Alpine Adventure

Trying to climb one of the world’s deadliest mountains is a heck of a way for a “life skills coach” to spend the week before Christmas. But Matt Bancroft is not a foolhardy man. He knows all the terrors of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington and is prepared to survive them or avoid them. He is secure enough in his knowledge to convince his girlfriend, mountaineering neophyte Chantelle Honaker, to go along with him.

Mount Washington’s summit elevation of 6,288 feet is hardly daunting, but the weather up there is like Everest’s—subzero temperatures that can turn boiling water into a Popsicle in a matter of seconds, and the mighty wind: It hit a velocity of 231 miles per hour, the highest ever recorded on the earth’s surface, one day in 1934.

“It’s a moderate climb, but the wind can blow you off,” said Bancroft, a native New Englander. “The wind will stop us at the tree line if it’s blowing like crazy.” Knowing that most of the fatalities on the mountain have been caused by hypothermia, he and Honaker will be wrapped in insulated clothing. “People die there in the summer when they don’t have protective clothing and a quick storm makes the temperature drop,” he said. “It snows there year-round.” According to Backpacker Magazine, there have been 137 deaths on the mountain since 1849.