NULL 2008-06-17 09:53:38.000 - Kristy Medeiros a.k.a. Bretton,  Summit Volunteer Tip Top house at sunrise If you're in love with the White Mountains as much as I am, then you need to get your butt up here and volunteer. What a week my husband Barry and I are having! We arrived on the summit with some fog, but most of the week has been clear enough to do some hiking and enjoy the breathtaking views. We got to enjoy The Alpine Garden, the smell of the fir trees on Lion's Head, Mike and Lisa skiing the snow fields, sunsets, ravens

living on the summit 2008-06-16 10:20:42.000 - Jeff Wehrwein,  Summit Intern Sunrise Thursday One of my favorite aspects of working on the summit of Mount Washington is the opportunity to be here at all times of the day. The auto road and cog railway are generally only open during the bright daylight hours, and hiking on the summits at night requires great caution and preparation, as shown by Mike's comment yesterday. Thus the opportunity to see sunrise and sunset is mostly limited to the few of us who are lucky enough to stay on the summit at night.Last Thursday was

“Everything was going great until…” 2008-06-15 07:05:57.000 - Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer A Stunning Sunrise The summit of Mount Washington spends over 60% of its time in the fog. Thus it is not surprising that we have been in it since just around yesterday’s sunset. There has also been a fairly steady rain since about 10 PM. There was a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast, but these dissipated more-or-less in eastern Vermont. For the accuracy of wind measurements, this proved favorable because we are unable to use our sonic anemometer in thunderstorms. The sonic anemometer is more accurate in

Departure 2008-06-13 10:56:25.000 - Kyle Paddleford,  Observer As Stacey alluded to in her comment yesterday, change is in the air at the Observatory. More tourists are frequenting the summit, alpine flowers are blooming at certain elevations, and the sedge is transitioning from brown to green. Those are all changes that are expected as the calendar pages quickly turn. When I told Mike Finnegan the news a few weeks ago he was definitely surprised judging by the look on his face. This may in fact be the most surprised look I have ever seen in my life. The news for all

Changes 2008-06-12 15:27:51.000 - Stacey Kawecki,  Meteorologist crepuscular rays The sedge is turning green, the first round of alpine garden bloom has come and gone, and only a few patches of snow remain on the eastern sides of Clay and Jefferson. Another season is here, and before we know it, it will be gone. Time flies on the summit. I’ve been here for almost a year, and it feels like I have begun just yesterday. We’ve said hello and goodbye to observers and interns and volunteers, on a semi-annual, seasonal, and weekly basis. Well, there is something constantly in the

Volunteer notes 2008-06-10 16:34:23.000 - Diane Chamberlain & Laura Cran,  Summit Volunteers Us. We arrived on Wednesday in the fog. In the flurry of activity getting the supplies down to our living quarters we really did not see much. After getting settled Brian gave us the safety tour. When we finally had time to go outside we were in a thick cloud and some of the time could not even see the Cog in front of the building. The food prep was a little tricky at first. We had some things to learn about high altitude cooking and baking, but

Fixing Lakes 2008-06-09 20:00:19.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer NULL In my comment the other day, I talked about how I ventured down to the Lakes of the Clouds AMC hut to check out a broken, well actually missing, temperature and humidity sensor that we have down there. Today, after recovering nicely from an extremely nasty cold that severely limited my productivity yesterday, I took intern Ted with me back down to Lakes to attempt to get the site back up running.We headed down the Crawford path with, hopefully, everything we needed to get the job done. We had a new

Nice Day 2008-06-08 19:24:54.000 - Ted Letcher,  Summit Intern View of Clay with Mysterious Snow Field After spending the first half of the shift awash in a thick swampy fog, I was not about to let a day like today be wasted inside the observatory. So I used an intriguingly symmetric stain on a distant snow field as an excuse to hike over to Mt. Clay. So I packed a bag of gold fish and a couple of small granola bars and set out to investigate the snow. Upon arrival I was disappointed to find that the mystery stain was

Trip to Lakes 2008-06-07 17:27:54.000 - Brian Clark,  Observer I made my first trip of the summer down to the Lakes of the Clouds AMC hut yesterday after my shift was over. My trip had two purposes. First, one my friends, Caty, is a member of the croo at Lakes (as the hut is affectionately known) and yesterday was her birthday. So, I braved the less than ideal hiking conditions (thick, wet fog with 40 mph winds) to bring her birthday wishes and a birthday card.The other reason I went down there was to take a look at a temperature

This is a test... 2008-06-06 22:53:03.000 - Ryan Knapp,  Meteorologist What do you see? I enjoy the fog, I will admit it. It is not that I do not like our views. It isn’t because fog weather observations are easier than non fog observations. And although I like the cool, damp experience fog provides, that is not the main reason either. I like the fog because everything becomes fairly monochromatic to me and the rest of the people around me. To a person with excellent vision, this might not be that great but for extremely color blind people like me,