Went out on July 1st looking to link up an ascent of Mount Washington from the Pinkham notch side with an ascent of Mount Washington from the Ammonoosuc Ravine side and establish a new FKT route for what I thought would be a classic menu of amazing trails in the presidentials! I couldn’t have asked for better weather with beautiful sunny conditions on the way up and some much needed shade on the way back down from summiting the mountain the second time.
I started out in Pinkham around 9 and power hiked and jogged to the summit in around an hour and a half, (i think my segment time was 1:32). I ended up having a bit of water left so jogged it down to lakes of the clouds where I filled up and also signed the guestbook with a timing of right around two hours departing from lakes down the Ammonoosuc Ravine trail. I passed a bunch of backpackers on the way down and towards the bottom of the ravine caught a root with my toe and took a sliding spill in front of some horrified hikers. Made it to cog base where I made sure to tag one of the tractors they have on display as the turnaround point. I still had half a liter of water so didn’t fill up, power hiked back up to lakes of the clouds where I filled up again, signed the guest book the second time and had a snickers bar. I left lakes at the four ish hour mark to return to the summit. Cramps stopped me for a few minutes as I was approaching the TV building and I sat punching my quads to stop them before continuing to the summit and taking the worst selfie imaginable. I downed the rest of my water and a Maurtens gel and refilled at the bottle station before heading back down the Lion’s Head trail. I was running late to pick up my gf at Logan so I jogged it down as much as possible but I was pretty wrecked after the effort so pace was slow.
Made it back to the car around 3 and picked up Kate roughly on time so the day was an overall success!