Mud season on the summit of Mount Washington isn’t as muddy as you would think. Because the summit is primarily composed of rocks and gravel frozen in snow and ice, when spring begins, it takes on the characteristics of a giant puddle. Add a warmer day when precipitation is in liquid form and trapped from running off the result is a parking lot sized, deep puddle formation. There isn’t much that we can do with the standing water and so it creates an obstacle in collecting the precipitation can. The good news is our feet stay dry.

 

 

Oboz are the Mount Washington Observatory’s footwear sponsor and as such, we are all outfitted with varying insulated winter boots. I myself have the Women’s Bridger. Besides being insulated, this boot also happens to be waterproof with Oboz B-Dry technology. B-Dry is a breathable bootie that is sewn in between the boot lining and the outer material. It allows your foot to breath, moving heat vapor (moisture and body heat) away through the micropores in the breathable B-Dry membrane. These same micropores in the membrane than restricts larger water droplets from entering the boot creating a waterproof layer. The B-Dry bootie encompasses the entirety of the foot and its height is determined by the height of the tongue gusset. On my Bridger boots this gusset sits about 5” from the ground.

 

So on days we have a large puddle forming it means I can wear my Bridger boots to keep warm and dry!