Editor's note: Congratulations to Amy and Charlie Gunn, for giving the Mount Adams Challenge a try! Amy, we hope you'll give it a go again. A beer and cappuccino await you!
Amy: Odd Bersvendsen had already successfully completed the Mount Adams Challenge and had invited my husband Charlie Gunn to join him on his quest to better his time. Charlie thought I should give it a try too.
On Friday, August 29, 2014, we arrived at the Appalachia parking lot sometime around 9:30 am. Instead of waiting for Odd and his wife Sally Brassil, I decided to go! This would be my third visit to Adams' summit in recent months and hopefully after speedily getting to the summit I would continue my Randolph Mountain Club trail collecting. I wore my small pack with clothes, headlamp/first aid kit, hiking poles and two liters of water. I am sure I set off too quickly. I breathed hard and I passed a lot of people coming down near the first trail intersection. I jogged and hiked hard and just kept my head down trying to stay on my feet and pace.
Charlie: Amy had taken off and I waited for Odd and Sally to arrive. I followed Odd after starting our watches together. I wore a small pack, carried less than a liter of water and took along my hiking poles (I was more concerned about the descent than the climb due to an issue with my back). Odd wore a small pack too.
I followed Odd, feeling very well the first mile and we flew up Brookside. Odd began to push the pace up Scar. I didn't negotiate going over a large rock with a serrated edge and I cut my knee which wasn't bad, but the scrape bled and looked more serious than it was. I was able to stay with him quite well until we reached the intersection with Airline. I told Odd to “Go for it” and he did! Odd disappeared and I kept working steadily.
Amy: When I popped out above treeline on Airline I looked at my watch and thought I am going to miss the time by just a few minutes, but I didn't give up hope. I worked past the intersection of Chemin des Dames, soon I was above King Ravine and then running up Gulfside. I was happy I had not been passed by the men!
The sight of the cairn at Thunderstorm junction made me know that I was just a few tenths from the summit and I might just make it. I pushed harder and managed to jump from rock to rock to the top. I stopped my watch and since my eyesight isn't so great it took me a moment to focus and see that I had made it with a whole minute and fifteen seconds to spare, 2:08:45! I almost burst into tears of joy! Then, in just a few minutes, Odd was here with me and his watch read 1:39 something! Yeah. Soon Charlie arrived too!
Charlie: Amy and Odd were on top cheering for me! I felt good and tired. At the summit sign I had some difficulty turning off the goofy watch Amy had loaned me (I had forgot my own watch at home). I had made it in 1:46-something, but I stopped my watch at 1:47:04!
Amy didn't spend much time with us on the summit. She took off to visit the Perch Path and a few other trails in that area. Odd and I waited for Sally and then the three of us descended to Madison Hut, where I enjoyed a slice of coffee cake and an apple juice.
Later the four of us celebrated and enjoyed supper at the SAalt Pub. The next morning Amy says to me, “I screwed up”. She went on to explain she had realized she didn't go up Brookside but must have stayed on Valley Way and she didn't want to believe it, but she was now sure. Our pillow talk just before sleep had triggered the realization that she taken a wrong turn.
Amy: I realized that I had somehow not gone straight up Brookside; I was so focused on time, that it had not occurred to me that I went off route. Oh well, I may have not met the criteria of the challenge correctly but it was a good challenge and is my fastest time up Adams just the same.
Congratulations to Charlie for successfully meeting the challenge and to Odd for his faster time!