Green tech in the White Mountains

 

We spent some time earlier this week hiking up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and took advantage of the very cool Appalachian Mountain Club hut system, which gives hikers the option to reserve/pay for beds and meals. We started out from Pinkham Notch and scaled up the Madison Gulf Trail to the Madison Hut where we spent our first night. On Day 2 we did the whole Presidential Traverse and stayed at the Mizpah Hut our second night, waking up early enough the next day to get out of the woods and back down to Boston to catch an afternoon Red Sox game at Fenway.

The weather started foggy, cold, and windy (it was 36 degrees w/+50 mph winds on the top of Washington when we left the Madison Hut) but we were later rewarded with great views of the endless green mountains of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine. In the few minutes I spent at the huts not eating or sleeping, it was really cool to check out the green tech that powers their systems and reduces the huts’ impact on the land that surrounds them. The huts are extremely isolated – generally several miles from any roads. All of the food and related guest amenities are packed in by the hut staff and all related waste is packed out by them as well. Guests are expected to pack out what they pack in. The huts all have electric lighting and full kitchens. Stoves are powered by propane and electricity is generated through a combination of mini-windmills, solar panels, and hydroelectric pumps. The pictures here are of the Madison Hut, which has solar panels that produce 1.8 megawatts and a windmill that produces .9 megawatts, the majority of which is used for powering the pumps which fuel the hut’s flush toilets. Most of the huts have composting toilets, which smell worse but consume far less energy and push out far less water into the septic field.

The huts are completely off the grid and can support +50 people night after night. Pretty cool stuff.