Fun with winter

2007-10-21 10:26:25.000 – Stacey Kawecki,  Observer

ready for take off

“O hushed October morning mild,Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,Should waste them all.”—-Robert Frost, “October”

The other shift may get to boast of cold temperatures and the first significant snow fall of the season, but this shift gets to boast the highest wind of the season recorded thus far. Before I went to sleep, Zach asked me if I wanted to be woken up if we reached winds of 100 MPH. What kind of weather observer on the top of Mount Washington would I be if I didn’t say, “heck yeah!”? The wind managed to gust to 110 mph at 1:15 am, EST. So, at around 2 am I got my first taste of 100 + mph wind speeds. I wasn’t blown off my feet, but I did manage to lose a hat, and my head lamp played a nice little trick on me. It decided to fly off my head and gracefully soar through the air to the end of the deck, with me following behind not quite as gracefully. After spending ten to fifteen minutes on the deck, everyone decided to take a trip to the tower, just for fun, and boy was it fun!

Three hours later, Kyle says something along the lines of there being a nice slick layer of glaze ice on the deck, and perhaps we ought to try deck-sledding. Well, that turned out to be not only a blast, but also a little bit of a challenge. Because the summit currently lacks any sleds, we decided to use a cardboard box. The first attempt, all I needed was a little shove to travel about fifty feet. The make-shift sled took a bit of a beating, and when it was Kyle’s turn, he went about 15 feet. The third attempt completely failed, as the wind would not allow me to sit upon our sled. I couldn’t stop running, and had to fall before I hit the deck railing. When we finally came back inside, after my first successful de-icing attempt, I felt like I had just run a mile or two. Our only regret is that temperatures are going to get pretty warm again, and we’ll just have to wait until next shift week and hope that the mountain provides some more snow adventures for the entire crew.

Take off!And there she goes Kyle’s turn Looks like fun

Stacey Kawecki,  Observer