Our last trip of 2008

So a long long time ago Justin, Aaron (Justin's brother-in-law) and I planned to go to New Hampshire to climb Mt. Washington before the end of the year, so we decided to fly up on December 20th and come back on December 23rd. We finally booked our flights last night!!! It was taking us FOREVER to book a flight because the flights were WAY more expensive than we anticipated. We almost weren't able to go, but Justin used his flight finding powers and managed to find us a pretty darn cheap one that flies into Providence, Rhode Island. I've never been to Rhode Island...so this will be a first for me! Justin knows that I'll be singing "We're off on the road to Rhode Island. We're having the time of our lives." (If you don't watch Family Guy you won't get the joke).

I've been saving money for months to be able to buy all the required clothing/equipment that I am going to need to do this hike. I spread it out over the course of two months so that I wouldn't be completely broke at Christmas time. If anyone wants to climb Everest and needs clothes....come to me!

We'll rent a car in Providence and drive to North Conway, NH. Once we get there we have to go rent our ice axes, boots, and crampons. Some of you may not know what crampons are. I know I had no idea until Justin told me. They're the picks that go on the bottom of your boots when you hike in snow or ice to keep you from falling and keep you steady.

Here's a picture. This is not my foot, I just pulled it off yahoo to give you an idea :)

We will wake up SUPER early on Sunday, December 21st to head to the mountain to start the hike. Just to give some background info on the mountain, it is actually in New Hampshire. Most people hear "Mt. Washington" and think it's that big mountain in Washington. That's Rainier. Mt. Washington is in New Hampshire. This mountain is 6,288 feet to the summit. That number is deceiving. Since we are doing this hike in the winter, it makes it one of the most difficult climbs of all the highpoints. Allow me to explain. Right now (Tuesday, November 18th at 3:28 central time) it is 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit at the summit of the mountain with a -22 degree wind chill and 25 mph winds. This mountain is referred to as "Home of the World's Worst Weather". On December 17, 2007 (only 4 days prior to when we will be doing it this year) the high was -3 degrees and the low was -16. There was 12 inches of snow on the ground with 84 mph winds. Yep, that would be hurricane force winds. SO PRAY FOR US!!

This is a picture off of mountwashington.org of the observatory at the summit. Everything is completely frozen. I am sure that I have officially made my family members that read this blog incredibly nervous and that my phone will be ringing off the hook all night.

There is a slight chance that we won't be able to make it up the mountain. We're pretty adventurous people, but we also value our lives and if the winds get up to hurricane speeds, we will have to turn back. Hopefully that won't be the case! We won't be doing much after that hike, but on Monday we're going snow skiing at one of the nearby resorts. I haven't done that in forever so I'm really excited about it! After we are done skiing, we will drive to Boston, MA. We'll be staying in Boston on Monday night and we'll get to do some sight-seeing Tuesday before driving back to Rhode Island to get on a plane to come home. I'll be knocking out three states that I've never been to though!!! And you know what the best part of all of it is???? Our connection is through Newark, NJ (neighbors New York City) so I'll get to see my FAVORITE city, even if it is out the window of a plane :)

The next week will be awesome because I won't get back until Tuesday night from our trip. The next day is Christmas Eve and unfortunately I do have to work, but I have the 2 days off after that, so basically I am only working one day that whole week! I am really excited about this trip but I would be lying if I said that some part of me wasn't scared of the weather and avalanches. So please keep us in your prayers as we do this hike in the hardest time of year to do it.

This is the marker indicating that you are at the top of the mountain. It will not look like this if we make it up the mountain. The walkways where people are walking will be covered in snow, probably about 15 inches of snow.