Playing Catch

2012-07-01 16:43:07.000 – Emanuel Janisch,  Summit Intern

Playing Catch With the Wind

One of the things that come to mind first when Mount Washington is brought up is the winds. That in a sense is what Mount Washington is known for, the highest wind speed ever recorded by man. Now 231 mph has not been recorded again on the summit but winds have easily reached 100 plus mph during the winter. During the summer however, winds of this speed are a rare occurrence but speeds of 65mph and above happen now and again. With winds of these speeds playing catch is out of the question. Throwing a baseball into the wind, the ball’s never going to get to your partner and throwing with the wind it will be carried way past. So with this being the case I would normally have giving up and gone inside, however stroke of genius hit me, why not play catch with the wind. So by throwing the ball a little in front of me and up the wind would blow it back and I would catch it. After a few test throws I learned that the further I throw it up the further away I could throw it and it would always come back to me and it turned into a game. It almost seemed like I was playing fetch with my dog except the wind would bring the ball back and not the dog. As light faded seeing the ball became a problem and after sunset I was forced to retire playing catch with myself and head indoors away from the howling winds.

Emanuel Janisch,  Summit Intern