Mountain Journal "A Cold One"

1/20/92 4:38PM - What a weekend!! 32 below zero at summit w/ wind chill at
-103 and below. Winds were gusting well over 100MPH.
                 We left Bob's house at 7 Friday night. Had a good ride up
with a little heavy traffic on route 16. When we got to Pinkham Notch we got
out to check the snow depth because from the looks of things in Conway, we
may not be able to use the sleds. There was enough though, and I wanted to
head up a ways and sleep out. Bob thought it would be better to stay in the
truck, get a good nights rest and start early Saturday. I agreed so we
headed back a ways and slept in a turnout. The winds were ferocious, but we had
a pretty comfortable night at about zero degrees in the cap. Had a cup of coffee at Pinkham, and hit the trail about. 8AM Sat.. The main trail was icy so we used our crampons right from the start. Slow going though. We didn't pull into Hermit Lake till noon. By now the temp had gone from 4 above to 8 below, and the wind was whipping
light snow at 50MPH. We opted to stay in a 4 sided shelter with 4 other
guys, three of whom were in their sleeping bags at 2PM. I don't think they
were out of them more than 30 minutes total to cook and pee. Needless to
say we didn't get to know them very well. The guy next to us was a little
more active and seemed to be interested in photography. Well anyway, I
wasn't going into my bag yet, and talked Bob into heading up Lionhead. It
was a lot of fun, and kept me warm another 2 hours. Bob turned back with
sore hips, but I made it to the end of the trees, where the big winds
start. It took ice ax and crampons the whole way up, and I butt slid most
of the way down.
    When it came time to cook supper, I went out to get water. The ranger kept a spot on the stream open by constantly digging it out to expose the running water beneath. When I scooped up a pail it immediately started to freeze. By the time I got back to the shelter it was half frozen. That night we cooked up our chicken and veggies. It was great! Also kept us busy for a while. By 5PM no one had any desire to go
out, so it got pretty boring. After cleaning up from supper, I got into
my bag and puttered around awhile before finally settling down at 7PM.
It was so cold and windy out that no one wanted to go out to pee. There
were a few jokes about empty bottles and such. I went out about midnight
myself. Just couldn't hold it any longer. The wind blew so hard that night it seemed like the shelter would shake apart, and snow found it's way through the front wall and into the small breathing hole in my bivy sack. We weren't the only crazy people there. The ranger told us there were about 18 campers. I'd bet everyone of them asked themselves the same
question. I know our group of 6 did. "What are we doing here?"
    We all started to stir around 7AM Sun., and after some
half serious checking on everyone's' vital signs, all came to the same
conclusion. "Let's get off this iceberg!!" So by 8AM, Bob and I were ready
to head down without even considering a try for the summit. The wind was
still howling, and the temp. was about 10 below, having reached 20 below
inside our shelter that night. We knew there was no chance of getting past
Lionhead and no one was interested in trying even that. The sled ride down
went really well though. We both had good control and made some pretty
long runs. I guess we got down about 8:30AM Sunday. We didn't make it to
the summit this time, but it sure was an experience.