The Sherman Adams Building from Ball Crag, about 4:45 am (summit time --that's 5:45 EST) after our hike down to watch the sunrise. I think it was the best one I've seen yet! Lots of brilliant colors and nice clouds to light up. The hike was a bit treachorous without crampons, though. We've lost a lot of snow in the past few weeks so we opted for boots only. Brian is standing just above the rocks on the right there, and we had some pretty nice convective clouds going overhead already that morning as a thunderstorm dissipated to our west.
Exposed rocks looking down from the summit tower after a few days of moist fog. When the fog is wetter, it seems to melt more snow. This is counterintuitive for me, but Brian explained it as having to do with the vapor pressure of water --my guess would be increased adhesion of liquid water molecules when more liquid water is present in the air...?
I've forgotten until now to post this week -- I just got back from Montreal and Burlington, VT on my off-week so I didn't get much time to hang out on the computer. My last shift up was a warm one, with a lot of melting and even some thunderstorm warnings. I took a couple of hikes with Mike and Brian - one early morning sunrise jaunt to Ball Crag, and another toward Clay to watch the sunset over the valley.
The view from Ball Crag as Mike, Brian and I sat watching the sunrise.
Looking toward Nelson Crag, our initial destination (before we found out about the possibility of a thunderstorm) on our hike.
Feet and knees as we lounge on the rocks at Ball Crag.
Mike, me, and Brian (a really funny picture of him) at Ball Crag
The North Presidentials, lit up by Alpen light from the sunrise. This was taken on our way back up to the Obs from Ball Crag.
Shadow in the ice on the road near the East Snowfields, before our sunset hike
Mike walking up the East Snowfields after a ride, just before our sunset hike
Looking back up at the Obs from down below on our way west to watch the sunset
Mike standing at the edge of the Great Gulf, looking at the melt and what's left of the ski spots
Looking to the sunset on our hike down toward Mt. Clay in the afternoon
Before we shoveled the front entrance on Thursday (or so)...
....and after.
On some of the sunnier days, we spent quite a bit of time outside on the deck enjoying the sunshine. Mike and I sat out and read for an hour or so on this particular day. It got a bit windy, which made for an excellent hair shot.
Playing guitar out on the deck in the sunshine, with Mike's harps to my right. I've never really gotten to jam before, and certainly not on guitar --it's been really cool to have a harp player around who's willing to put up with my basic skillz. We're possibly planning an obscast, although the camera on the summit isn't working at the moment...
Robin and Mike at sunset on the Obs deck with the sun between them.
Marty enjoying (haha) some time on the Obs deck. A little windy for an itty bitty kitty on that particular day, but he did agree to come outside for a bit.
The sun shining behind the pitot before we got a little windier, lower pressure weather --almost ethereal.
Mike taking an ob on a pretty sunny day --we had a layer of stratus, plus a few convective clouds on the horizon pretty much all day.
The tower from the obs deck on a sunny day
More melt and convective clouds over the Northern Presis
Mike taking an ob (we have to sling in the shade) with his mom enjoying the sunshine and winds
Clouds rolling in toward the end of the week. This particular cloud was a cap cloud - it went over the top of the mountain, but didn't extend past that.
A great picture of Brian wearing his helmet and "cape" --if only I could've recorded a sound to go with this.
At the beginning of the week, we did have 13" of snow --not unusual for this time of year, but certainly strange between lengths of 50 degree weather. We shoveled the main entrance twice - once I did the entire thing almost on my own, which was a much needed chance for exercise. Mike's mom, Robin, was our volunteer for the week (quite excellent cookies and smoothies!) and really enjoyed it. She spent a while out in our 80 mph sustained winds and Mike and I joined her in a refreshing outdoor hair washing. The several sunny, blue days we had were great for being out on the obs deck playing guitar, passing around a soccer ball, reading, and climbing around on the rocks. The convective clouds were great to watch as they built in over the duration of the days. I got a bit more experience coding the clouds on our observation forms, which was more difficult than one would think and much needed after being up here for eight weeks. Unfortunately, the wet fog at the beginning of the week coupled with warm temperatures and sun hours melted quite a bit of the snowpack that all of the skiiers had been waiting to go down. Mike and Brian took a few good runs in the Great Gulf and Tuck's still has enough snow in it this week, but they think that we've currently got about the same amount of snow that we had a month later last year. We stopped using the snow cat completely as of our downgoing shift change, although we still use chains on the van above five-mile and there were some good packs of ice on the roads as we made our way down. The weeks are going by quickly, and I've already had to say goodbye to the other intern, Jordan; I'm hoping that I'll get to see Gus and Wayne, the cat drivers, again before I head out of here. Fortunately, Jordan was able to tag along with us to Montreal this week so I got to spend some quality time with him. More on that extraveganza in my next post...
Former Senior Staff Intern Jordan "Scampers" Scampoli posing with the pitot tube anemometer
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