The first time friends and I trudged up New Hampshire’s Mount Washington in winter the frozen peak might as well have been Antarctica – hurricane-force winds and blinding snow battered us, the only climbers that day atop the highest and most treacherous peak in the Northeast.

A hand-scrawled sign on the door of the summit weather observatory advised hikers to keep out, so we hunkered in the lee of the building, which was coated in rime ice, hastily pulled aside neoprene face masks to gnaw on obsidian-like energy bars, and then adjusted our crampons for the slippery descent.

Fast forward to a summer afternoon when I was among thousands of shorts-clad hikers clambering up Washington’s rocky trails; in the distance a long queue of cars snaked up the auto road, and the mournful whistle of the Cog Railway train, packed with summit-bound passengers, echoed through the valley.

The Presidential Range peak has long had a split personality – a forbidding mountain notorious for unleashing, as trailhead warning signs proclaim, the worst weather in the world; and a popular summer destination for motorized summiteers who slurp ice cream cones, buy T-shirts, snap photographs and then slap “This Car Climbed Mount Washington” bumper stickers on their SUVs.

The hard-core hikers and less-energetic tourists have for the most part gotten along, but a new proposal by owners of the railway to build a 35-room hotel and restaurant less than a mile from the summit has opened a rift as wide as the mountain’s Tuckerman Ravine.

Opponents upset about potential environmental degradation quickly started a petition on the website Change.org that at last count has collected some 6,000 signatures; proponents eager to cash in on increased tourism development have launched their own advocacy effort.

On Thursday night railway President Wayne Presby, who with business partners in the 1990s restored the sumptuous Mount Washington Hotel in nearby Bretton Woods, outlined his proposal to the Coos County planning board, which eventually will have to decide whether or not to approve necessary construction plans.

“I think it will just generate more economic activity, jobs and the things that the county and the state need the most,” he was quoted as saying in published reports.

Meanwhile, Rachel Lewis, a local hiker who started the petition, told the New Hampshire Union Leader,

“With the constant expansion of luxuries on the summit, we have also created two other problems, one being that the summit sign has turned into the equivalent of waiting for a ride on Splash Mountain,” Lewis wrote referring to the Walt Disney World attraction.

“The ones who actually hike to the summit are stuck waiting in line behind a sea of khakis and sandals. With the added Cog traffic this issue is sure to increase,” she added.

No surprise, I tend to line up with the hikers on this issue, but with some reservations.

Like most outdoor enthusiasts I hate to see manmade intrusions in the wilderness, but for all its majesty and grandeur, Mount Washington is far from pristine; that genie escaped the bottle long ago. In addition to the aforementioned auto road and railway, which are open in late spring through early fall, the 60.3-acre Mount Washington State Park at the summit is dominated by the sprawling Sherman Adams Building. Constructed in 1980 this elegant structure houses a cafeteria, restrooms, gift shop, observatory and museum.

The Tip-Top House adjacent to the Adams Building was originally built in 1853 as a hotel to compete with an existing inn; the two later combined to include a dining room, barroom and parlor before eventually shutting down. In 1986 the Tip-Top House underwent renovations as a historic site and is open to visitors seasonally.

In 1873 the railway also built and operated the 91-room Summit House hotel until it burned down in 1908 and was replaced by a smaller structure. The state bought the property in 1964 and replaced the old hotel with the visitor center 16 years later.

In 1915 the eco-friendly, nonprofit Appalachian Mountain Club built its own lodging, Lakes of the Clouds Hut, on Mount Washington’s eastern slope only 1.4 miles from the summit via the Crawford Path. Expanded over the years this rustic, off-the-grid structure now sleeps up to 90 people a night from June to mid-September and has earned the dubious nickname “Lakes of the Crowds” because it is always packed to the gills.

I’ve hiked past but never stayed at Lakes, but full disclosure, have spent many nights in various huts and shelters in the White Mountains and other lofty places. I’ve slept in the world’s northernmost hotel in Barrow, Alaska; the highest hotel on earth in the Andes of Argentina; and once visited the Everest View Hotel in the Himalayas while hiking through Nepal’s Khumbu region.

I suspect many opponents of the proposed Cog Railway hotel also have bunked in AMC shelters from time to time. It’s a little disingenuous for anyone who has plunked down up to $162 to spend a night and be served two meals at an AMC hut to object to another hotel on the same mountain simply because the hut is accessible only on foot.

Elitism and hypocrisy are just as offensive as environmental disregard. Does a throng of backpackers munching granola have any less impact than a railroad car full of Snickers-eaters?

As far as the proposed hotel goes, maybe there can be common ground between conservationists and developers.

Perhaps there would be more support if instead of offering sumptuous luxury the hotel were built using sustainable materials; if guests, like most who stay in AMC huts, had to carry in and carry out their food and refuse; and if there were no hot showers or indoor plumbing.

But then, who’d want to stay there, except crazy backpackers?

Developer Presby said he hopes to have the hotel up and running in time for the railway’s 150th anniversary in 2019.

I predict it will take at least that long just to obtain building permits and resolve possible legal challenges.