Nature flipped the switch from fall to winter in the White Mountains last weekend, much to the unhappy surprise of a whole bunch of unprepared hikers.
The Cog Railway brought down at least 20 hikers from the summit of Mount Washington on Sunday after crews encountered them without equipment needed to manage temperatures in the 20s and wind chill below zero. Some were unaware that the Sherman Adams building at the peak of Mount Washington State Park is closed for the season, meaning they had no place to shelter after hiking up.
State Parks posted a warning online Sunday, warning people to be prepared: “It’s ‘winter on the summit of Mount Washington’ regardless of what it feels like in the valleys.”
A more serious example happened at about 7 p.m. Sunday night to Owen Strommer, a 20-year-old from Rhode Island. Stommer was hiking up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail just below the summit of Mt. Washington when he called 911.
“Through a broken cell phone connection, authorities learned that (he) was on the trail but that both his headlamp and cell phone were rapidly dying and he had no backup equipment. Strommer advised that he was currently okay but unprepared to spend the night, especially if he had to stop moving,” the Department of Fish and Game said in a press release.
Strommer was able to make his way to the summit where he saw the headlights of a State Park truck, which carried him down the Auto Road.
“Strommer was found to have done some research on his hike but was absolutely unprepared for the conditions that he encountered above treeline. This situation could have had a very bad outcome,” the department said.