Why This New England Mountain is a Geographic Anomaly

[00:00:00]I'm standing on a mountain that is just about 6,300 ft tall. If you put this mountain near the Rockies, it's really no more than a foothill. And you can actually literally drive to the very top of this mountain, which I did. But don't let the height fool you. The weather station that's right behind me has recorded wind speeds of up to 231 mph.

[00:00:19]And this mountain has a higher death toll than Denali, the tallest mountain in Alaska and the United States. It routinely kills people who completely underestimate it. So, how did a small mountain in the middle of New Hampshire earn the title of the worst weather in the world? Well, to figure that out, we got to go all the way down to the bottom of the mountain to where it all starts.

[00:00:39][music] [music] Okay, we've officially made it to the base of Mount Washington. like all these big signs that say Mount Washington Auto Road. You can see right over here, which gives it this otherwise like very like tourist trap kind of feel, but I don't think it is a tourist trap. I do think it legitimately is something that you should do and you should want to do.

[00:01:09][music] It's just like I don't know. It just it's thrown off the wrong vibes, I would say. All right, we're going to explore right around here before we make our way up to the top.

[00:01:21]Before [music] we actually head up to the top of the mountain, let's talk about where Mount Washington physically sits. After all, how does a high altitude death zone exist here in the middle of New Hampshire? At 6,288 ft, Mount Washington is the highest peak in all of the northeastern United States. But that's actually still pretty small, all things considered. Mount Hood, where I filmed a couple weeks ago, is nearly twice as tall. But Mount Washington isn't a strata volcano like Mount Hood is. It's actually part of a mountain range. And that mountain range, which is right behind me, is called the Presidential Range. It's a sprawling, rugged line of mountains, named after US presidents and other historic figures.

[00:02:09]But Mount Washington isn't only the tallest mountain, it's also [music] the most prominent. There isn't a taller mountain than the one right behind me.

[00:02:16]for over 1,000 mi in any given direction. It rises dramatically out of the surrounding valleys, standing like a giant roadblock in the sky. But unlike the jagged spires of the Tetons or the Cascade Mountain Range, where Mount Hood is, Mount Washington is more like a large dome of granite. From down here, it looks imposing, sure, but entirely manageable. But as it turns out, that specific location and that domelike geography is exactly what makes it so dangerous. But before we can experience what that danger actually feels like, there's one more stop that we want to make that'll give us a much better view of the mountain. So, let's head that way very closely. Basically, right there, that's where we're going to be heading.

[00:02:59]That's where the observatory is. And if my eyes are correct, it does look like there's still some snow up there. So, I have no idea how well the roads are doing. But, it's also pretty warm down here. So, I don't know. I'm not that worried. But, I guess we'll have to wait and see. Mount Washington is notorious for its extreme weather, making it one of the most dangerous mountains to tackle. When you're managing busy summer schedules and exhausting travel like us, the last thing you want is to come home wanting to eat well, only to find rotting produce in your fridge. That is exactly why we are so thrilled to partner with Factor. Factor delivers chef crafted, dietitian approved, ready to eat meals straight to your door, so you can eat well this summer without spending all of your time in the kitchen. There is no planning, no prep, and absolutely no cleanup. We have been on the go for the last year, and when we come home, we love to have delicious options, [music] and sometimes that's hard when we are only home for a few days between trips. But with Factor, we've been able to have tasty options without needing to worry about buying a bunch of groceries. We've been loving their globally inspired dishes after long days on the trail, and there's 70 add-ons like [music] green juice and peanut butter energy bites that are absolutely perfect for our summer life on the go. Head to [music] factor75.com or click the link below and use code GLX FB50 to get 50% off your verse factor box plus free breakfast for one year offer only valid for new factor customers with code and qualifying [music] autorenewing subscription purchase. All right, let's get back to exploring Mount Washington. All right. So, I have arrived to the place where I want to talk about the actual geographic reasons why Mount Washington has such bad weather, but I'm realizing it is quite a bit more of a hike than I was expecting.

