More Volnteer Experiences

2008-09-03 10:49:39.000 – Jim Lobley,  Summit Volunteer

Posing with the tower in the background

If you have ever climbed the Tuckerman Ravine Trail to summit Mount Washington or visited here via the auto road or cog railway, then you already know how fickle she can be. Visibility of over 130 miles with 4 – 6 mph winds and 60 degree temperatures can change in a day to zero visibility, 80 – 85 mph winds, and 40 degree temperatures. That is her true beauty. However, this note isn’t about the mountain, rather it’s about spending eight days with four employees and one additional volunteer.

As volunteers, John Raines and I are required to try our best to make an edible dinner for the others. On the ride to the summit it soon became clear that these four would rapidly become new friends and our “dinners” would become breakfast, lunch, and dinner. John and I both enjoyed the challenge. When the cooking was done between lunch and dinner there was time to hike to Mount Clay or the Lake of the Clouds or simply around the complex but more than that, there was time to watch these young folks perform their duties in a manner as professional as any senior manager I have ever worked with and they did it with a smile and a quick answer to our ever interrupting questions.

There are those few things in life that we do and carry with us forever. My trip to the summit as a volunteer has been one. I am proud to be a member of the Observatory and blessed to have had the opportunity to spend a week at the summit with five new friends.

Jim Lobley,  Summit Volunteer