Hey hey USA - 5th October - Mount Washington

 There are three ways to get up Mount Washington, if you are not being dropped from an airplane. The first is to walk, which we didn't have time for. The second is the very expensive cog railway tourist train and the third is by car on the Mount Washington auto route which is not cheap, but not out of the question. We opted for the latter.

Mount Washington stands at 1917m. It was known by the indigenous people as Kodak Wadjoor (the top is hidden) or Agiochooke (place of the great spirit). A place so sacred that it should not be climbed. The first recorded ascent was by Derby Field in 1642, who surviving the experience, went on to explain to the Abenaki Chief Passaconaway that the gods were not critical of the white man's presence and thus enabled northern expansion of the colonists.

It was developed for tourism in the mid 19h century, hence the cog railway and the coach road, but it is incredibly windy. The strongest wind in the world, aside from tornados and cyclones was recorded as 231 mph at the top of Mount Washington in 1934.

When we were there it was breezy but we could keep our hats on.

We stopped in the car park and had a hasty picnic lunch and then walked up to the flattened summit of the mountain just above the car park. I had taken some general images of the views across the mountains. They looked very attractive, receding blue with tendrils of cloud descending, but when we got to the summit it was full of people and I decided that they were probably more interesting. So here are a few landscapes and more people.





















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