04/23/24
October 10, 2005
"When I finally made it to the summit of Mount Washington ... it was an incredible feeling of accomplishment." : Hardly the first person to climb it -- but, it seems, the first to climb it in a wheelchair-- on August 1st Cameron Shaw-Doran summited Mount Washington, the highest of New Hampshire's Presidential Range and the site of some of the most extreme weather on the planet's surface.
posted by lil_brown_bat to extreme at 12:46 PM - 9 comments
HEY - so what if I was winded after driving to the top...the air is really really thin up there!!! In all seriousness - is he really the first? You would have thought SOMEONE else would have done it before now, although the weather really is horrendous up there.....
posted by sinisterfoot at 01:47 PM on October 10, 2005
Looks like a beautiful day today
posted by YukonGold at 02:34 PM on October 10, 2005
Observation deck cam is great. I can not believe that more people in wheel chairs are not racing to the top right now.
posted by Turbo at 02:45 PM on October 10, 2005
I made my wife drive when we went up. Clearly, my enjoyment of Rally Racing and the New Hampshire highways doesn't mean I'd be any good at Rally Racing. Never realized how beautiful a guardrail could be.
posted by yerfatma at 03:01 PM on October 10, 2005
It's a pretty scary road, all right. I have a friend who partiipates in the Mount Washington hillclimb every year (one of the nuttiest bike races in the world -- it's steeper on average than Alpe d'Huez). Last year he said it was sleeting and the wind was blowing so hard he was afraid it would blow him right off the road (this was in the middle of summer). As for whether this guy really is the first up in a wheelchair, he's the first they know of, and given the condition of sections of the road, that's not surprising. I can't imagine pushing a wheelchair over gravel for a hundred yards on dead level, let alone up that grade for two miles. Yeesh. (hence my choice of the "extreme" tag)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 03:09 PM on October 10, 2005
Not trying to be funny, but I wonder if he tried to take the wheelchair back down.
posted by Bill Lumbergh at 07:41 AM on October 11, 2005
Not trying to be funny, but I wonder if he tried to take the wheelchair back down. He didn't strike me as a suicidal idiot, so I'd guess the answer is no.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:48 AM on October 11, 2005
Wow! I don't care what anyone says, it is amazing that he made it. I don't think I would try, and I can walk. He is in a wheelchair. He is a supurb example of an "American" athlete.
posted by vball chick at 06:24 PM on October 16, 2005
Can you imagine, a bunch of obese American tourist driving up the road to Mt. Washington in their SUV and passing someone climbing the road in a wheel chair.