Summit Selfie Staging Takes Longer Than Actual Hike

Day hiker Chelsea Fontaine completed the summit of Mount Washington in four hours and twelve minutes on Saturday, then spent the next six hours staging photographs for social media. 'The hike is the easy part,' Fontaine said, adjusting a hiking pole she had wrapped in fairy lights. 'The content is where the real work happens.' Fontaine's summit photo session included 347 photographs taken from fourteen angles, three outfit changes performed behind a strategically positioned backpack, and a twenty-minute segment in which she pretended to be 'candidly gazing at the horizon while a friend took unstaged photos from a predetermined distance.' 'She brought a ring light,' said fellow hiker Marcus Draper, who had been waiting to take a simple summit photo for over an hour. 'To a mountain. She brought a ring light to a mountain.' Fontaine's preparation began the previous evening with what she described as a 'content planning session,' during which she mapped out exact poses, hashtags, and caption options. Her top caption choice -- 'The summit isn't the top of the mountain, it's the top of yourself' -- was selected from a shortlist of forty-seven. Other hikers at the summit reported being asked to move out of frame, hold reflectors, and in one case, 'pretend to be hiking in the background for atmosphere.' 'She asked me to walk past her six times looking inspired,' said hiker Gene Watkins. 'I'm 62 years old and I have bad knees. I did not feel inspired.' Fontaine ultimately selected three photos for posting, which received a combined 2,847 likes. When asked if the six-hour staging process was worth it, she said, 'Every minute. Also, I missed the last shuttle down and had to sleep in my car.'