Winter! 2009-12-17 18:53:28.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Frigid Morning Alpineglow It has taken its' time, but i think winter has finally arrived just about everywhere, even the valley. Last offweek began with an icy drive back to North Conway where I had to pull someone with summer tires and a bit too much speed back onto the road. The following day began with a few laps of snowboarding on a local ski hill I skinned up and ended with my first ice climb of the season up in Craford Notch. We got our Christmas tree on Saturday (which even

Zlogars 2009-12-16 10:05:37.000 - Sue and Mike Zlogar,  Summit Volunteers Today is our final morning on the summit. I could never do justice to the excitement around here. First and most important, Marty is mousing again. Apparently he took a hiatus from this very critical activity up here while he was mending from his skin ailment. We were all somewhat concerned as the mice were getting somewhat brazen, but NO! Marty was just toying with them...he had the last laugh. Saturday night as I was heading to the kitchen for my late night tea I noticed Marty was only half

NULL 2009-12-15 08:39:56.000 - Mary Ellen Dunn,  Summit Intern NULL My final shift as summit intern is almost through and the fact that I won't be back up here next week still hasn't sunk in yet. I can't believe how fast this whole experience went by! Living on the summit of Mount Washington certainly exposed me to all the beauty of the White Mountains from an amazing vantage point. Being able to witness first hand some of the extreme this mountain has to offer was definitely an experience. From the calm, beautiful 130 mile visibility days, to days with thick

NULL 2009-12-13 13:55:45.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist forget sugarplums and give us lenticulars! Something amazing happened today! We saw the Sun! Well, first we were able to see the stars and the moon, since the summit cleared during the early morning hours. Then, over the southeastern horizon, a big, fat, red blob slowly ascended into view. It took a few seconds for us to figure out what it could possibly be. For the first time since early Wednesday morning (before our shift arrived) the fog disappeared, opening our proverbial eyes to a winter wonderland, not only atop the

Oh the Pitot 2009-12-12 05:30:15.000 - Mike Carmon,  Staff Meteorologist Ice Clogs Abound! All jobs have their challenges. Working at the home of the world's worst weather certainly presents some unique obstacles in daily operations.Ice is one of those challenges that has kept me pretty busy all night. And I'm not talking about the hourly de-icing of our instruments atop the tower. On this night, I speak of ice within the guts of our instruments, namely the pitot-static anemometer.Temperatures tonight have hovered around -10 degrees, and winds are regularly gusting near 100 mph. These bitterly cold conditions cause ice to

NULL 2009-12-11 12:42:57.000 - Mary Ellen Dunn,  Summit Intern A Frozen Tower! Brrrrr! As I am writing this, temperatures are 5 degrees below zero and winds are blowing strong around 80 mph creating a wind chill of about -45 degrees. The best part is that it seems it will get even colder and windier here on the summit over the next 24 hours or so. A strong pressure gradient over the region is expected to increase winds this evening, gusting near the century mark, and continue to usher in frigid below zero temperatures. Along with the arrival of these cold

NULL 2009-12-09 22:57:39.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL When I was in ninth grade, one of our English assignments was to write an adventure. The assignment was inspired by reading Odysseus, by Homer. Well, I made up some lame story about having to pay for the beach. At that point in my life, I hadn't really experienced any real adventures. Obstacles, danger, setbacks, and triumph upon completion are the ingredients for an adventure or an Odyssey. Every shift change can be considered an adventure. However, today's shift change was especially reminiscent of Odysseus's long trek back home after

A look at mile-high life 2009-12-08 23:43:58.000 - Marty Basch and Jan Duprey,  Summit Volunteers NULL We are volunteer rockpile rookies, on the tail end of a whirlwind week on thesummit. From circumnavigating the observation deck seven times in 84 mile per hourwinds to organizing and taking inventory of the freezers, we are having a first-handlook at mile-high life.It's not too shabby.We are a couple, a team, which basically boils down to this: Jan cooks, Martyfetches. That would be Marty the person, not Marty the cat. It really isn't all thatconfusing. Neither Brian Clark, Mike Finnegan or Will Tourtellot really

Winter is here to stay! 2009-12-07 23:17:27.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer and Meteorologist NULL Back in October, it seemed like winter was getting an early start. On October 13 and 14 we measured a total of 8.3 inches of snow. The crew that tried to come up the mountain on the 14th for shift change discovered drifts several feet deep on the Auto Road, forcing us to use the Cog Railway for transportation. By the end of October, that phantom start to winter seemed so far in the past. November proved to be an extremely warm month (see my comment

Learning Russian and Toolin' 'round 2009-12-06 19:36:17.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Toolin' 'round! The weather certainly has taken a turn towards winter in the past two weeks. Last week started with the highest wind seen this year at 137 mph and now nearing the end of the first week of December, temperatures have dropped to the single digits with winds approaching 80 mph. It seems that winter has finally arrived and with any luck is here to stay. As Brian mentioned in a previous comment, our 12-12 schedule allows us both time to get outside while the sun is