TDI Golf on Top of Mt. Washington NH

Yeah, it's my TDI Golf and I drove it up the twisting, nasty 8 mile road to top at 6,288 ft. First and second gear all the way up (mostly first gear). First gear only on the way down. Part dirt road, part paved and part gravel. Freezing rain on the way down in July. No guardrails and massive drop offs. Barely room for two vehicles to pass each other in the opposite lanes. It was not something I enjoyed doing. The car handled it effortlessly. You could smell the brakes burning from the other cars as you drove by them.

Average fuel consumption on my 1800 mile vacation was 46.1 MPG. To say I'm happy with the car is an understatement.

Congratulations! Freezing rain in July?? I guess there is no good time to do that drive. But now that you've done it once, you really don't have to do it again. Once is enough.

Been there in my TDI. Had to follow a no-torque Honda on the way up. That was the worst part of an otherwise thrilling trip up. Glad I had a stick shift on the way down. Mostly uneventful. Very pretty scenery. If you ever go again, be sure to listen to the DVD about the mountain on the way up. Adds drama to the journey.

The temp was 46 F when we got to the top. About 83F at the bottom. Mt. Washington creates its own weather system according to the audio CD. People get hypothermia up there in the summer months. I heard the rain pellets hitting the windshield just as I started down the mountain. The drive down really sucked. Especially in my brand new car. I didn't ride the brakes and used the low gears. I felt sorry for all those SUV owners who cooked their brakes on the way down.....you could smell burnt brakes all the way down the mountain. When I got to the bottom I saw all the roadside ads for brake shops everywhere. Very funny....

I was there in my car during the rally but there was fog and you could only go half way up

No Hi-Jack Intended

I recently watched an episode of Extreme Sports on Versus a couple of weeks ago. One of the features was about this guy, who drives professionally for Suabru, attempting to break the record in reaching the top of Mt Washington.

Yeah, I saw the "no gaurd rails", dirt and gravel portions of the road. I think he made to the top in something like 6 minutes? Anyway, the video was pretty wicked. Did in an SRX tricked out for Baha. Crazy speed!!

a bit of history, a Stanley Steamer was the first auto to climb the mountain way way back when, another unique car.

Just went up this past saturday, drove into the clouds first mile, 60MPH winds and 30-50ft visibility at the summit, it was a great time and the TDI handled it amazing, kept it in second on the way up and never heard the fans kick on, hardly touched the brakes on the way down and just kept it in first.

Sounds like a fun weekend adventure!

I climb Mt Washington in winter, and the road changes so the snow-cats won't fall off the side. In late spring to open the mountain they frequently drive a huge loader up to remove the 20' of snow that never melts out of the shaded areas. I've been up it in cars as well, and think it's much less scary to climb it in winter than drive it in summer. Mt Washington does create its own weather system, but it's also on the apex of 3 weather systems, which often don't play well together. I climbed it one March and watched it go from 50° and foggy to 0° and blizzard conditions in less than 20 minutes. It has snowed every month of the year before, and I have gone sledding in July on remnants of the previous winters snow.