[00:04:38]It's all uphill and it was getting warm, so I decided to take my rain jacket off and leave it inside the the car. And of course, now that I'm like already a considerable way through this hike, it's starting to rain. It's just my luck, huh? We're going to make our way up to something called Square Ledge, and hopefully by then the weather will have cleared up.

[00:05:21]Oh, and as always, I do this so that you guys don't have to, but you should do this because this place is stunning. It's really quite beautiful. I cannot wait to see what's on top of Mount Washington.

[00:05:39][laughter] Okay, if I'm being honest, this gigantic rock right here looks like it's being held up by this tiny little uh I don't know, log. That gives me pause. That makes me a little worried. [laughter] I'm going to go under it, but I'm not going to feel good about it. Here we go.

[00:06:00]I would have been instantly squished if this thing had come down.

[00:06:06]Oh, that makes me ner [laughter] nervous cuz now I have to go back through to get the camera to then come back through and then eventually go back through again.

[00:06:18]You hang in there. [music] Uncomfy. All right, here we go again.

[00:06:29][laughter] All right, I think I'm getting close, but I just have to go up this scrabble of rocks. I think there's been a lot of incline over a very short period [music] of time. So, I'm tired. I hope the view is worth it. We'll see. [music] >> [music] >> All right, final ascent here. [sighs] I really hope this view is worth it. Oh yeah, [gasps] this was absolutely worth it, guys. Just clear, unobstructed view of the mountain itself. The whole entire mountain range to be honest. Finally, at long last, let's talk about why Mount Washington's geography makes it have the worst quote unquote weather in the world. So, now obviously Mount Washington is not like a very jagged sky-high peak. In fact, it's just right up here. It's kind of like a mounded dome. But what does make it geographically interesting is that it sits at the confluence of three major weather patterns. One moving up from the Atlantic, [music] another moving from the Gulf of Mexico, and finally a third from my neck of the woods over in the Pacific Northwest.

[00:07:40]Each of these brings their very own very unique weather systems to right here in New Hampshire. Now, when those weather systems hit the surrounding valleys right behind me, the air has nowhere to go but up and over the mountain range.

[00:07:52]And this is what we call the Venturi effect. Now, this is usually applied to a liquid, but it works just as well for air. Basically, the surrounding topography physically squeezes the air through something of a funnel, which then accelerates it. Kind of like if you would pinch the hose as water's trying to come out. And that's how a 6,000 ft hill generates hurricane force winds.

[00:08:12]All without any semblance of a hurricane. And now at long last, we are going to make our way up to the tippy top of Mount Washington. And it should be hopefully quite the drive. So, let's [laughter] go. All right, I am officially starting my ascent. Now, of course, this is a driving ascent, so it's not that, you know, laborious for me. Uh, but apparently it does get pretty steep. It is a little rainy, but for our video today, that's actually pretty good. Okay, so I just made a quick stop. I'm about halfway up the mountain. And one, I wanted to stop because look at this view. It is quite incredible. But two, I also wanted to see just how windy it was. And if you can't tell by my hair right now, it's starting to get windy. And what's really interesting is that again just about halfway up it is much colder and much rainier as well. So just going to show that the uh that the weather is going to be quite different once we get to the top. Now the other interesting thing is that we are already starting to hit the alpine area which I just wasn't really expecting this quick. We're about four or 5,000 feet up and typically I associate alpine areas with being much higher. But again, this is an interesting area that is quite unlike anything else in the Northeast. So with that, let's make our way up.

[00:09:44]This is really incredible. I have never quite done a drive like this where All right, we are getting very close to the top here. So, let's go check it out.

[00:10:03]All right, after about a 30-minute drive, I've made it up to the top. Well, almost the top cuz I have to walk up the rest of the way. But it is way colder than I was expecting. Especially because yesterday in the little town I'm staying here in uh New Hampshire, it was almost 90° up here.

