Volunteer comment

2011-05-17 21:59:21.000 – Marty Basch,  Summit Volunteer

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Repeat after me: rain, fog, highs in the mid-40s.

That’s the mantra up here since late Saturday where there’s pea soup outside the thick windows and downstairs on the range prepared by a couple of volunteers-Mitch Hanson and myself.

While Observers Brian Clark, Mike Finnegan and Ryan Knapp work ’round the clock recording weather data, and Summit Museum Supervisor Rebecca Scholand oversees the gift shop and museum, Mitch and I do the housekeeping chores and cooking. When we last saw the sun-there is still a sun, right?-we helped lug boxes upon boxes, in and out and up and down and to and from the summit shop. When there was a sun-yellow, yes?-we did some nice hikes down to Lakes of the Clouds, and over to peer into the splendor of the Great Gulf with patches of snow still hanging around.

Our desire to go beyond these hallowed walls isn’t squashed by the dampness and horizontal spray. Every day we don hiking gear and since Thursday have summited this mountain daily in addition to short strolls in the rain.

At times the visibility isn’t far beyond our noses, but we survive to cook again. Our hiking experiences far surpass our culinary skills. But I’m happy to report no casualties, no mutinies.

Mitch prepared his first ever mile-high pumpkin pie with the shell made from scratch and I somehow turned cabbage and lettuce into palatable summit slaw. Not bad for a couple of guys in the fog looking forward to a little sunscreen.

Marty Basch,  Summit Volunteer