A Great Week!

2010-03-03 11:53:03.000 – Althea Goundrey,  Summit Volunteer

Sledneck!

This was my first winter volunteer shift, and had the opportunity to experience the power of sustained winds of 100 mph with gusts of 132.4 mph. The ride to the summit on Thursday was an adventure in itself with Mike Finnegan, Observer, and Wayne, the Smooth Operator, taking turns guiding the snow cat through the zero visibility. Once we were at the summit, it was a quick turn-around for the 4-hour return trip.

The first light-of-day was Sunday’s sunrise, and that was an epic day for Paul skiing with Brian Clark, Observer, Mike (boarding), and Nick Lovejoy, Intern, and me hanging out at the newly-claimed lunch rocks taking photographs and videos.

Along with the pristine day, the group of German students and their professor, Andreas, and assistant, Michael, from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum arrived after a 6 hour trip to the summit.

Paul and I kept busy cooking and cleaning, and receiving multiple compliments for the meals, and especially, the desserts. Paul was the official breakfast cook, and I provided most of the desserts, of course. The kitchen was also a flurry of discussion about the scientific research. The students were busy gathering supplies for their tests of freezing and melting, sharing about the lack of rime build-up, and finding their own digestive limits.

I did take advantage of a 4-hour hike with 5 of the Germans learning along the way about the rime formations, and the accumulated snow and drifting.

Before we depart, we will be sure to peek into the igloo that 2 of the students dug-out.

Until another volunteer trip,

Althea Goundrey,  Summit Volunteer