Bill Doyle Conquers Mt. Washington

The observatory on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire

With winds sustained at 70 miles per hour and the temperature hovering at a balmy +10 degrees Fahrenheit, the intrepid Bill Doyle, husband of Diana Fieg Doyle, recently enjoyed a two-day visit to the top of the highest mountain peak in the northeast United States.

Last fall, Diana and Bill had driven up to the observatory at the summit of Mt.Washington in New Hampshire where they went so far as to become members.  The brochure they received listed several trips and classes available and one called Winter Mountain Essentials (aka Mountaineering "What If?") appealed to Bill and so he registered to participate.

He arrived on Friday Jan. 3 at the Crummy Inn in North Conway, N.H. (a motel secured by his travel-agent wife who didn't really care about the accommodations as she didn't have to stay there and anyway, he was roughing it, wasn't he?) at about 4:00 in the afternoon, in time to rent mountain-climbing boots and crampons, which are too expensive to own outright (unless you are a St. Bernard dog whose livelihood depends upon that sort of equipment).

The party met Saturday at 8:00 in the morning at the base of Mt. Washington and, the roads being blocked with snow, took a Sno-Cat 6,288 feet up to the observatory where they were to spend the night, take the class and then, the next morning, practice the skills they had learned.  Usually very stoic, Bill (or maybe it was his spine?) had to let out a slight scream at one point as the Sno-Cat went over a particularly jarring bump in the road.

As the temperature in North Conway was -10 degrees on Friday night, Bill and his fellow mountaineers were pleased with the "warmer" conditions at the peak on Saturday when they arrived.  In fact, that night Bill found it too hot in the bunk room so he went to the lounge with the observatory cat, Marty, to sleep.

This crew not only had good luck with the outdoor temperature but also with the unusually clear weather.  Bill reports that the views of both sunrise and sunset were spectacular, and that, to the east, they could see all the way to the Atlantic Ocean and, to the west, all the way to Mt. Marcy, the highest peak in New York State.

Bill Doyle is the second person from the right.

On various forays from the observatory on Saturday the attendees were drilled in ice ax use, walking with crampons and building a snow cave, and they practiced self-arresting (how to prevent a fall) and how to walk in 70 mph winds.  There were a few women among the group, one of whom almost blew off the mountain, according to Bill, and she did not come out of the observatory again after that.

Right off the bat, Bill liked the leader of the expedition, a mountaineer named Joe Lentini, who has been a professional climbing guide for over 45 years, according to his website www.climbwithJoe.com. 

On Sunday the party walked part way down the mountain to the Sno-Cat and Bill arrived back at the Crummy Inn for one night and then back home to Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y.  The first weekend in February will find Bill again at the observatory to learn about the weather station there.