Check our the Reenactment Photo Gallery for lots of photos of the production crew and others involved.

The story of my rescue gained local, regional, and then national coverage via the AP wire services.  I found no place to hide from letters, calls, e-mails, newspaper articles, TV stories, and “clever” comments from a very wide range of people.  In my defense, I had written an article giving my version of “the rest of the story” and had given a presentation at Husson College on my version of my mountaintop experience, and then I expected that my story would simply fade away.
 

The Request:  Not so, for in February I received an e-mail from Jonathan Challis of Pioneer Productions in London, England who wanted to film a re-enactment of my Mt. Washington misadventure for the Discovery Channel's network for their series entitled StormForce on The Learning Channel.

They were focusing on the worst weather in the world, and Mt. Washington would serve as a keystone to that series because on April 12, 1934 the record-breaking wind of 231 miles per hour was recorded at the summit!

I agreed to meet the Discovery crew, along with some of my rescuers, at Mt. Washington for an interview and a possible re-enactment of the rescue.  The negative emotional aspects of re-visiting my harrowing experience were being eclipsed by my curiosity as to how a Discovery Channel vignette was created.  How could a producer/director squeeze my exciting story down to eight to ten minutes of TV time?
 

A Night at the Mt. Washington Observatory:  The technical and support facilities MWO occupies the northern end of a huge crescent-shaped two-story poured concrete structure built in 1980.  As one passes thru the main entrance at the southern end of the building and into the largely abandoned “summer tourist” area, one is mentally transported back to Stephen King’s The Shining.  The Discovery crew moved their gear in the building and set about to film several sequences with Ken Rancourt and his crew in the technical area of the building.  After a fine dinner, we planned the re-enactment scenes for the next day, and retired to bunk style sleeping quarters.

As we peered out the small triple-glazed and sound-deadening windows of the bunk room, the fact that heavy snow was “falling” horizontally suggested that the winds had picked up.  Eric Pinder, the observer for the night shift, noted that the wind speed is only 30 miles per hour, but reminded us of the New England weather adage, “If you don’t like the weather,  just wait six hours.”  What wind speeds would tomorrow bring?
 

The Reenactment:  Over night it had snowed some eleven inches and the rescue team volunteers arrived late, by snowcat, because the Auto Road was now closed to mere truck traffic.  This April was starting to look more like last October, adding more credence to our re-enactment.  It was especially good to see Mike Pelchat again, the rescue team leader, who had encouraged the rescue team last October to search for "just five more minutes” and soon thereafter saw my footprints in the snow.

Each of the major scenes were shot separately, so that the film crew could return to the relative quiet and safety of the “air lock” just inside the entrance of the MWO building.  After each scene, the film footage and sound were reviewed, the camera lenses cleaned, and the to-be-repeated or next scene was rehearsed.  The filming went slowly, but deliberately as the snows continued to fall, wind-blown ice stuck to the clothing, faces, and gear of the film crew and the re-enactors, and the winds gathered speeds up to 40 miles-per-hour... fortunately far short of the 98 mile-per-hour gusts I had experienced back in October.

As a part of our re-enactment, I had brought along a replacement aluminized fabric bivvy sac, which had played a key role in my survival.  During the re-enactment, it too billowed up in the wind, was torn, and blew away... even in mere 40 miles-per-hour gusts.  My limited safety gear had been no match for the fury of Mt. Washington.

My final interview was completed in folksy home-by-the-fireplace setting at the Eastern Slope Hotel.  My message was quite simple: Since early childhood I have been privileged to be a hiker, a mountaineer on five continents, to the summit of Mt. Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains of Russia, Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Popo and Ixta in Mexico. In spite of right knee prosthesis, I have climbed to 21,600 ft. on Aconcagua in Argentina, to the summits of all the big mountains in Colorado and New England.  I have been in settings where the weather has been much colder, or where much more snow was falling and/or had fallen, but Mt. Washington delivered to me the worst combination of snow, cold, and wind -- especially wind -- that I have ever experienced.  For me, Mt. Washington lived up to its promise of having the world’s worst weather... and as a citizen of Maine, it is practically in my own back yard! 
 

"Come to the edge of the cliff, he said.      No, we are afraid." Come to the edge of the cliff, he said.      No, we are afraid. Come to the edge of the cliff," he said. They came..." (Stay tuned for the rest of the poem!) We can all be eagles... we can all fly. If you are really courageous... come fly with me! (Click here for promotional materials/fees)