[00:10:26]I'm going to guess like 45.

[00:10:28]And you'll notice that there is little patches of snow.

[00:10:35]Apparently last week they got a big snowstorm that blew through here.

[00:10:40]I don't know. Worst weather in the world. So, ooh, there are quite a few things up here. For one, there's this observatory and weather station, which obviously monitors the weather. There also used to be a hotel or like a restaurant of sorts, but it's says it's closed, called the Tiptop House. Oh, wow.

[00:11:03]That is one beautiful view.

[00:11:20]All right, so here's the thing. You can drive up here, which is what I did. You can also take a train up, which is really cool, and I would have done it uh if not for just being able to save on time. Uh but you can also hike up.

[00:11:32]Apparently, that'll take about an 8 hour trip, and it can be quite treacherous.

[00:11:36]And this, I think, is what most people die from is that they underestimate the hike to get up because they think 6,000 ft that's easy. I've done that in the Rockies or I've done that somewhere on the West Coast. But it's simply not that easy. And with that, I've officially made it to the summit of Mount Washington.

[00:11:59]All right, let's talk about the human history just a little bit. So before European and American settlers made this place well what it is today, this mountain was home to well indigenous peoples including the Abnaki, Agio and the Algangquin people.

[00:12:15]For them Mount Washington was known as Soh Hidden Mountain and the summit specifically where I'm at right now was called White Rocks probably if I'm guessing because of all the white rocks everywhere. But the indigenous people never really summited the mountain because at least as far as their religion told them this was the area of the great spirit. So it was a forbidden place which to them would make sense because it's so damn windy. So let's jump forward in time just a little bit.

[00:12:41]Okay. So while the mountain was first summited in 1642, most people didn't really start paying attention to it until around 1819 when something called the Crawford Path was blazed all the way up to the summit here. Today, it is still the oldest continuously maintained trail in the entire United States. And when that trail was made, the rush was on to turn this mountain into an economic generator. But here's the thing. Because this mountain looked so small, early Europeans and Americans treated it with absolute arrogance. In the 1850s, instead of respecting the extreme geography of Mount Washington, they built luxury hotels right at the very summit. really making it one of the very first luxury tourist attractions in the entire United States. In fact, between 1850 and 1860, they built two hotels, a scenic driving route, and a cog railway that you can still ride today. But they were building wood-framed buildings in a place that experiences extreme winds and sub-zero temperatures. Maybe unsurprisingly, the weather destroyed them repeatedly. And not only did it destroy buildings, but it also killed people as well. But to talk about that, we're gonna head down the mountain just a little bit. I don't know how much you guys know about trains, but if you know anything, it's that getting a train up this steep of a mountain hill incline, very tough. It requires basically a pulling chain system.

[00:14:00]Very impressive that they did this and they did it a long time ago. It has been so much fun exploring all around the summit of Mount Washington.

[00:14:08]Unfortunately, it's about time to head down the mountain because, well, simply can't spend all day here. But don't worry because we're not going too far.

[00:14:16]And the drive up and down is actually very beautiful. So, we're gonna head down just a [music] little ways.

[00:14:28]It's getting windy and the weather's getting worse, so it's time head back down just a little bit.

