sunrise and sunset

2008-09-22 06:36:39.000 – Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern

NULL

Finally! I saw my first sunrise and sunset after almost two weeks up here. The unusual thing is that they both occurred on the same day! Mike, our bearded Vermonter nighttime observer came in to Jeff and my room at 5:00 AM. ‘Wake up sweethearts’ he said. With a wake up call like that, how can one not get up? I threw some warm clothes on and sprinted up the stairs. With 20% less oxygen in the air, two flights of stairs seemed like twenty. I got out onto the observation deck and there it was… the morning sky fifteen minutes before sunrise. I didn’t mind though – being out on the deck watching the reds and oranges change over the horizon seemed to warm me up even though it was still pretty cold out. After being joined by my summit companions, the sun crept over the Atlantic Ocean, Maine, and finally hit the summit. It was such a serene and incredible view – the harsh contrasts between light and dark, mountain and valley, yesterday and today.n

nLater on in the early evening those reds and oranges came back for their reprise. Jeff and I had gone for a hike (see yesterday’s comment), and we were nearing the summit when the sun approached the western horizon. Watching that fiery globe sink down past Camel’s Hump reminded me of college back in Vermont. From the campus of St. Mike’s I had a perfect view of the sun rising over Camel’s Hump and Mount Mansfield, not setting over them like we see from the observatory. One time this summer a friend and I camped out near the summit of Camel’s Hump. We summitted at around 4:30 AM and were able to sit in our sleeping bags, munch on some GORP, and wait for the sunrise. This time, instead of seeing Maine and the ocean, we were able to look back over Vermont and into New Hampshire, seeing the sun rise over Mount Washington. n

nIt’s a unique experience to be able to see anything, never mind something as beautiful as the sun near the horizon, from opposite sides of that same proverbial coin. It’s an attitude and a way of life I wish I was better at.

Jordan Scampoli,  Summit Intern