The following article appeared in the 2019 Accidents in North American Mountaineering journal and is reproduced here with permission from the author and the American Alpine Club.
By Dougald MacDonald
At just 6,288 feet above sea level, Mt. Washington, the high point of the northeastern United States, packs a very serious mountain into a diminutive package. Home of the so-called “worst weather in the world,” Mt. Washington clocked a wind speed of 231 mph in 1934, and hurricane-force gusts (greater than 74 mph) are observed at the summit more than 100 days a year, on average. The summit observatory has recorded temperatures as low as -50°F (-46°C), and an estimated wind chill of -102°F was recorded in January 2004.
Rising at the intersection of major storm tracks and forming a prominent barrier to winds from the west, Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range also receive heavy precipitation. Each season averages 280 inches of snow, and wind-blown snow can pile up to depths of 10 to 40 feet in the east-facing ravines. Yet warmer temperatures can also be a problem, as freezing rain and fog—prime hypothermia conditions—are frequently encountered.
Despite the weather, Mt. Washington draws thousands of adventurers every year for hiking, ski mountaineering, and ice climbing. The access is easy—just 2.5 miles of hiking or skinning from the Joe Dodge Lodge at Pinkham Notch bring you to tree line—and naturally some people get into trouble. According to the Mount Washington Avalanche Center, every year an average of 25 people require rescue assistance on the mountain. Nearly 150 people have died.
This article examines where and why climbing and skiing accidents occur on Mt. Washington and suggests a few steps to prevent them. Although some of these situations are unique to the Presidential Range, many of the lessons apply to mountains throughout North America. Our focus is on technical climbing (mostly in winter) and skiing, primarily in the dramatic bowls and chutes on the east side of the mountain. Ski activity peaks in the spring season and is centered on Tuckerman Ravine, known as the “birthplace of extreme skiing” in North America. Ice climbing is mostly in Huntington Ravine, to the north of Tuckerman, where multi-pitch gullies draw hundreds each winter.
We looked into the archives of both the Mount Washington Avalanche Center (MWAC) and Accidents in North American Climbing (ANAC). We reviewed 152 MWAC reports, from June 2019 back to the beginning of 1998. We also looked at 38 reports published in ANAC between 1978 and 2018. No accidents were duplicated in the various statistics presented in this article. However, each person injured or involved in a given accident was counted, so one report could generate multiple “incidents.” For this article, we only considered incidents that occurred at or above tree line, which is approximately 4,400 feet above sea level, just above the base of the great bowls on the east face. Some hiking also was examined. Normally, ANAC does not cover hiking incidents, but on Mt. Washington in the winter months, nearly all travel above tree line can be considered winter mountaineering.