Highlights of My First Week on the Summit

By Jacob Garside

Good morning! I’m Jacob Garside, a new summer intern here at the Mount Washington Observatory. I grew up climbing Mt. Washington and the surrounding mountains and always dreamed of staying one night on the summit; now I get to spend almost fifty!

I grew up in Henniker, New Hampshire, and was a rower at Concord Crew for almost five years. I’ve rowed at Youth Nationals, and have had the opportunity to row the Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston quite a few times. I am an avid skier and was an alpine racer for numerous years. This helped me become comfortable backcountry skiing in the White Mountains, especially Tuckerman Ravine.

When I graduated high school I was originally headed to Duluth Minnesota to study pre-law, but I decided after my acceptance to take a gap year. During that year off, I traveled and spent time hiking in the Sierras and decided that becoming a lawyer wasn’t for me. I found myself staring at clouds often and realized I loved the world around me and wanted to be able to understand and explain it better. Enter meteorology! I dropped pre-law, fled Minnesota, and headed to Plymouth State University. I instantly realized there was a lot more to meteorology than just clouds! While at Plymouth I also applied to be a part of a study of solar eclipses called the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project, where our team was flown down to New Mexico for the annular eclipse in 2023, and then to Northern New Hampshire for the total solar eclipse in April of this year. I have since given talks on the results of our research such as the effects of eclipses on the boundary layer. All of this has helped me further myself as a meteorologist and expand my meteorological background and knowledge.

Launching a balloon in Pittsburg NH near 3 am on April 8th.

My first week was incredibly eventful, from sledding to flying a kite, my fellow intern Josh and I have definitely made the best out of our time here. We’ve spent ample time with Nimbus, and gone on hikes around the summit, around Mt. Clay, and down to the headwall of Tuckerman Ravine. We also settled on a joint research topic that hopefully makes forecasting on the summit more accurate. The Sherman Adams building was closed our first week so it’s been a bit different having so many people here this week. I’ve gotten to give a radio forecast to AMC hut crews and trail crews, published my first forecast, and got to record it for the website. We’ve also had incredible volunteers who have cooked us amazing meals and kept us company. My favorite meal was when they made breakfast for dinner, I’m a sucker for bacon and pancakes! It’s been a blast to adapt to life up on the mountain, and I’ve had a hard time believing I’m actually here.

Learning how to take weather observations with Francis Tarasiewicz.

I feel incredibly lucky to have this opportunity, and can’t wait to spend more time with Nimbus and the other observers!

Nimbus doing what he does best; being cute!