The first few days up here have been nothing less than incredible. Partly sunny skies guided me up the mountain on my first day. Winds were strong of 60-80 mph sustained with a peak wind gust of 94 mph the next day! These wind speeds were nothing I have ever experienced. It was hard to stand in these 60-80mph winds and even hard to breathe with so much air coming at you.

Getting familiar with the living areas and workspace were awesome to see how my summer will continue. The crew and volunteers have been incredibly friendly with a great work environment. Furthermore, the opportunities around the summit for a quick hike are amazing to capture the extraordinary views.

The highlight of my time up here was Thursday where some amazing lenticular clouds formed throughout the day and evening. These clouds are my favorite due to their rarity, association with topographic terrain, and appearance. I have never seen lenticular clouds so well formed and large magnitude across the sky. I am very excited to continue this amazing internship and experience the extreme weather! I’ll leave you with a few awesome pictures of the lenticular clouds from Thursday.