A Spring Volunteer Week

2015-05-28 05:59:10.000 – Ayla & Bruce, Summit Volunteers

What a great week to be volunteers at the Observatory (but isn’t every week up here great?)! We experienced a true spring week on top of the mountain – one which showed us many extremes including high winds in which we could barely stand, snow, rain, fog, rime ice, clear days with visibility up to 130 miles, and clear nights with an amazing blanket of stars. 

 

We started the week with wind chills of -10 and ended it at temperatures in the 50s! We were treated to some beautiful sunsets, and the most amazing sunrise followed by a quiet early morning hike. With the clear weather we were able to get a number of fantastic hikes in on trails that we ordinarily wouldn’t have time to hike like the Alpine Ridge, our favorite, and Boott Spur. We also got to expand our creative cooking and baking utilizing the different set of ingredients available to us on the summit to provide dinners and even some desserts for the staff – I think the favorite of the week was New York Style Cheesecake with Peanut Butter Whipped Cream (yummm!). Of course, the staff rounded out the experience making it such a great week. Already looking forward to our next week on top – just hope we are ready for the winter and Snowcat trip up.

 

Ayla & Bruce, Summit Volunteers