Randi Minetor - Death on Mount Washington: Stories of Accidents and Foolhardiness on the Northeasts Highest Peak

Death on Mount Washington

Stories of Accidents and Foolhardiness on the Northeasts Highest Peak

Randi Minetor

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

ISBN 978-1-4930-3207-5 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4930-3377-5 (e-book)

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Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Acknowledgments

Intensive research projects like this one can be solitary, but the process of bringing a book to fruition is always the effort of a creative and production collective. Id like to take a moment to thank the people who come along for this adventure, on both the professional and the personal sides of my author career.

At Lyons Press, senior editor Holly Rubino assembles a terrific team for every project. This one includes editor Sarah Parke, production editor Alex Bordelon, copy editor Kristen Mellitt, proofreader Roberta Monaco, and graphic artist Wanda Ditch.

Given this books subject matter, I call and email a lot of people for bits of informationand a lot of people do not respond. Thats why Im very grateful to Maryalice Perrin-Mohr, archivist at the New England Conservatory, and Brendan Higgins, archivist at the Boston Conservatory, for helping me track down information about the career of still-missing Ewald Weiss. Becky Fullerton, archivist for the Appalachian Mountain Club, found for me the 1901 report by club leadership about the deaths of Allan Ormsbee and William Curtis. Krissy Fraser at the Mount Washington Observatory provided me with names and contact information for a number of folks throughout the mountains various resources.

My brilliant agent, Regina Ryan, made the connections that got me into this unusual series on deaths in Americas most visited parks, for which she has my undying (pardon the pun) gratitude. She also keeps my career on track with her thoroughness, her technical expertise, and her sage advice.

To my wonderful husband, Nic Minetor, and our cadre of friendsmost notably Ken Horowitz, Rose-Anne Moore, Martha and Peter Schermerhorn, Ruth Watson and John King, and Martin WinerI truly cant say enough about your support for my efforts, and your willingness to participate in dinner conversation that begins, Well, you wont believe what happened to this person...

And to the readers who continue to pick up these books: Thank you for reading, for your Amazon and Goodread reviews, and for your fascination with this fairly twisted subject matter. If just one of you thinks twice before making a solo trek in bad weather, climbing an ice wall when the avalanche threat is High, or taking on a tougher hike than you can realistically handle, then I have done my job.

Preface

Theres no kind way to say this, so here it is: Death on Mount Washington tells the stories of people who went to the tallest of New Hampshires White Mountains to have the time of their lives, and did not live to return home.

Since the mountain recorded its first known loss of life in 1849, it has claimed 150 victims, a number of whom met their end by overestimating their own ability to withstand subzero temperatures and hurricane force winds. Many of these people perished by falling from narrow cliffside trails, losing their balance on steep ski slopes, and succumbing to avalanches. Others took on more than their vascular or pulmonary systems could stand, and a few met sheer bad luck by standing under a falling object.

I know that many readers of books in what is known as the Death series enjoy a little quiet schadenfreude that they themselves came home safely, while others did not. Let me say that I do not write these books (including my two earlier volumes, Death in Glacier National Park and Death in Zion National Park ) to ridicule the actions that resulted in disastrous ends to vacations or bucket-list trips. Instead, I hope that these stories serve as cautionary tales that make readers think twice about the way they approach their own outdoor adventuresand that my readers all take the necessary precautions to stay safe.

In researching these stories, I have plumbed newspaper archives, state park records, historical accounts, books, Library of Congress photographs, YouTube videos, personal interviews, and other resources to bring you the facts in as journalistic a manner as possible. My goal is to provide you with the information you need to draw your own conclusions about what these people should or should not have done before a final step led them to a bad end. If this book helps you avoid making the same fatal mistake, then I have accomplished my goal.

As thorough as I have sought to be, however, some details never came to light. If you find as you read this that theres something I missed, or that you have information that did not surface for me, I invite you to contact me directly at . I will add the information to the books second edition sometime in the future.

I made the decision not to include in the narrative the eighteen people who have died on the mountain from heart attack, stroke, or what records refer to as natural causes. These people are included in the complete list of known deaths on the mountain, which youll find at the back of this book. I also have not detailed the deaths of people who died on other mountains in the Presidential Range (with a couple of high profile exceptions), simply because I had a contractual word count limit; these deaths are also listed in the back.

Finally, please rest assured that a visit to Mount Washington need not be dangerous if you proceed safely. More than 250,000 people visit the mountain every year without mishapthe risk is only as great as a hikers lack of preparedness, or his or her ability to recognize when its time to abandon a hike or climb and seek shelter or come down. I urge you to visit this remarkable place, enjoy the White Mountains to the fullest, and treat the Presidential Range with the awe and respect it commands. Dont let someone elses errors deter you from seeing Mount Washingtons extraordinary sights for yourself.

Just be careful up there.

Introduction: The WorstWeather in the World

It stands at 6,288 feet, a pygmy by world standards, but theres much more at play on Mount Washington than its status as the highest mountain in the northeastern United States. Its peculiar position at the apex of the geological barrier known as the Presidential Range creates the potential for weather systems the likes of which are seen nowhere else on the continent, and in only a handful of places around the world.

Forming a natural wall from north to south, the ranges peakseach named for one of Americas early presidentsforce many a storm front to culminate in Washingtons ravines and against its walls. East-moving storms halt in their tracks when they reach this barrier of rock, while fronts descending from the north or moving up the coast from the south huddle and gather their strength in two massive ravines on either side of the peak. When fronts from all three sides converge in the mixing bowls of Tuckerman and Huntington Ravinesa pair of glacial cirques with up to 800 feet of sheer vertical risethey come out stronger than before, blasting their way upward to the top. The resulting storm can reach the level of a cataclysm.