Favorite time of year

2008-05-11 16:24:37.000 – Brian Clark,  Observer

Now that I have been living on or around Mount Washington for almost a full year, I think that I have decided that this time of year is my second favorite. When I lived in Pennsylvania, fall was my second favorite season. What time of year has the title of my favorite you ask? Well, the heart of winter of course; it always will be.

I actually just came to this conclusion today while I was climbing back up the East Snowfields this afternoon. I took a break from work to enjoy the gorgeous day and do a bit of skiing. I was able to get two runs in and get back to the Sherman Adams building in one hour. Not too bad.

But I digress. So, as I was hiking back up from my second run I was realizing how great this time of year is when you live either on or around Mount Washington. Sunny, calm, and relatively warm days happen with more frequency, but at the same time there is still tons of snow left for skiing. In my opinion, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than skiing abundant, soft, corn snow in a long sleeve shirt and light shell pants. The avalanche danger and the concern of rock hard snow of mid winter are not but a memory at this point. However, spring skiing on Mount Washington does bring about its own dangers, which are talked about fairly thoroughly on tuckerman.org.

The only depressing thing about this time of year is knowing that it will inevitably come to an end. The same reasons I enjoy skiing this time of year are gradually making the snow disappear. In the matter of a few more weeks, the East Snowfields will be bare rock and the alpine flowers will begin to bloom.

But that’s ok. I still have several weeks of good spring skiing left on the mountain, and I will always have my now third favorite season to look forward to in a few months: Fall.

Brian Clark,  Observer