It was as a consequence of the fire that Ethan sought new opportunities to repair his ravaged finances. The area was beginning to attract tourists desirous of reaching the mountain peaks, and in 1819 Abel had already guided a couple of groups up the hills. Ethan was also approached and noted the difficulties that they experienced in negotiating the thickly-wooded terrain. Later that year, he and Abel together eased those problems by clearing woodland and grading a route for the first path to the summit of Mount Washington. Covering a distance of over , beginning at the top of what was then called White Mountain Notch, the path cut through forest past the tree line to reach a ridge near the peak of Bald Mountain, then traversed a bleak ridge and negotiated various other peaks before reaching its goal. It is today known as the Crawford Path, still mostly follows the original route and is considered to be the oldest White Mountains trail in continuous use. It may not, however, have been the first path to the summit: the mineralogist George Gibbs probably commissioned the creation of a crude path, now lost, on the eastern slopes in 1809.