Hello everyone,

My husband and I hiked Mt Katahdin (Maine) last May via the Hunt Trail (out-and-back). It was a difficult hike for both of us due to the elevation gain and rock scrambling involved. However, it was also one of the most rewarding experiences, as well.

This May, we are headed to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. I am interested in hiking Mt Washington, but am wondering how the difficulty of Mt Washington may compare to Mt Katahdin? Has anyone had the chance to summit both?

Thanks!
-Emily

Haven't done both either, so no help, but if you post this in the Eastern U.S. forum you'd probably get some response.

Cheers!

I tried to summit Mt. Washington last March and it was harder than we expected. We turned around about 200 vertical feet from the summit because we were very worried about visibility decreasing and staying out of Tuckerman's Ravine coming down.

Considering that you probably already did this back in May, I'll just state for anyone thinking about doing this route is that it is an entirely different beast in the Winter (i.e. when the Winter Route up Lion's Head is in-season) because while the cairns are large and plentiful, they can easily disappear or be obscured by snow and make routefinding a major challenge in the alpine zone.

I'll be heading back this February to complete this route.

DuneTransit wrote:I tried to summit Mt. Washington last March and it was harder than we expected. We turned around about 200 vertical feet from the summit because we were very worried about visibility decreasing and staying out of Tuckerman's Ravine coming down.

Considering that you probably already did this back in May, I'll just state for anyone thinking about doing this route is that it is an entirely different beast in the Winter (i.e. when the Winter Route up Lion's Head is in-season) because while the cairns are large and plentiful, they can easily disappear or be obscured by snow and make routefinding a major challenge in the alpine zone.

I'll be heading back this February to complete this route.

This is a good point... snow makes things about 100x trickier. I find rock scrambling with snow involved to be especially problematic myself. It gets to be a bit of a question where exactly I can put my foot without slipping...

Good luck with your next try though! Let us know how it goes!