Snow Fort Shenanigans 2010-03-05 17:03:38.000 - Drew Hill,  Summit Intern Steven Welsh enjoys a fine piece of literature I recently heard somebody refer to storms as ''tantrums of the atmosphere.'' Well, if that's the case, then sign our shift up for a Parent of the Year Award (Those do exist, right?), because the atmosphere up here has been anything but fussy. In fact, another high pressure system has moved into the region, bringing with it impeccably sunny skies. Stacey's out making turns on the East Snowfields, Steve's tanning in a lawn-chair on the Obs Deck, and, well, the intern is

NULL 2010-03-04 16:52:10.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Jinxed, cursed, hexed, ill-fated, star-crossed, condemned, doomed. Whichever word you choose to use will likely accurately describe how Andreas, the professor from Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany must feel. After last winter's ridiculous fiasco (German's stranded on top of Mount Washington!), he is most likely becoming used to adversity when it comes to summit trips. To refresh your memory, last year towards the end of February, the summit received about two feet of snow in about two days. There were multiple failed attempts by snow tractors and operators to summit

A Great Week! 2010-03-03 11:53:03.000 - Althea Goundrey,  Summit Volunteer Sledneck! This was my first winter volunteer shift, and had the opportunity to experience the power of sustained winds of 100 mph with gusts of 132.4 mph. The ride to the summit on Thursday was an adventure in itself with Mike Finnegan, Observer, and Wayne, the Smooth Operator, taking turns guiding the snow cat through the zero visibility. Once we were at the summit, it was a quick turn-around for the 4-hour return trip.The first light-of-day was Sunday's sunrise, and that was an epic day for Paul skiing with Brian

What a week! 2010-03-02 23:08:57.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist Generally speaking, the summit crew is always pretty anxious to get down the mountain on the Wednesday after spending a week on top. Don't get me wrong, all of us love the mountain and feel very lucky to be here for a week at a time, but we also work very hard while we are here. In a typical 8 day shift we put in at least 80 hours of work but often more towards 90 or even 100 hours on very busy weeks. This alone makes the prospect

Some much needed outside time! 2010-03-01 12:34:41.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist My favorite shot from yesterday As Ryan wrote in his comment on Saturday, things have been a little 'different' this shift. He described how things have been different as far as work schedule goes, but the weather has also been very different this week in several ways.First of all, it has snowed. A lot. Now this isn't something that is necessarily different from what is would normally like on Mount Washington this time of year, but it is certainly different than what it has been like on

From night into day 2010-02-27 15:01:31.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist Snow so dense, it's blue! Most weeks I am on the summit, I work nights. But this is nothing new for me. In fact, I have been working nights since 2002 between working at an airport flight tower in San Jose and working here at the Mount Washington Observatory. The only times I have worked days was occasionally a shift in San Jose, the one month I was an intern here back in Dec. 05/Jan. 06, and (as far as I can remember) four other shifts as a full

A Wicked Night! 2010-02-26 21:49:08.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer The Crew and Mr. Snowflake Things here on the summit are finally starting to calm down after a wild night on the mountain this time yesterday. While winds are now approaching a mere 10 mph, last night they were sustained over 100 mph at times and gusting several times into the 120 mph range, topping out at 132 mph. While these winds are quite strong, they are not uncommon on the mountain. We saw a gust on Novermber 28th to 137 mph and another 132 mph gust on New Year's

2-25 snow storm 2010-02-25 15:46:16.000 - Nick Lovejoy,  Summit Intern Brian attempts to fathom the depths of the drift. So what was it exactly that I was complaining about last week?Oh yeah snow. Well I guess I should really put my foot in my mouth now, because Brian and I spent 3 hours this morning shoveling through dense wind-blown snow. Although the work was hard, there were smiles on both of our rimed faces during the whole endeavor.The first of two storms passed over us last night, delivering 10.8 inches to the summit as of 1pm this afternoon. With winds

An overdue visit... 2010-02-23 07:25:15.000 - Jim Salge,  Former Observer Observing the Undercast... On the way up to the mountain yesterday, I found myself in a deep state of nostalgic thought and reflection. I left the Observatory a few years back to pursue a career in teaching, and have since settled down, bought a house, and am getting married in a few months. This has been a huge transition from the part tenting, part renting and part traveling lifestyle that I enjoyed while working at the top of New England. And my reflection led me to a surprising conclusion: there

Fog, Fog, Fog 2010-02-21 21:43:34.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist The week's highlight vista Due to the fact that fog is pretty much the lot of what we've experienced so far this shift week (5 days and counting...), I've had a pretty foggy mind, and would like to clear it by sharing some foggy bits with you.There are many references to the phenomenon of fog in popular culture. In fact, part of my inspiration for this comment came from one of these references. A stand up comedian by the name of Eddie Izzard, in describing San Francisco during one of