Hiking and Lightning: These are a few of my favorite things! (As long as they are not occurring at the same time…)

2015-08-03 21:49:49.000 – Elena Weinberg, Summit Intern

 

Well, it’s been another wonderful week up here on the Rockpile. This past Wednesday a few of us hiked up to the summit for shift change. We started at Pinkham Notch and hiked up Tuckerman Ravine. On the way up, we stopped to look at Crystal Cascade, a beautiful waterfall just a short hike from the Pinkham Visitor Center.
 

Crystal Cascade

 
This was my first hike up the mountain I have called home this summer. This was also my first time getting a good look at Tuckerman Ravine. We took a brief pause by the Hermit Lake Shelter and the surrounding mountains were glowing from the recent sunrise.
 

Hermit Lake

 
The view from Hermit Lake was also quite beautiful even with the top part of the ravine obscured by fog.
 

View along the hike

 
Once we made it over the Little Headwall, the fog cleared some and gave us a great view of Tucks.
 

View of Tucks

 

View along the hike

 
As we made our way up the Big Headwall, we saw there was still a pretty large chunk of glacier there, impressive for the tail end of July.
 

View along the hike

 
We made it to the summit and I insisted on getting a victory shot at the summit sign. A nice man offered to take a picture of Ryan and me once we got there.
 

Summit

 
Needless to say, it was a wonderful hike, but an exhausting first day of work.
We had a busy few days of tours and I’ve spent the remainder of my time forecasting, doing historical data entry, and working on an IT project. By Friday afternoon we had cleared pretty nicely.

  

View along the hike

 
Conveniently, Saturday was a pretty quiet day in the Obs, so I was finally able to show my family around the summit! Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day so Sunday night, I decided to visit my dear friends down at the Lakes of the Clouds Hut.
 

View along the hike

 
I hiked back up to the summit via the Tuckerman Ravine Trail since Tuckerman Crossover is one of my favorite trails.
 
We spent today watching storms develop and they did not disappoint! This morning we could see pink cumulonimbus clouds associated with severe thunderstorms in Quebec.

  

Towering cumulus clouds

 
This afternoon we got quite the show, with small hail, strong gusts, and several direct lightning strikes to the summit. Having had a fairly tame summer here weather-wise, I was chomping at the bit to be in a storm like this on the summit and it was thrilling! After the chaos of our storm had passed, we cleared and had the most incredible view of a storm moving through to our north (pictured below). This is one of the most spectacular things I have ever seen and I am sure to never forget it.
 

View along the hike

 
 

 

Elena Weinberg, Summit Intern

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