volunteer comment 2008-07-16 07:37:07.000 - Patti and Deidra,  Summit Volunteers Sunrise Fog. Fog. Fog. Fog. Fog was the operative word this week. We had fog Wednesday after we got here. We had fog Thursday. We had fog Friday. We had fog Saturday during the Newton’s Revenge bike race. We had fog Sunday and Monday. Today? Today the summit of Mount Washington was blessed with sunshine and light winds. So, we experienced it all- our first magnificent sunrise at 5:06am, our first long hike off the summit down to Lakes, over to Boott Spur, and then back up to the summit

When Your Heads in the Fog 2008-07-15 05:58:30.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer Patience, young grasshopper. I’ve been told sometimes my head’s in the fog, And after weeks like this, I just sit there and nod. There’s no use denying it, we all get a bit crazy When life passes like the weather, more than a little hazy.The grayness can get to you…at least let it storm. Rolling thunder, flashing lightening to brighten up the morn. There’s no chance for the sun – been playing hide and seek for days. Even the moon is temperamental, hoarding reflected rays.Wet rain and

Dennis 2008-07-14 11:59:55.000 - Dennis Vienneau,  Teacher Extern Can you see the virga? It seems that the daily observer comments requires the writer of the day to make some sort of reference to the clouds that we’re mostly embedded in. Today’s comments will continue along that vain. We've been in the clouds for the most part for this shift. We came up on Wednesday and it was clear for a few hours and then it was clear again late Saturday afternoon. I took advantage of the opportunity on Saturday to hike down from the Observatory to Ball Crag to stretch

L.L.Bean Man 2008-07-13 15:04:49.000 - Lisa Hodges,  Summit Intern Mr. L.L.Bean with volunteer Patti In the summit museum, a wire framed mannequin stands perched atop a display of alpine vegetation. L.L. Bean, one of our sponsors, has outfitted this mannequin with a nice red jacket (with our new logo, of course), along with hiking boots, snow pants, long underwear, gloves, hiking poles, and a backpack. Until Friday, the L.L. Bean man was held up by a set of wires and hiking poles. But mid-afternoon on Friday, with a full gift shop for an audience, the L.L. Bean man lost his

newtons revenge 2008-07-12 14:41:42.000 - Jeff Wehrwein,  Summit Intern Waiting for the racers There was a bustle of excitement on the summit this morning for Newton's Revenge, an annual bike race up the auto road. The road was open from 6am and 8am for spectators to drive up, so the summit was full of people when I woke up. The Mount Washington Auto Road is known as the toughest hillclimb in the world, at 7.6 miles and 4700 vertical feet, making a 12% average grade.nnThere are two annual bike races on the auto road: Newton's Revenge in July, and the

Jefferson Snow Field 2008-07-11 13:36:20.000 - Steve Welsh,  IT Observer Jefferson Snow Field We finally broke out of the fog for a few hours this morning. As usual it was a very welcomed change that was enjoyed by everyone up here. Two things that were really noticeable were just how green the vegetation is looking now, especially around the Great Gulf area, and secondly how small the Jefferson snow field has become. nnIf you look carefully, just to the right of the center, of the main photo above there is a small white patch – yes that’s it - the

NULL 2008-07-10 14:04:21.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Observer Martys beautiful green eyes Rejection It’s something we, as humans, have to deal with on a regular basis. Jobs, colleges, dates, loans: all things we worry about when we think of rejection. For me, it’s Marty. Marty is by far the cutest, most adorable resident on the summit (sorry guys, but it’s totally true, Marty takes the cake, and my heart). So, what does anyone do when they fall in love (or like)? I try to cuddle with Marty, and there were a couple of really sweet moments we have had together. For

NULL 2008-07-09 16:25:07.000 - Kurt Hastings,  Summit Volunteer Marty takes in his surroundings One of my favorite activities was taking a hike over to Mt. Clay. Not having climbed much in the past few years it was a good re-introduction into an activity that I enjoyed a lot in my youth. The people that you meet on the trails almost always greet you with a hearty hello, and on several occasions we even stopped to talk, introduce ourselves, and then take the opportunity to talk about the activities and opportunities to volunteer at the observatory. Being up here experiencing the

Volunteer notes 2008-07-08 20:19:32.000 - Gates Ingram,  Summit Volunteer Tower, summit, and the american spirit. It goes by all to fast. We volunteer to cook, clean, and do whatever our individual skills allow in order to be able to experience the 'World's Worst Weather.' On this weeks watch, we had a peak wind of 76, just over hurricane force, with perhaps visibility down to 40 yds followed the next day- the 4th of July- with visibility of 100 mi., winds at 15-17 mph. We could see into '5 states, 2 countrys, AND the Atlantic Ocean' all for bragging rights, BUT

Summer 2008-07-07 14:29:30.000 - Ted Letcher,  Summit Intern Enjoying the Big H, by watching sunrise first. The summit this past week has been particularly interesting, for a number of reasons I might add. Instead of focusing on the all of the aspects that aided in making this week somewhat abnormal, I’m going to center my attention on perhaps the most notable of the anomalies. That is of course the fair weather. If you are at all familiar with the mountain you know that the summit is usually stuck inside of a cloud (about 60% of the time). This week however