Question!

[maxime]

Hi guys, I have a couple of question for you!

I wanted to go this week-end for climbing up the mount!

Here are my questions, do you know if anyone who are amputee of one leg did climb up the mount? Im in a pretty good shape if anyone needed to know... im a swimmer...

The other question is if I wanted to climb up the mount, can I use a bus or something to go down? What are the prices for it?

Also, which route you suggering me. I dont wanna have the most difficult one though.

Im from Montreal, so do i just need to drive there, park my car somewhere near the trail (at the beginning) and climb up?

THank you for answering my questions!

[Brad]

Welcome to the forum. Folks will ask a set of questions to try to help you the best we can. Let me start off with a few things.

When you say you want to climb a mountain, which one? Are you only considering Mount Washington? Or are you thinking other mountains to get started to see how this goes?

For someone with 2 good legs we would normally recommend working up to a Mt Washington hike - not starting with it. A swimmer should have good aerobic capacity. But, it probably does not prepare your leg for the workout it will get with hours of "climbing stairs".

For Mt Washington there are 3 ways of riding down - the Cog train is on the west side - the Auto Road is on the east side. You can ride down the road in an a van or have someone meet you at the summit and ride down in their car. BUT, one can not guarantee either the Cog will be running or the road will be open. They could not run that day due to weather or trees across the road or whatever. The recommendation from folks here will always be - do not go higher than you can get down on your own steam.

There are 2 key trails on the west side that can get to the summit - the Jewell is probably the less steep. Then you would have to depend on the Cog for getting down.

On the east side the "best" trail is the Tuckerman Ravine trail. However it goes directly up the Headwall. It is a challenge to anyone who has not hiked to get in shape. This is not an easy trail and again go no further up than you can handle going down too. Go at it in stages with a first attempt just working to get to Hermit Shelter (HoJo's). Then see how that goes and on another day get to the base of the Headwall. You will have to judge your own capabilities. But, do some searches here and you will see recommendations on equipment to take and food to have with you. This time of year there can be some beautiful days - but there are fewer people on the trail to help if you need it. And the weather can turn against you very quickly. The summit is already having morning temperatures below freezing and wind chills well below that. Be real careful as you think about this and check things out first.

[Addicted]

Keep in mind, this weekend is "Flags on the 48", which means that lots of people will be hiking all the 4000 footers, including Washington. It's also the last weekend for the huts, so I imagine the summits and trails will be crowded. Good for company, but probably bad for hopes of a ride back down (as more than one person will get up and not want to make the trip down). Good luck though!