Shift change…

2006-12-14 06:38:18.000 – Jim Salge,  Observer

Deicing the tower…

Another Wednesday, another shift change, another ride to the summit in the TRUCK. This time there was at least a little snow on the road from top to bottom, but our snowcat remains stranded at halfway. Unfortunately, the snow was nothing that the plow and chains couldn’t handle. Shortly after we arrived at the summit, a period of light snowfall did move in, so hopes are high that perhaps by next Wednesday the upper half of the road will be covered enough for a cat ride, but then again, its 36 degrees at the base of the mountain at 7AM this morning…

With some snow remaining of the autoroad, the crew was able to see the tracks of wildlife using the road recently. Lots of moose and fox tracks, and much to our surprise, a bear followed the road for sometime during the past week. Yet another testament to how unusually warm it’s been in the mountains during the past six weeks. It was also neat to see how disagreeable mountain ash berries are to a (this) bear’s stomach.

Now at the summit, though ‘warm,’ the weather is rather Mount Washington like, with winds at 50 to 60 mph, heavy icing and a little snowfall. The picture above gives a good impression of what conditions were like on the tower last night. The photo is courtesy of our summit volunteer Brian Clark, and you’ll be able to see more of his pictures from the week both on this page and on his homepage by clicking here!

Jim Salge,  Observer