[00:14:42]>> [music] >> Okay, there's really only one reason why we decided to stop at this old trading post where there's a gift shop in a restaurant. And it's because there's a very specific sign, but it highlights the danger better than anything I could possibly think of myself. So, what we're going to do is we're going to hike up the trail just a little bit and see if we can find it. As I'm looking for the sign and I'm hiking on this trail, I guess I can go ahead and talk about the elephant in the room. All of the deaths on Mount Washington. So, as of today, 2026, 168 people have lost their lives hiking up to Mount Washington or at the summit of Mount Washington, with the latest being a man from Florida just last July in 2025. That's a higher death count than Denali, the tallest mountain in the United States and Alaska. And it's more deadly than even Mount Hood, which as I explained a couple weeks ago, can be a very treacherous climb. And this is mostly attributed to, well, the human arrogance. Mount Washington isn't that tall, and therefore it looks so accessible. In fact, this mountain kills so many people because it is so accessible. Seasoned hikers from around the country will look at a trail map or the listing on alltrails.com, see the elevation, and start walking up to the top. Oftentimes, in just a t-shirt and shorts in the middle of July, thinking that everything's going to be fine. But because of that geographic funnel that we talked about earlier, a sunny summer afternoon right here in the middle of New Hampshire can turn into a blinding subfreezing windstorm in a matter of moments. Basically, it's a small accessible mountain with the climate of a mountain that's twice its size. So, it packs a really, really big punch. Now, I still haven't unfortunately seen our sign. So, we're going to go up just a little ways further and then we might just have to turn around. Thankfully, up at the top of the Thankfully, at the summit of the mountain, there's a museum, and they do have this exact sign in the museum. I was just hoping it would still be down here, which is the main trail you would hike to get up to the summit.

[00:16:53]Unfortunately, we may be out of luck.

[00:16:59][music] Well, there's no sign, but I'm not going to complain. Coming up on a very lovely waterfall. All that spring melt.

[00:17:14]Oh, wow.

[00:17:16]I guess I don't know. I don't know where the sign is. All my Google searches told me there was going to be a sign. Maybe I passed it. kind of disappointing because I came all the way down the mountain for that sign to talk about the deaths on the mountain and I just couldn't make it happen. But this is about as far as I'm going to go up because there's still more to see and do. So, with that, let's head all the way back up to the top of the mountain.

[00:17:46]I will say even though even though this hike was a little bit of a disappointment because I couldn't find the sign, it has not been a disappointment because it's actually very beautiful.

[00:17:59]Like the waterfall, there's that lovely bridge. It's very green, very uh forested in a lot of ways. Reminds me of hiking in the Pacific Northwest, though way more humid. [laughter] It's hard to be disappointed whenever you can get out a little bit, huh? And of course, I'm not going to say that you guys can't hike to the top of Mount Washington because I think you definitely should. I think it takes about 8 hours from what I've read. But if you do it, even if it's hot and it's summer, just be prepared because the weather up there is not the same as the weather down here. Guaranteed.

[00:18:40][laughter] All right, let's make our way back to the car and then we'll head back up the mountain.

[00:18:54][music] So, here's the thing. Obviously, this place is still dangerous and the weather dictates a lot of what can be done here.

[00:19:04]In fact, the scenic Mount Washington Road that we drove up only opened in May 22nd. That was just a couple weeks ago.

[00:19:11]If I had come just a couple weeks earlier, I wouldn't have been able to film at all. But there's a reason why over 400,000 people come up here every single year. For one, it's absolutely stunning. The views, the mountain itself, and of course, the weather.

[00:19:23]You're not going to experience almost anything else like it anywhere else in the Northeast. But also, there's a number of ways to get up here, right?

[00:19:30]You can take the train, you can do the scenic drive, you can hike up here, there's even a shuttle, and there's skiing nearby. But at the end of the day, Mount Washington definitely lives up to its slogan as having the worst weather in the world. Because even if other places actually do have worse weather, and they do, Mount Washington's weather can change real fast. And when it does, you better hunker down. It has been so fun exploring Mount Washington with you all. The home of the worst weather in the world. There's simply no other place that I've ever been to that's quite like it. So, if you do ever make it to New Hampshire, make the time to come all the way out here. Next week, we are heading to Portland, Maine, [music] the other Portland, the namesake of our home city, where we are from the base in Portland, going to drive all the way up into the very far northern territory of Maine, just to see what's up there because not a lot of people ever go. All right, I need to get back into the car and head down the mountain because, as you guys can tell, my hair is absolutely nuts. [laughter] And so, as usual, come back next week for another geographic adventure. This time with Alexa.