SnowCoaches make history at summit of Mount Washington

SARGENT’S PURCHASE — History was made Thursday as the Mt. Washington Auto Road/Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center took nine SnowCoaches up the 7.6-mile road to the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington, a first for the general public.

Five eight-person, four-track SnowCoaches left at 9 a.m. under bluebird conditions at the base, returning just before noontime, and departed the base at noon, returning at 2:15 p.m.

“It was awesome!” said SnowCoach driver Marc Martin of North Conway, saying they had "a little bit of everything” in terms of weather — fog, snow and wind. But the icing on the cake was coming toward the summit just as the clouds lifted to give a view of the state’s Sherman Adams building that houses the Mount Washington Observatory’s weather station.

Martin, 61, is in his third year as a driver but worked as a high school kid from Berlin for the state park, busing tables. “This was such a treat for me — I lucked out,” he exclaimed.

He said it was surreal at the summit due to the rime ice covering everything.“It was like looking at coral (when scuba diving) — the rime ice on the state building towers and the Cog Railway building. Very cool!” said Martin, who was happy his scheduled day happened to be Thursday.

“Getting to go to the top was exciting for me, because I know the historical significance of this,” said Martin.

He said as a driver, he always asks passengers where they are from and it was no different this time.

“There were some people who had been on the SnowCoaches before, but one first-timer was from the Poconos of Pennsylvania, and boy, they had quite an experience for their first time,” laughed Martin.

“The wind was maybe only 20 mph at the summit and on the way up most of the time it was just a cold breeze," he said, adding, “You could see the cairns on the snowpack looking down to the Lakes of the Clouds and Huntington Ravine.”

He said the passengers and drivers posed for a group photo at the summit and then just the staff.

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Then, it was back down to the base, with the trip taking about 2½ hours. The next group of SnowCoaches then set out.

The Auto Road also conducted its normal SnowCoach tours, traveling to treeline on the Auto Road, at approximately 4,200 feet. All tours are narrated by the Auto Road’s expert guides, said Auto Road Marketing Director Meghan Moody Schwartz.

Schwartz thanked the Mount Washington Observatory for providing weather and road conditions data.

“At times the road can have sections of ice, but the snow cover was all the way up the road, making this trip possible. The Obs shared their information from having gone up the road (for their shift change Wednesday),” she said.

She added that the “rare summit experience via SnowCoach” has been something that Tobey Reichert, general manager of the Mt. Washington Auto Road and Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center, and his team have been dreaming of for a while.

Reichert said “Forecasters determined that Thursday the 8th of February was the best day to make this dream a reality I was so excited I actually signed up to be one of the tour guides for this historic trip”. Other guided tour guides included Operations Director, Kevin Devine, Nick Griffin, Ray Bergeron and Martin.

Moody Schwartz said more summit SnowCoach trips may be held, weather permitting. and encouraged all to watch their social media and go to mt-washington.com and greatglentrails.com for updates.

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