One of the benefits of working where I do is that I get to take kids out into the Wilderness, and make them do things they wouldn't normally do. Participation is not compulsory, so there are small groups (two in this case) which makes it interesting. This trip was up to Mt. Washington. The forecast for Wednesday (our hiking day) the day before our hike was "wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour, wind chill of -15 and sunny all day. Sounds good. When we got to the visitor center, the forecast had changed a bit. (gusts up to 75 mph, wind chill of -45 increasing clouds after noon) Not so good.
Nick, our gracious guide, checks the weather forecast.
We set out anyway, hoping for a summit, but excited just to be out in some "adverse conditions" and playing on the snow with pointy things in our hands and on our feet. The kids really enjoyed practicing self arrest technique, as I was hoping beyond hope that they would not have to employ that practice on the hike.
We headed up into winds increasing from a dull, overhead roar, to full on, rig up the sails and hang on gusts that we had to lean into in order to stay upright. One of the students was from Brazil, and He was rather excited to be experiencing something so new and gnarly.
Here he is leaning into wind as he hikes up
We made it to the summit of Lion's Head, a small knob about three quarters of the way up to the summit. The wind was howling, and the kids were fading, so decided to turn around. The kids had a great time, even if they didn't start talking until we were down below treeline and headed back to the car. I even found the time to ride the rollers for an hour when we got home, and today I was able to ride outside for an hour and 45 minutes. I have to get everything in now before I leave for Yurp on Saturday.
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