Winter is Back!

2008-05-20 05:27:25.000 – Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer

Deicing The Tower

So winter has returned in full force to the summit. Yesterday was spent in the familiar grey abyss, with various forms of precipitation being driven through it by the wind. We had snow, snow grains, ice pellets…all which certainly sting the face if you’re not wearing a balaclava of sorts. Glaze ice formed consistently 2 or 3 inches an hour, creating an impressive display 3 to 4 feet deep on a pole directly outside the parapet door through the duration of the night. Glaze ice of this degree required going out every hour to deice. This in turn gave me the opportunity to become intimate with the Pitot Pole, the pole which holds our Pitot static-tube anemometer, after a 92 mph gust thrust me into it. To my girlfriend, Chris, please don’t be mad. I didn’t mean to become so close with the pitot pole, and we didn’t even kiss. The fact my lips are not still frozen to the pole is a testament to this.

So when this cloud eventually decides to mosey on away from the summit, the peaks will look a bit different than last you gazed upon them. I’m just looking forward to tomorrow when the winds die down so I can go take a gander at the snow fields and hopefully make a few turns before I head on down to the valley below.

Mike Finnegan,  IT Observer