Hiking 7/11/2009 Mt Washington

The first known ascent of the 6288' mountain Agiocochook (later named Mount Washington) was made in 1642 by Darby Field. In the years to follow, few had dared to brave the climb. It wasn't until 210 years later in 1852 that the first summit house was built, one year before the construction of Tip Top House which stands today. Shortly thereafter, the Carriage Road and Cog Railway were completed on opposite sides of the mountain. Both were unprecedented feats of engineering marvel, and made New England's highest peak readily accessible to visitors of all ages. The mountain's popularity increased, and many structures were built on the summit, which soon became known as the 'City Among the Clouds'.

As the years rolled by, buildings went up and came down. In fact, all of them save Tip Top House burned to the ground in a great fire on June 18, 1908.  Even then, it was only 11 days till that building was again functional! In 1932, four men pioneered the Mount Washington Observatory, which has since kept a daily record of the summit's ever-changing weather. On April 12, 1934, the scientists recorded a wind gust of 231 MPH, the highest wind speed ever observed on the surface of the earth.

The hike was awesome! We hiked up the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail to the Lake of the Clouds Hut. Then proceeded on the Crawford Path to the summit. After a short stay we proceeded down the Crawford Path to GulfSide Trail to the Jewell Trail, which took us down to the Base Road.

-]]  Howie, thanks for the link for the hiking details via Trimble [[- 

I was able to calculate that we were at the pit-stop areas for just about 2 hours total between the Hut and the top of Mt Washington.  The graph gives the time in seconds, with that I was able to calculate the following:  the trip up took about about 3 and 41 minutes (this includes a 34 minute break at the Hut);  we had about 1.5 hours at the top for lunch and site seeing; the trip down took us 2 hrs and 41 minutes.    The duration of the trip was 7 hours and 49 minutes. ~Joe