Austere Conditions in the High Summits : The Presidential Traverse Hike

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In this video I get up at 2am to begin my ascent from the valley way trailhead 3500 feet up to the summit of Mt Madison. The presidential traverse is a 19-mile point to point hike covering 9 mountain summits above 4000 feet including Mt Washington which is known for the worst weather in the United States. My goal was to complete this hike in one day. I had researched the hike for weeks trying to find a good weather window where i would be able to hike the route safely but also have weather conducive for the amazing views the high summit areas are known for. Unfortunately, mother nature was not my friend, the forecast ended up being wrong, instead of sun and light winds, i had cold temps, on and off rain, winds sustained at 40 mph and above with gusts into the 70's, and the summits stayed in the clouds the entire time. While I missed out on the views, I feel very proud of myself for pushing through and accomplishing the task. I used the book times from the Appalachian Mountain Club White Mountain Guide as a guide/benchmark and adjusted based on my average hiking speed in similar terrain. based on that information I had planned my route based on being ahead of the book times which i was able to accomplish even in the bad weather. It was a crazy experience for which if i was not prepared physically, mentally and gear wise I feel i would not have finished. sorry for all the wind noise but there was really nothing i could do about it. thanks for watching, please consider giving me a like, leave a comment or ask a question and consider subscribing if you want to see more videos like this, just with better audio and better views!
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Опубликовано:

26 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 4

@tomkalitowski5522 10 месяцев назад

Amazing what you did to tough it out on that hike. You were wise to be prepared. Thanks for sharing.

@Plan2Hike 10 месяцев назад

Thanks it was definitely an experience. My biggest regret was that i missed all the views that i worked so hard to see because of the conditions. There were several times where i questioned what i was doing, i stopped to eat my lunch and had to lay down next to a rock outcropping just to get out of the wind so i could eat and while i was there starting to get cold because i stopped moving, I was like this is not the scenic spectacular vista and physical challenge I was expecting. Meaning it was supposed to be sunny warm with light wind and i got the opposite. It was an experience i will never forget and sometimes its the most difficult challenges that teach you the most!! Thanks for checking the video out

@DENVEROUTDOORMAN 11 месяцев назад

We got just as bad weather in Colorado

@Plan2Hike 11 месяцев назад

I know there is bad weather everywhere there is altitude in north America whether it be on the east coast, west coast or along the Canadian rockies, as i researched the weather along the presidential range specifically Mt Washington, what makes that area different is that it is a funnel for three weather highways that converge on that Mt. and when troughs dip into that region because of the elevation differences of the surounding peaks Thats why the winds are so extreme and the conditions so variable and unpredictable and in winter the temperatures so low. That Mt. has the highest recorded surface wind speed at 231 mph and this past winter broke the wind chill record at -108 degrees. With those values and the consistency of the bad weather conditions is I guess thats why it had the designation of having the worst weather in America and in some respects the world. Its winter conditions rival that of mount Everest so say the experts.