In-Between Season

2013-04-29 16:35:31.000 – Neil Lovett,  Summit Volunteer

Melting Ice

Simplicity is sort of a lost art these days. I am fortunate to be on The Rock Pile this time of year. I have gotten a unique opportunity to watch what can be the harshest of all winters on this planet morph into a gentler, more forgiving spring. While here this week, I’ve listened as ice turned to frigid water and cold snows disappear.

Replacing the snow and ice is budding life, the birth of Spring, so complicated, yet so simple if you try not to understand why it happens, just except the fact and rejoice in the realization that it does happen, year after year. Here on Mount Washington the most adventurous of skiers refuse to let Winter go into its annual hibernation. They come to enjoy the soft snows of spring and enjoy skiing as it was invented to be, free of lifts, crowds, ropes and rules. Ski it if you can!

And lastly, as winter melts away and temperatures rise, it marks the beginning of the tourist season. Hikers arrive in masses, the Mount Washington Auto Road will bring cars up by the thousands and the Cog Railway chugs its way up the tracks to the summit.

The Mount Washington I lived on in January and the Mt Washington I experienced during the initial part of this week when it snowed and the wind chill was below zero, is in it’s seasonal transition. Like the melting ice and the budding greens, the human factor of The Rock Pile, while not always the most welcome sight, is also beautiful in its simplicity.

Neil Lovett,  Summit Volunteer