Boys' Night Out

Here was the plan.

Hike into the Great Gulf, camp out, climb up the Great Gulf to the summit of Mt. Washington (NH), slap on the boards & ski down the auto road (~ 6 mile run), then a pint of the good stuff.

Saturday morning: it's real cold.

Mistake no. 1: we have no snowshoes or skins for the boards (we were young & poor).

Lots of snow on the trail. We don't make it to the Great Gulf. We set up the tent along the trail and get into our sleeping bags.

Sunday morning : very cold. The thermometer says - 40 F. Plus the winds are gusting up to 100+ mph.

Mistake no. 2: we head towards the summit/auto road via a steep & seldom used trail (hey, we were young & dumb).

So here how the day goes: walk 5 feet, then sink up to your waist; walk 5 more feet, then get knock down by a 100+ mph gust of wind.

It's now 4 pm. We are still way below the auto road. Decision time - keep going or bivy out.

4:01 pm: We are digging into a snow drift.

The local news station reports that tonight will be a rough one. Our lady friends are worried since we were supposed to home hours ago.

Monday morning: it's a bit warming & no wind. We pack up and make it to the auto road by noon time. The boards are on & pointed down hill. About 2 hours later, 3 of us are eating 2 large pizza pies.

Traveling lighter and snowshoes would have been key.