Where Do You Find a Sledding Hill On the Summit of Mount Washington?

2015-02-10 17:45:38.000 – Michael Kyle, Weather Observer/IT Specialist

This past Christmas a volunteer and member of the Mount Washington Observatory donated/ gifted us a sled. When you are on the summit ironically, there isn’t much in the way of hills that are safe for sledding. While you can travel down the mountain and find some of the best back country slopes in the Northeast for skiing, they are a bit too extreme for sledding. So we had to make do with the 25 foot drift that formed in the front of Yankee Building.

Since we arrived on the summit last Wednesday we measured 18 inches of snowfall. That gives us a total snowfall so far for the month of 23 inches. That is already over half way to the monthly average of 40.1 inches. With the combination of continuous snow and light winds over the weekend our snow depth grew to 16 inches. That provided us with the perfect conditions for us to make the inaugural run of our new sled. During our lunch break my coworkers, the volunteers and myself went outside to do just that. After being stuck inside for most of this week it was nice to get outside and have some fun. While it wasn’t the biggest hill I’ve ever sledded it was still technically the highest. Either way it was still a lot of fun and a nice break from the work day.

Michael Kyle, Weather Observer/IT Specialist