WFA & Sunset 2008-10-24 16:59:53.000 - Mike Carmon,  Summit Intern Camel's Hump & Mt. Whiteface If you come to the Observatory on a typical day, you’ll find two or three observers, an intern or two, a volunteer or two, and maybe a museum attendant, depending on the time of year. However, this past Wednesday and Thursday, the entire crew was up overnight. That included five observers, two interns, a couple of Snow Cat operators, Ken, and a volunteer. The occasion? Wilderness First Aid Training. Over those two days, we all participated in a crash-course in basic Wilderness First Aid. We

Snowy Shift Change 2008-10-23 18:47:26.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer Shift change in the snow The last two days have been extremely busy for all of the summit crew. So many things have been going on that it is actually difficult to pick just one to write about today. This is certainly a good problem to have though.Yesterday’s weekly shift change was the first one of the new winter season that required the use of four wheel drive vehicles with tire chains. This was necessary because of snow that was falling not only on the summit, but also at the base

volunteer comment 2008-10-22 08:37:44.000 - Katherine MacDonald,  Summit Volunteer Lakes of the clouds I'm honored to write the observer's comments for today. I've been to the summit of this mountain many times and never tire of the experience or the people I work as well as and the mountain itself. I've been asked by others why I continue to go back. Doesn't everyone have a place that they feel home away from home yet able to unwind and refresh? That's what it's like for me to return to one of my favorite places. Never mind the fact that although the

Museum Closed 2008-10-21 18:01:52.000 - Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern Lonely Museum As interns we have many responsibilities. These include assisting the observers with the hourly observations, doing research, giving tours, administrative tasks, and helping out in the museum.Generally Deb, the museum attendant on my shift, and Sharon, the attendant on the other shift (except this week), would take care of the museum all morning. Around lunchtime I would head down and allow her to take a lunch break. When the weather was nice those lunch breaks seemed to last a bit longer. Then I would come back down at night

building closes 2008-10-20 07:30:10.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer The building is closed for the season The Sherman Adams building is now closed. The museum attendant (Sharon), the interns (Jeff and Jordan), and Bill G (the retail coordinator), will all be packing up the museum today. This means two things: no more tours, and no more showers.As soon as the building closes, we are transferred to the winter septic system, which means we have to be extremely conservative with our waste water. We have a well so we can drink as much water as is needed, but we have to store

hike and length of day 2008-10-18 21:53:47.000 - Jeff Wehrwein,  Summit Intern NULL With the colder weather over our past two shifts, it has been difficult to get outside for any length of time. For some reason I'm not motivated to go for a hike when it's 20 degrees, 60 mph wind, and rime icing. Today the wind finally subsided enough so that 20 degrees didn't feel so cold. I took the opportunity to get outside for a short hike before sunset, visiting Mount Clay briefly. All afternoon, the summit was in and out of a thin but dense layer

A Brisk Awakening 2008-10-17 22:35:44.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Ocean Reflections It may have been written before, but one of the best methods of arousing the senses after a night's slumber is to head to the top of the tower in relatively chilly weather. Though we missed snow by a little bit, we were treated to an adequate amount of rime ice and glaze ice. I knew my forecast had been a slightly wrong when I heard Mike deicing just before I arose. However, the fog cleared and left us with a partial undercast and a clear line of view

Intern Research 2008-10-16 15:52:53.000 - Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern I’ve given quite a few tours since my shift came back up yesterday to members from all over the world. One of the questions that continue to come up is how a math and economics graduate got an internship at the Mount Washington Observatory. The Observatory has long had a history of not only weather observation but also academic research. In addition to living and playing on the summit, I have been putting my degree to work by doing research. Right now I am working on a project comparing temperature probes.

Closing dates 2008-10-15 06:18:29.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Staff Meteorologist NULL Everything that has a beginning has an end. Your favorite book (or literature series), a movie (or trilogy), TV shows, schools…you get the idea. Well, even Mt. Washington has its endings. The one I am talking about is the summer tourist season on the summit. I mentioned this in this weeks Obscast, but realizing that a good number of our comment readers are not member of the organization or just do not watch the Obscast, I thought it might be worth mentioning these dates again. So here we go:So let’s

NULL 2008-10-14 16:27:16.000 - Steve Yenco,  Summit Volunteer Atlantic Ocean View from the Summit Can you love two mountains? Being raised in Lisbon Falls, Maine a fell in love with Mount Washington and the surrounding White Mountains through my parents at a very early age. While they were not hikers we still spent a great deal of time in the area and with each trip my love for the mountains grew. As the years rolled along I took up skiing, snowshoeing and hiking. For most of these hikes Mount Washington was always the grand view that waited at the summit.