Volunteer notes.

2009-01-07 01:44:04.000 – Lisa Carruthers,  Summit Volunteer

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Spending the last eight days on the Summit has been an incredible experience for my daughter and myself. Being here for the high winds and low wind chill of New Years Day made it especially exciting. We celebrated New Years Eve on New England’s Rooftop, and toasted in 2009 with Brian Clark and Diane Holmes, on duty for the State Park. After a celebratory New Years Day Dinner we were treated to views of the lights in Portland, ME as well as the glow from Montreal on the horizon from the observation deck. On Friday morning the sunrise was glorious, with the sparkling Atlantic Ocean visible as well. In the high winds on Thursday a piece of test equipment blew off the tower and we helped search for it by scrambling around the Rockpile. The stark beauty of the summit and surrounding presidential range were all we found. The EduTrip on the weekend brought a wonderfully diverse group of people together for an adventure not to be forgotten. In between our cooking and hosting chores Dave Glidden graciously invited us to join any of his lectures and slide shows. The Summit Observatory staff have been great to us. They have graciously eaten everything we put in front of them, but more impressive is the amount of work, professionalism, and dedication they consistently give to the observatory. It is so apparent that they are not only good at weather data collection, data analysis and interpretation, as well as forecasting, but that they are individually good stewards of the earth. We have also had the pleasure of getting to know Jeff Veil, this week’s intern from Plymouth State, who is also a dedicated and self motivated student of meteorology and the great outdoors. Marty the Cat, is, however, the most special of Summit inhabitants. He’s not here by choice but is also dedicated to his job of being friendly and playful to all. Not all cats could be so outgoing with so many different humans on their staff. I encourage everyone to become an observatory member for the purpose of helping to fund the incredible research that is conducted at Mt. Washington, and, if you’re able, to also support the efforts here by volunteering at the summit or in the valley.

Lisa Carruthers,  Summit Volunteer