a.m.  For over half of the 4.2 mile ascent, we were climbing a pretty steep, REALLY rocky trail.  It was pretty hard on our knees.

After that, we took a turn where the Lion’s Head trail comes off the Tuckerman Ravine trail.  From there it was scrambling in fairly thick woods.  That led us above treeline.

Next we started climbing up Lion’s Head, which helps form the Tuckerman Ravine.  We then descended a tiny bit from Lion’s Head and spent about an hour scrambling in the open up to the summit!  It was just about four hours to the top.

We took a few pictures at the summit sign, then went into the visitors’ center and got lunch.

We descended the Tuckerman Ravine trail, which actually goes down into the ravine, then connects with the main, steep, rocky trail.

We started the descent on the same scramble we had just climbed up (the Lion’s Head and Tuckerman Ravine trails are the same there).  Then we continued into the ravine.  It was VERY steep, and we had to switch back down the trail, which was only about 6 feet wide in places.

Part of the way down the ravine, we ran into some snow that was at about 5,000’.  Meltwater had hollowed the snowfield out underneath, and there were caves that were big enough to crawl into (although that would have been dangerous).

From there we continued down onto the rocky trail again, which took us back to the visitors’ center at Pinkham Notch.  It was just about 8 hours round trip, and REALLY tiring.

I think our next high point will be New Jersey, but first we’re hoping to do some climbing outside!

Thanks for reading!