Purchased Prius 2008 and going to Mt.Washington NH

I'd suggest contacting "Hobbit" on this site. You can look him up by that username on this here. 100% positive he's been to the top of Mt. Washington more than once with his Prius...he has a bumper sticker on the back of his car that says so!

 

Does that road have any similarity to the roads on Pikes Peak or Mt. Evans in Colorado?

 

Snow tires, and if the weather is bad don't try it.

On the way up don't be afraid to floor the gas pedal when needed, and on the way down shift to "B" instead of "riding" the brakes (that is, pressing the brake pedal continuously for minutes at a time).

 

When you get to the gate, the guys will say "hmmm, you have a
very unusual car!" [which is becoming less and less true...]
and hand you a piece of paper that has their own rehash of B-mode
which goes over the basics. The facility director isn't sure if
he wrote it based on my original rundown on it or another
source like something Toyota gave him, but bottom line is yes, you
want to use B, probably all the way down. Once the battery is
topped up [within the first 500 ft of descent, it will be] you're
on engine-braking and the physical brakes the rest of the way, and
the engine's no slouch at dissipating energy in its own right and
doesn't powder off brake lining in the process.
.
If B is holding you back too much, you can pick up a little speed
by just dropping to D for a moment, and then back to B to maintain
control. But it's probably not worth trying to go much faster on
the straights, as they're not that long. We don't want to see any
prius-shaped cairns marking the trails up there.
.
I certainly didn't floor it on the way up. I don't think I topped
2600 RPM the whole way up. That's still a lot of power relative to
speed when you're going 15 - 20 mph, and more than that is not
needed or safe. Your radiator fans will still run, though.
.
And if driving up instead of hiking makes you feel guilty, you
need one of *my* bumper stickers rather than the stock one they
give you! [I've actually got nine more of them, and should
just sell the rest off at cost.]
.
_H*

 

On the 2010, switching momentarily to D is unnecessary. Just push down slightly on the gas pedal to reduce the holdback. It doesn't actually burn fuel, but just reduces the engine braking. It sounds and feels weird to have the engine slow down by pressing the gas pedal harder, but there is nothing illogical about it, as you are just modulating the engine braking function.

I cannot speak for pre-2010 models.

 

Correct, that's an alternate way to do it but possibly easier
to overdo a little, and harder to regulate. Pushing the go-pedal
a little removes *all* the drag and more or less has the same
effect as moving to N, where going to D still applies a little
drag.
.
This also points up how D and B are NO different except in a
complete feet-off-pedals condition!
.
_H*

 

You are correct. Start by using the brakes. If you need the brakes for a long time, shift to "B". Continue using the brakes if needed. If you want to speed up a little for a short time you can either shift back to "D" or touch the gas pedal.

After, if you forget to shift back to "D", continuing in "B" will do no damage but it will reduce fuel economy. (But never use "N" while driving! The only time for "N" is when the car is being pulled through an automatic car wash.)

 

This must have been changed for the 2010. I find it fairly easily to regulate the degree of engine braking in my 2010, and got a lot of practice with it in MT-WY-CO over the past few weeks.

Since the OP has a 2008, it won't apply to his Mt. Washington trip.

Very true!

 

I gave away one of my spare stickers yesterday. I was out doing
sort of a comparo-run between two GPSes [and there's a GIANT rant
forming about how astoundingly dumbed-down the Nuvi series is] and
had pulled into a little lot in a state park, and a lady and two
daughters came strolling up behind the car as I was poking buttons
and I could hear her sort of reading parts of what's on the rear
end out loud and remarking on the Mt. Washington sticker.
.
I furiously debated whether I should try to sell her one or just
give her one for about a second and a half, rolled the window
down farther and after describing a little how it was created with
a little image-editing work, said "would you like one?" ... the
daughters got the bright idea to use it as an xmas-present to their
father, who will likely get an even bigger kick out of it than the
mom. Yes, they've been up the mountain.
.
Spreadin' the love...
.
_H*

 

Where is this rant? Can't find it on your page.

 

Said rant wasn't done yet when you asked, but now it is in case
you didn't catch the ref in the garmin-vs-tomtom-vs-prius thread.
.

_H*

 

We took our 2002 up Mt Washington, up Pikes peak and up Sandia Crest. We passed a lot of car going up all of them. We had to stop and 1/2 way down Pikes Peak due to brake temp. That was caused the car in front of us running 10 mph and B mode would not keep the Prius slow enough. It was hot day about 3/4 of the cars had to stop and cool brakes. We were right on the border line the Ranger suggested we stop but said we didn't have to but since we didn't have a first gear he thought it would be best.
Our trip down Sandia Crest and heading west resulted in out best gas mileage ever.