Bike Week! 2011-06-13 21:44:55.000 - Rebecca Scholand,  Summit Museum Attendant Living in Daytona Beach for the past few years I have experienced quite a few Bike weeks. This weekend was the start of the 2011 Laconia Bike week. Today was the first Ride to the Sky with the Mount Washington Auto Road where the road was only open to bikers. Despite the weather, the summit still saw its fair share visiting the summit. I found it very interesting to hear where they had all traveled from and what their plans were for the week. Some had even been to the

Second Comment 2011-06-12 15:21:19.000 - Jaclyn Ritzman,  Summit Intern Undercast and the Northern Presidential Mountains I have experienced many new things this week! We hiked down to the Alpine Garden last Wednesday, which was quite the excursion. Even though the bugs were bothersome, seeing the flowers made the hike well worth it. Not only was visiting the Alpine Garden a new experience, we woke up Saturday morning to the summit being under a cap cloud. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I would be under a cap cloud. Once late morning hit, the northern side of the

SR 6/11/11 2011-06-11 16:25:48.000 - Stephen Rosenman,  Summit Intern Cold, Windy, and Rainy Summit While I will not say this very often, I think today has been a good day not to be out on the trails. Other than watching the large cap cloud pour over us into the Great Gulf early this morning (as Mike mentioned below), it has been pretty crummy hiking weather all day. The Summit has been in the clouds with minimal visibility, frequent rain showers, and temperatures hovering around the mid-30s. Walking around the Sherman Adams building and working down in the Observatory gift shop,

Alpine Flowers 2011-06-10 23:01:24.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Alpine Flowers As promised last night, here are a few more flower pictures from our hike the other day. Waking up this morning revealed another cool photo opportunity - a cap cloud. This particular cap cloud persisted for several hours, but as I write this, we are beginning to go into the fog, back to our normal view of grey. And now back to last night's comment... That long awaited window is finally here - the time when alpine flowers are in bloom. Yesterday I got out for a hike with

Escaping the Heat 2011-06-09 16:10:57.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL It was certainly nice to escape the heat in the valley yesterday by coming to the summit. I love the fact that a 'hot' day on Mount Washington sees temperatures in the 60's. That's my idea of a perfect summer day! Then there is the nice breeze to make it feel even a little bit cooler. I was also happy to get away from the bugs in the valley. This is my fifth summer living in New England, and this year is by far the worst I have

All Staff Meeting 2011-06-08 18:11:00.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist All Staff Photo, Summer '11 It doesn't happen very often but at least once a year the entire staff working for the Mount Washington Observatory comes together for an all staff meeting. There are a few reasons we have this meeting. The first is to introduce all the new full time and seasonal staff members to each other so we can put a face to a name and voice. In my time here, these meet and greets are sometimes littered with a few new faces while other times the new

A Good Week On Summit 2011-06-07 12:08:45.000 - Dan Fortier,  Summit Volunteer Alpine Flowers Blooming Near Clay My week as a volunteer on the summit started Wednesday June 1st with summer-like weather, and quickly changed to winter with temperatures below freezing packing wind gusts of 101.2 MPH. I was not expecting hurricane-force winds, freezing fog and rime ice. Then back to summer!Helping with the cooking and cleaning for the crew was a pleaser - they're a great bunch of guys and one gal. I had a lot of me time to hike, taking trips to the Lakes of the Clouds,

NULL 2011-06-06 16:48:50.000 - Peter Strand,  Summit Intern View from the Alpine Garden Now that summer is back on track, we've all been able to back outside to enjoy the weather. Winds have been very mild and temperatures have climbed over 50 degrees the past few days. Visitors were treated to some beautiful vistas, with visibility well over 100 miles! But now the summit seems rather quiet after a pretty busy weekend.Today, Tom and I were able to take a hike down to the Alpine Garden. We've received a few inquiries regarding the state of the garden, and I am

NULL 2011-06-05 08:26:02.000 - Tom Padham,  Summit Intern Ice begins to melt on Ball Crag Summer has returned to the summits once again after a brief visit from winter over the past few days. The rime ice coating the summits has mostly melted away, and temperatures are expected to climb to near 50 degrees! (Yes that is Summer weather up here) With the mild weather and with customer appreciation day today on the auto road we expect to see many visitors enjoying the summit. Looking ahead, it looks like Summer is here to stay as mild temperatures stay in the

Spectacular day! 2011-06-04 18:45:58.000 - Erin Diveny,  Summit Museum Supervisor NULL Today was an absolutely gorgeous day on the summit! Wonderful visibility combined with rime ice made for some spectacular views! Today was the annual meeting down in the valley which brought a lot of members to the summit! Many of them went for tours which kept our interns busy! Two of our members even surprised us with a special treat of donuts, muffins and bagels (delicious!). Of course they couldn't leave Marty out…he got spoiled (as if he already isn't!) with cat toys! The museum was busy all day