Highlights From My First Summit Summer

By Amy Cotter

While summer isn’t over yet, the month of August always feels like a wonderful bookend to my favorite season. I started with MWOBS in fall 2023 as a summit intern, followed by a year working with the MWOBS valley staff as an educator, and then moved into a Weather Observer position this past January, making this my very first summer spent on the summit. As such, summer’s end demands some reflection on my first magical, busy, and everything-in-between summer season spent at 6,288 feet.

Over the past couple of months, Mount Washington has seen its fair share of the extreme weather events that make our jobs as summit staff all the more exciting. The unofficial start to summer, Memorial Day, came in strong: during the last week in May, we received 12.4 inches of snowfall from a late season snowstorm. This coastal low ranked as the fourth highest snowfall from a late May snowstorm in our dataset, with late May being defined as May 20-31. The snow was exciting for everyone on the summit, making the week a fitting send-off for one of our winter interns, Frank, and a chilly welcome to one of our summer interns, Max.

The next exciting event arrived on June 20 with a peak wind gust of 124 mph. While I’ve been on-shift this winter for higher speeds, my personal record being 142 mph, these winds aren’t common in summer months. During summer, the steep pressure gradients that produce our notoriously-high wind speeds don’t typically form. In the winter, strong and quick-moving systems roll through, often paired with cold Arctic air, but in the summertime, temperatures are more uniform and the jet stream typically moves further north of the region, resulting in calmer conditions. The peak gust of 124 mph set a daily record and also tied for fourth highest June wind gust in our records since 1932. My co-observer, our interns, and one of our volunteers were all gathered in the weather room that day, diligently watching the database and current summit conditions to track what wind gust we’d reach. The anticipation was so exciting, and our volunteer even caught a video of our reaction to a 123-mph wind gust (posted to our social media on June 20). Tracking our measurements diligently is an incredibly important part of our job, as it helps us not just ensure accuracy within our dataset, but also to make sure all of our instrumentation is functioning properly in those extreme conditions.

My next summer highlight rolled around on July 20 for our annual Seek the Peak fundraiser. We were on-shift atop the summit that week, but with someone covering summit operations, we were able to head down to the Après Hike Expo at Great Glen Trails that evening to enjoy food, brews, gear, and celebration with all of our staff, sponsors, and supporters. I was able to chat with so many wonderful supporters, help out at our booth, and also enjoy some games in the Kid Zone, including a climbing wall, archery, and cornhole. Thank you to all who made it out on that beautiful Saturday and to all who support MWOBS. And lastly, a special shout-out to all who donated to our shift’s team, the Knights of Nimbus!

While work and weather are certainly always exciting, our shift enjoys our downtime as well. My personal favorite activity is hiking down to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut and stopping for a snack at the serene alpine lakes on a beautiful evening. If I’m not on observations in the afternoon/evening, my favorite time to hike down is right before or right after our summit dinner, hosted at 6pm EDT. I managed to make it down to Lakes a few times this summer with some stellar conditions, pictured below.

As a team, we also enjoy downtime spent together. One night, we even got to see the Northern Lights!

Aside from the rare clear night where stars were visible, our foggy evenings were mostly filled with playing Mario Kart or Mario Bros, watching TV, playing cornhole, and most recently, putting together jigsaw puzzles. Pictured is our team with a puzzle of a Mount Washington montage, from the Mt. Washington Auto Road gift shop atop the summit, and Nimbus repurposing the puzzle’s box as a bed.

Finally, on the morning of August 2, 2025, I woke up for my 6:30am shift to a very frosty summit. While I love all seasons, I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed that this summer went by so quickly – time really does fly when you’re having fun! From valley to summit, I had a wonderful summer here at MWOBS, and it makes me even more excited for the seasons to come. Pretty soon, summit staff will be watching the foliage change colors from above, pulling out our winter boots, bundling up, and de-icing the weather tower!