Mount Washington

On our NxNW Fall Color trip in October, the gang took a scenic ride on the Mt Washington Auto Road to the summit of Mt Washington. Mount Washington is part of the White Mountains Presidential Range in New Hampshire. The mountain is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288.2 ft and the most prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. The weather of Mount Washington is notoriously erratic. This is partly due to the convergence of several storm tracks, mainly from the Atlantic to the south, the Gulf region, and the Pacific Northwest. We were lucky, I heard an employee talking at the Summit saying how nice the weather was when we were there, apparently that does not happen often. It was in the low 30’s with wind gusts up to 50MPH when we were at the summit, still cold for me and the winds were brutal.  To give you an idea of the weather at the summit I checked as I was typing this and the weather at the Omni resort was 11 degrees F with a 30mph wind gust, at the summit it is -11 degrees F with wind gusts up to 71mph and a wind chill of -50 degrees F, that’s crazy! That’s why there is a scientific observatory located on the summit, manned year round. I thought I would share some different views both looking up at the Summit from the Omni and looking down from the Summit for some perspective.

The Omni and Mount Washington

Above is a shot of the sun cresting Mount Washington at sunrise, with the first rays kissing the Omni Mount Washinton Resort while I was freezing on the resort golf course, I did retrieve about a dozen golf balls on my morning hike. You can also see the summit of Mount Washington as the farthest peak to the right in the above photo, the observatory towers are visible at the top.  The Photo below is a look down from the summit at the Omni with one of the towers in view and a scientist working on the tower, a very different view and extremely different weather. The Omni is almost center frame from the right of the tower.

A Bit of Zoom from the Summit- Bretton Woods Ski Resort and The Omni Mount Washington Resort

Mount Washington once held the world record and still holds the Northern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere record for directly measured surface wind speed, at 231 mph (372 km/h), recorded on the afternoon of April 12, 1934. The sign on one of the buildings documents this crazy record. The Chains anchoring the roof is a telltale sign of the extreme weather at this great location.

Then there is just the beauty of the view on such a special day….

Thanks for Stopping!