Lots of Climbing!

Its been awhile since our last post and we have been super busy! We have put 15 more people on the summit of Mt. Washington! Instead of posting about each climb individually, I am going to summarize the past two weekends.
On Friday Feb 17th, we had pretty crummy weather. The group made it halfway between treeline and Lions Head before wisely calling it a day due to high winds and limited visibility. Sunday Feb 19th was forecasted to be clear and sunny with mild winds. It started that way, but by the time we got to Lions Head, we were socked in with about 300ft visibilty. We pressed on, placing wands along the route to follow on the way down. We made the summit in 45mph winds and about 50ft visibilty on the summit. The group got hit with some higher gusts while on top and the temp was low enough to frostnip one climbers nose. We warmed it up with a bare hand and had no more incidents. The wands proved to be an important item in the pack as we followed them back to Lions Head where visibility came back a little. 7 climbers made the summit on Feb 19th. The following day, we were back at it with a new group. Despite cloudy conditions and 45mph winds, we made the summit WITH ALL 8 CLIMBERS! Awesome job guys and girls! Its always really fulfilling getting everyone to the top. We spent all of about 45 seconds at the summit sign before retreating back to the Adams summit building.
The following weekend on Feb 25th, Mt. Washington was not happy about our previous weekend success and delivered the worst weather we have seen guiding this winter. Saturday was cloudy, snowing hard, and maintained a 45-50mph wind just above treeline. I’m almost positive not a single sole made it to the summit as we saw group after group returning from 100ft past treeline with their tails between their legs. When the wind blew the fresh snow the climber ahead of you nearly disappeared. True Mt. Washington conditions. Despite only making it about 1/3 of the way between treeline and Lions Head, we got to experience some awesome weather and get some great video. Saturday’s wind continued into Sunday and increased by about 10mph. The snow and clouds disappeared and we were greeted by 140 mile visibility. Despite the high winds, we made it to Lions Head before deciding to spin it around. Two brave souls continued across the Alpine Garden with Brett to get into 60-70mph winds before following us down. Mt Washington wins this round.
All in all it has been a great couple of weekends with a lot of climbers and many newcomers to the sport. We are super happy they chose us to climb with and hope they return soon! Enjoy the photos!