Mount Washington bottom

This is Head Coach and Team Photographer, Tim Martel, taking the first picture of our journey up Mount Washington's Auto Road. Guess what time we started.....

Here's the view looking East.

Here's the view from in front of me.

And here's the view from behind me a little later in the morning.

Mount Washington middle

Marc Durant and I during the dirt road section. The Auto Road is unpaved for about two miles starting from around the 4 and a half mile point. That's all road we've come up behind us and to our left.






Tim Martel climbed up a bit to get this shot.

The road goes back to paved at about 6 and a half miles. Here we are passing the 5ooo foot altitude marker.

Eventually we were not only above the tree line but (for me) also above the familiar experience line. We are getting toward the top now and it has gotten dark, cold and windy with thick fog. Very neat.

Mount Washington top

Convenient photo opportunity- this building at the top of Mount Washington is actually chained down so it can't blow away. I've added a few more feet past the height of the wheelchair on the ground with the aid of one of these chains.



The hands made it up the road without taping or using gloves. Not having to tape up blisters saved some time.







Below the 'Tip Top House', as part of the journey to this highest place on the East Coast, we built a cairn.

While most rocks in this cairn are rough and angular, like the boulder upon which it was assembled, the topmost rock is smooth and rounded- a riverstone.

These ancient bits of the earth are gathered in memory of a young child whose initials are D. M. . He is mourned by mother and family.

Inclines

Here I am in the woods, crossing a drainage ditch that runs along the dirt road to which I plan to return. The road side of the ditch is steeper and taller than the woods side. I didn't have much trouble getting in, but getting out I expected to be problematic.

The first image is going down the woods side of the ditch.

The second image shows me heading back up the road side of the ditch.

and Friction

Coach Tim said the ditch was do-able.

Here's me making Tim laugh by adding weight in an effort to give the back wheels more traction.

Nextly, here's me gaining ground thanks to the extra traction.

In the end though, it wasn't the rocks atop my feet but the one which can be seen beneath my feet in the last image. The trick wasn't the extra weight, but simply lunging up and getting the right wheel above that rock where it would be stopped from slipping downhill.

part I: Confidence

To get to the top of Cathedral Ledge sends one up a road about a mile long that rises about 800 feet. The first time I climbed this road I was taken on a tour of a bit of the granite which protrudes through the dirt and pine needles at the top of the cliff.

The first image shows the road, but without a good sense of it's incline. I was fairly confident that the road wouldn't do me in. (It was sort of difficult though.)

This next image is me in the process of wangling my way onto a granite cap.

part II: Bravado

Then we see me showing off, glad to have gotten on top. That's Assistant Coach Laura Jones to the side. Her job is to spot me, that is keep me from tippping over at steep places.

part III: Intimidation

Then finally, here is Sean swallowing his pride and feeling intimidated. It doesn't look too scarey from the angle at which Coach Tim Martel is photographing, but I was not confident of success going the way the coaching team was leading me.

Like all of Coach's plans, it worked out fine.