I learned that Mt Washington’s reputation for the “worst weather in America” refers not to its continuously awful conditions but to the summit’s ability to attract the most screaming of winds, the most rapid deterioration of visibility and temperature at a moment’s notice.

To me, “generosity in the social context of the thru-hiking community” is best a one-way transaction within a particular interaction but part of a web of interconnected mutuality as we all pass gifts on to strangers.