By Nate Weitzer
The numbers are staggering. The White Mountains Direttissima requires climbing all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot peaks in one continuous thru-hike. That means roughly 240 miles and a whopping 80,000 feet of elevation gain on some of the most gnarly, rugged terrain you’ll find anywhere in the Lower 48.
Now, imagine undertaking that adventure with three young children in tow.
That’s exactly what New Hampshire-based hiker and ultrarunner Whitney Pearson did earlier this summer, completing the Direttissima in 35 days with a 1-year-old in a carrier, and her headstrong 3- and 6-year-olds on trail. In doing so, she not only accomplished a major achievement in Northeast hiking, she pulled off a miraculous feat of parenting.
“I had no idea how this was going to go. I had no expectations,” Pearson said about two weeks after finishing the journey at Mount Cabot. “Whenever they said, ‘We’re done’, then we would be done. But once we got into a groove, they didn’t want to go home, they were loving it. And they had big expectations for themselves, which was really cool to see.”
A Hiking Family
The older girls were not new to hiking when they started with Mount Moosilauke at the western end of the route on June 18. Pearson, a native of the North Conway area, carried Lydia up multiple New Hampshire summits as an infant while rediscovering a love for hiking in 2020. Soon after she began to walk at age 3, Lydia was bagging peaks, and at 4, she became the youngest to finish the 48, doing so over a few seasons with her mom.
After wrapping up Lydia’s list with a Presidential Traverse in June of 2024, Pearson joked with her husband, Eric, that as soon as their younger daughter, Demi, was walking, they should go one step further by attempting the Direttissima with the children. Over the next two years, that idea became a possibility, even after the Pearsons welcomed another daughter, Moriah.
Following their achievement, Demi is now the youngest to complete the 48 on her own two feet, and Moriah is certainly the youngest to complete a Direttissima in any fashion.
Leading up to the trip, the girls were gung-ho and had no hiccups during a two-day trial run on Vermont’s Long Trail in May, so Pearson stuffed her Ford Bronco with mounds of groceries and supplies, arranged for friends and family members to help her move the vehicle between road crossings, and set out to guide her kids through New Hampshire’s high peaks.
“I wanted them to experience a true thru-hike as closely as I could,” said Pearson, a former college softball player and accomplished ultrarunner with multiple fastest known times in New England.
“We knew we weren’t going to go home, but that was a struggle at first. Every time we got to my car, they associated that with home. But they just loved being outside. They talked about this hike for so long, that they never wanted to ask to stop.”
Logistics Of Thru-Hiking While Parenting
When thru-hiking any route, including the Direttissima, it is acceptable to leave the trail during a resupply period, and resume hiking from the same spot. Pearson and her kids stayed with family for five nights and spent four in hotels. On the route, they paid for five nights at Appalachian Mountain Club huts, five at AMC campsites or shelters, and popped a tent in the backcountry for 15 nights – which the girls thoroughly enjoyed.
While resupply means respite, it also means more weight when you start again. Pearson estimates her backpack weighed nearly 80 pounds (in addition to a 30-pound infant hanging from her chest) when she started the second major section of the hike with a steep climb up Liberty Springs trail toward the Franconia Ridge. It took about four days to reach the next resupply point near the Fire Warden’s trail to Mount Hale, when her pack again ballooned to massive proportions.
Eric, a 6-foot-6 former college athlete, picked up Whitney’s backpack at a road crossing and told his wife that he didn’t think he could shoulder that burden for the better part of a week.
“I’m impressed by it all, but I think I’m most impressed with Whitney’s mental capacity to even desire to do something like that with her kids,” said Sarita Ojala, an accomplished runner who often hikes with her four children, and joined the Pearsons at the start and finish. “It takes a lot of patience to hike with kids and keep them motivated.”
Pearson described her older daughters as “Alpha Females” so there was definitely some bickering between them throughout the five weeks. But without the trappings and conveniences of civilization, it was difficult to threaten consequences if her kids misbehaved.
“The most difficult thing was parenting,” said Pearson, who works in the restaurant industry and is a personal trainer for athletes. “I had no leverage over them during the hike. I had no TV to take away, I couldn’t send them to their rooms or separate them. It was hard to get them to work through their emotions, whether it was kids fighting, or just the climbs being hard.”
Adventure And Personal Growth
Near the end of the trip, the family traversed the Northern Presidentials on a windy day. Most adults are unsettled by the range known for the world’s worst weather, and her kids expressed some anxiety about the conditions, but kept clambering over boulders toward the next summit, and never asked to go down.
Just two days after finishing with Mount Cabot on July 23, the girls were asking their mom about the next adventure. They climbed Mount Monadnock with the Ojalas a week later, and while they have plenty of other interests, their love of hiking continues to grow.
As an ultrarunner with huge solo multi-day efforts under her belt, Pearson knows a thing or two about determination. Those who criticize her for theoretically putting her kids in harm’s way or pressuring them to “be like her” are missing the distinction between ultrarunning and adventuring in the mountains at a casual pace, both of which can promote personal growth.
“I actually take a break from my running and ultra lifestyle to go do things with my kids,” said Pearson. “I do like them to experience not quitting, but I don’t want people to think I’m trying to turn them into ultrarunners. It’s just trying to teach them to do hard things in life.”
Nate Weitzer is an avid trail runner, backcountry skier, and mountain climber living in North Woodstock, New Hampshire, where he writes for multiple publications. Over the past 20 years he’s thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail, a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, climbed Mt. Rainier, Adams, Baker, Hood, and skied off multiple volcanoes. Weitzer has summitted the NH 48 in all four seasons, finished the ADK 46er list while working trail maintenance in the Keene Valley area, and completed the Colorado 14ers over the course of four summers. He’s written about the inaugural White Mountains 100 and ultrarunner Lexi Jackson for Northeast Explorer.
