By Everett Potter

On a recent winter morning, in this Presidential year, I had the pleasure of waking up to a dramatic view of snow-covered Mt. Adams, Mt. Madison and Mt. Washington, the latter the highest peak in the Northeast at 6,288 feet. On this particular New Hampshire morning, it was a bluebird sky that greeted me, with subzero temps and relatively light winds in the White Mountains.

While Mt. Washington is dwarfed by many of the Rocky Mountains, which can be more than twice as high, it more than makes up for its stature in grandeur, sheer ruggedness and a reputation for having the worst weather in the world. It long held the record for the highest wind speed ever recorded and witnessed, 231 miles per hour, bested only a few years ago by a cyclone that hit 253 miles per hour off the coast of Australia.

Savoring this fact was all the more pleasant because I was sipping coffee in the toasty great room of The Glen House, a new hotel at the base of the mountain. With its towering stone fireplace, an open bar area recently crowned the Most Beautiful Bar in New Hampshire by Architectural Digest and massive windows framing a view of Mt. Washington and neighboring peaks in the Presidential Range, it is an experience like nothing else in the North Country … continue reading