According to the Mt. Washington Weather Archive, during the recent weeklong freeze, January 17th was going to be the best day to make a summit attempt. The daytime air temps were above freezing and the wind wasn’t expected to be too much to handle. As it turned out, in the 24-hour period of the 17th, the avg wind speed was 94 mph with a maximum gust of 145 mph. Glide’s resident outdoor enthusiast took that forecast as a personal invite to climb the world’s windiest spot.
The alarm went off that morning at 4:15 am. The supplies, packs,
water, and food were packed the night before, and now the day that we had spent the entire summer conditioning for was here with the sound of National
Public Radio waking the three of us. The objective that day, Saturday September 13, 2003, was Mount Washington.
