I have decided to retell some stories from the past in the hope that it will liven up the summer doldrums. This story of a trip to Mt. Washington, NH on the first weekend of June 2005 was first posted on the SkiVT-List.
http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0506a&L=skivt-l&D=1&O=A&P=9137 I would stop at simply posting the link here, however the biglines.com links, where I put the pictures, no longer work. Biglines has changed the way you must link to the pictures. Therefore I am reposting the story with new links that work. I prefer to post stories with links rather than embedded pictures, for those on slow dial up connections. And, I like lots of pictures.
I have tried to tell this tale from the perspective of my grandson, Conor.
"Passing the Torch"
Seven. Not a little kid any more but still not very big. It is the tail end of the age of magic. When I was 7 I _knew_ that I was the fastest kid in the world. I was much faster at 10, but no longer fastest in the world. Reality had set in.
...........
Maybe now that I am 7, if I lobby my Dad and my Grandpa hard enough I can go to Mt. Washington this year and ski where the big people ski. Yippee! They are going to take me. We will take the Auto road to the summit snowfield. They say that I will have to climb back up but how hard can that be? I am the fastest kid and I can ski anything.
Here I am on what Daddy and Grandpa call the Rockpile. If you leave your coat unzipped you look cool, like Batman.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41764.jpgHere is the top of the summit snowfield with the south wall of Tuckerman ravine in the background.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41771.jpgIt looks like it gets steeper just past what we can see. I wonder how steep it gets.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41765.jpgThe sky and clouds are beautiful.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41768.jpgYippee! Here I am skiing down.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41767.jpgHere is the bottom of the snowfield.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41772.jpgWow! That was fun. Oh Oh! There is no way back up except to climb and the mountain is huge. Grandpa's car is up there. It didn't seem that steep or that long when I was skiing but it sure looks big from here.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41773.jpgWhat if I can never climb back to the top? What will happen to me? Daddy says to go slow and take one step at a time. It seems like a long time but I am halfway up now and it is going to be OK. It is OK. I got back up! I can do this! The sun is awful bright.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41774.jpgSome bigger kids were building a jump. They were friendly and asked me to help. We made a big gap jump and it was way cool. Here I am in the gap while one of them jumps over.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41775.jpgHere I am with Daddy and Grandpa,
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41777.jpgDaddy and I went for a hike along the Gulfside trail and saw the cog railway train go by on the way to the summit.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41766.jpgThen we hiked to the summit too.
http://www.biglines.com/photos/blpic41784.jpgNow that I am a Mt. Washington skier I will show my brothers - - when they get a lot bigger.
Afterword
In the inimitable way of kids Conor's 'best friend' had told him, "People DIE on Mt. Washington. You're going to DIE." Of course he asked his Mom, my daughter, about this and she told him not to worry, Daddy and Grandpa would take good care of him. Afterward he wrote a story called, "The Top of New England" for his second grade class.
