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2006-05-03 06:26:22.000 – Brian Clark,  Summit Intern

Filtered sunset

They say “all good things must come to an end”, and while I don’t necessarily think this to always be true, this saying certainly holds in this case. Today is the final day of my tenure as a winter intern with the Observatory. It seems like January 4th, my first day on the mountain was just yesterday and the excitement of the unknown and the coming winter was upon me. Time certainly does fly when you’re having fun.

Of course my internship wasn’t all about fun, even if there was plenty of that to be had. I have been working pretty hard up here. Over the first few weeks in January I learned how to take hourly observations, measure precip, code synoptic observations, and just generally learn how we operate up here. Then in late January and early February, I really got working on my intern project. I implemented a sort of digital video archive for the Observatory to use in giving tours both up here on the mountain, as well as during our “Live From the Rockpile” videoconferencing tours from the Weather Discovery Center at the Mount Washington Center in North Conway. I spent the last few months filming and editing different operational tasks, weather phenomena, as well as daily life tasks and activities. Hopefully if any of you visit the Weather Discovery Center or come up for a tour of the Observatory this summer (which I certainly encourage you to do!) you will get to see the fruits of my labor.

Of course, there are a lot of people to thank for contributing to the incredible experience that I have had as an intern. First of all, I need to thank my family, friends, and others that are close to me for their support in this endeavor. It was quite a task getting all the logistics and little things sorted out to be able to take a semester off from school and move to New Hampshire for the winter and they were all there to help me along the way. The summit staff (Neil, Tim, Jim, David, and Ryan) has all been a blast to work with and to hang out with. Thank you all for being so friendly and welcoming. Lastly, I want to thank the valley staff. Despite my limited interaction with them, they were always very helpful and friendly and they all do a wonderful job of making this organization run.

It’s going to be strange going back to my hometown of State College, PA where the “mountains” don’t get much higher than 2,000 feet and an average of 40 inches of snow falls over a winter. Over the past 4 months I have gotten to know this mountain pretty well and will most certainly miss getting to spend a week at a time on top of it. The White Mountains are an incredible area and it will be hard to say goodbye. But who knows where life will take me after graduation next year. Maybe I will be back, but much like the weather on this mountain, the future can be very unpredictable. Only time will tell…

Brian Clark,  Summit Intern