Mt.Washington

The tallest mountain in the northeast and the bucket-list flying site for many pilots.



We made the call late Thursday evening to give it a go. The cloud cover was a concern and the direction was supposed to swing East to straight South after 12pm but it was either attempt to fly The Beast or sit at work all day. A no brainer.


Ilya and I drove up together from my house and met the gang at the base at 9am. 5 HG pilots, 4 PG pilots, and 3 drivers. It was still early, but conditions on the ground were calm as could be - just like last year. We did an LZ walk and planted a streamer, then ventured up the 8 mile road to the summit.

It wasn't looking too promising. There was a blanket of clouds as far as we could see, as predicted. I was setting up anyways. Ladies first! I called dibs to run off since I didn't launch last year, Ilya was going second. Gottling and Curtis had the second round (there's only room for two gliders at a time in the setup area) and Arrison was using a parking lot and different launch area a few hundred feet down the auto road from us along with the PG pilots.

Mt.Washington 'setup area' - the only place where there's no boulders. (Photo by Sam Washburn)

Ilya and I were set up on the slope and ready to go around 11am, but we couldn't launch yet. The valley was completely socked in. You can't see the LZ on a clear day from the launch area, but flying through a cloud blanket over this terrain wasn't on the menu. We saw some pockets of clearing and just when we were talking about getting ready to go we ended up seeing Eric and Lanning launch their PGs. I radioed to Tom asking if the clouds were across the entire valley- they weren't. Once you flew out a bit you could see to the LZ on the other side. Good enough for me! My harness was already hooked into the glider so I climbed in, swung it around, and waited for an East cycle. I was surprisingly calm considering what I was about to do. Bill and Ilya were on my wings and Curtis on my keel. It felt like he was pushing forward on me but he wasn't touching the glider at all. The mountain is known to blow over the back when the sun heats it up, not good. I felt a breeze in my face, wings level.. LATERRRR! And I was off..

 The air was buttery smooth. I had a quick burble in front of launch but it was punchy and I didn't have the gonads to turn that close to the boulder fields so I ventured out along the ridge towards the LZ. The view was incredible, it looks like another planet up there. Once I started heading up the ridge towards the landing area there was a cliff that dropped away with a waterfall and then it's nothing but trees and wilderness. It's deceiving, it seemed like a 12:1 glide and I started getting nervous, so I pulled VG and got as small as I could.

As Tom stated, the clouds ended and revealed the landing area. I ended up coming in at a couple thousand feet over -way higher than I expected- so I puttered around for a bit and did a few turns in what I perceived to be lift using the horizon as a gauge since my 6030 batteries died on launch. My headset wasn't working so I decided to forego comms, and in doing so I was blissfully ignorant of Tom trying to radio what was happening on the ground until I took a good look at the visitor center flags and the surface of the pond -it was cranking. Not at all like last year's L&V conditions. I had some idea that it would be interesting, and I was proven correct.


It was a roller coaster from about 1,500' all the way to the deck. But not the 'woohoo hands up!' roller coaster.. more like 'I just puked cotton candy and got shat on by a seagull'. I was flying as fast as I could and was still getting chucked. I wrestled it down into my S turns, got turned downwind, fought it back upwind onto final into the slot. It was trashy and there was a cycle ripping off when I was coming in, not much I could do about it except ride the bull. I slack lined half a dozen times, the last one so hard it flipped my visor and vario down but as soon as I came into ground effect it stopped. Wait for it.. wait for it.. BAM! Perfect no stepper! WOOHOO! I was pretty damn proud of myself. That was the most challenging landing I've had to fight through - I now fully appreciate why that is a H4/P4 site.


I wrestled it over to the breakdown area where Tom and Eric were packing their PGs up. Ilya was coming in to right behind me and luckily had his radio on so Tom gave him a heads up on the conditions. He fought through the crap and had an excellent landing with Gallagher right behind him in his PG. Then Arrison, Curtis, and Bill bringing up the rear not long after that. Everyone handled the conditions like a bunch of old pros.

Ilya and Gallagher on the ground. Happy boys!

Lanning and Eric packing it in.

It was then crispy high fives all around followed by yummy food and great convos in Gorham, NH.
Almost a year to the day from the 2017 trip, but I flew her this time!




His and Hers at the base of The Beast.