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2007-06-03 05:30:01.000 – Ken Rancourt,  Meteorologist

Photo courtesy Michael Pelchat, Mgr. Mount Washing

The sun! Who would have thought that after six days in the fog we would finally see it? Yes, the sun is back, and very welcomed at that. We know it is just a short break in the continuous flow of cloud over the higher peaks, but we’ll enjoy it anyway.

Our photo this morning is a brand new shot, courtesy of Mike over at Parks. The alpine flowers are not yet at full bloom, but give them a little more sunshine and a couple of warm days and they will do fine.

Operations are going fine right now: the museum and renovated gift shop is really nice and inviting, the Intern is coming up to speed rapidly, and our volunteers are cooking, cleaning, and entering a backlog of data. They are fantastic supporters of the organization.

More hikers on the mountain also mean potentially more difficulties, however. Last night our new Museum Attendant (Steve) and our Intern (Dan) were coming back from a later afternoon jaunt and came across a disoriented hiker (dense fog you say?) above the alpine garden. Determining that he was separated from his party they guided him to the summit where State Parks personnel took care of things. Turns out that after a number of radio calls around the mountain community the rest of his party made it back to Pinkham. All’s well that ends well….

So Steve asks: How often does this happen? Well, sometime it can happen all too often. This time the results were just a little inconvenient for those involved. At least maybe next time members of that group will stay together in tough situations. That’s about all we can hope for.

Ken Rancourt,  Meteorologist