Even Better Weather on Mt. Washington!

On December 3rd we climbed Mt. Washington again. This time with our friend Rich, who had never been to the top of New England. Yet again we got the best day of the week (maybe the month). I know our last climb was titled “Perfect Weather”, but I can now say that this climb was “Perfect Weather”. We had balmy temperatures, sun the entire climb, and zero wind. Even at the top of Lions Head, there was not a breathe of wind.
We got started up Tucks trail at 8AM and arrived at the Lions Head junction by 10AM. Tucks trail was mostly snow covered rocks (caused by the slight dusting we got the night before) with ice in the low spots. Mainly rock hopping to the junction. Lions Head up to treeline was more of the same, but slightly less ice. Above treeline, we found hardly any ice and a little bit of snow. Mostly summer conditions. We actually took our second break of the day on top of Lions Head Proper, which is typically impossible due to the high winds that are almost always present there. The traverse between Lions Head and the summit cone was quite wet and icy, but easy going. The summit cone had very little ice or snow on it at all.. again summer conditions. We spent about 30 minutes on the summit and Rich logged his first ascent into the history books (great job Rich!). We took our standard hero shots next to the summit sign, ate pringles, and headed down. We thought we would increase our sightseeing and take Tuckermans Ravine Trail down, as many people that day had come up it. We found the trail to be extremely icy. We mostly had to walk along the side of the trail, as the trail itself was a frozen waterfall. Although it proved to be a great change of scenery, we found it to be very slow going as each step took care and proper placement. I would recommend a Lions Head ascent and descent at this point. Crampons are recommended for Tuckermans. We finished the jaunt down the ski trail in the dark. We couldn’t have asked for a better day to summit Mt. Washington!