A mountain barely over 6,000 feet hardly deserves the same respect as the 20,000-footers in the Patagonian Andes, yet people die from exposure on the slopes of New Hampshire’s Mt. Washington every year. Easy access invites complacency and a tendency to ignore trailside warnings advising retreat if you’re unprepared for bad weather. But do respect the facts of nature: Simply put, the Presidential Range of the White Mountains experiences some of the worst weather in the world, rivaling both Antarctica and the Alaska-Yukon ranges for consistently raw and bone-numbing combinations of gale-force winds, freezing temperatures, and precipitation. Lashings by 100-mph winds occur year-round on Mt. Washington, whose summit holds the title for highest sustained wind speed on the face of the planet (231 mph in April 1934). Cloudy days outnumber clear ones on the peak, where snowstorms can strike any month of the year, and even in the balmiest summer months the average high temperature at the summit hovers around 50°F. Compounding the weather’s potential severity is its total unpredictability: A day hike begun with sunblock and short sleeves can end up in driving rain and temperatures just 10 degrees above freezing, or worse, in a total whiteout above tree line, even as a group of hikers a couple miles away on a neighboring peak enjoys lunch under blue skies and warm breezes.
The bottom line is, listen to what your mother always told you: Be careful, and don’t take chances. Learn to recognize and prevent hypothermia. Figure out how to read your trail maps and compass before you get caught in pelting sleet above tree line. Better to feel foolish packing potentially unnecessary wool sweaters and rain gear for a hike in July than to have your name added to the body count.
