Week Nine, Beginning of the Big Melt

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

Black and White, Week Six

Mount Washington from south of the auto road (Ed O'Malley)

I hiked a mountain this week! Ryan, Mike, Chef John Bauhs, cat driver Wayne and I made our way up the Lion's Head Trail last Tuesday before our shift. It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day with lots of picturesque clouds and gusts that certainly didn't feel that bad --but were apparently into the 40's or 50's. We rented plastic boots and crampons, and I used my brand new hiking pack and ice axe. There was one part which was pretty vertical and got my heart going a bit, but other than that it was a relatively easy trail. I definitely want to go at least one more time before I leave here! There are lots of trails that go up to the summit, so maybe I'll get to try one or two of the others... It was also nice to spend some time with the other shift on Tuesday night. I hadn't really gotten to talk to any of them other than at shift change. Very cool people! I sort of wish that the internship program allowed us to work with both shifts for a bit.


Going up a little semi-vertical stretch of the Lion's Head Trail (John Bauhs)


Ryan, me, Wayne, and Chef John Bauhs headin' on up (Mike Finnegan)


Ryan, Chef John, Wayne and I at Lion's Head, overlooking Tuckerman Ravine and a nice K-H cloud (Mike Finnegan)


Ryan and I at the summit sign after our hike (he's definitely taller than me in this pic; John Bauhs)


The eastern facing wall of Tuck's from Lion's Head (John Bauhs)

Our volunteers, John Bauhs (a personal chef from Maryland) and Ed O'Malley (an IT guy/photographer from New Jersey) were excellent cooks, and made some really nice meals. We had: lamb, steak tip fajitas, french onion soup (yay!), ham, and a nice, big breakfast on almost all of the mornings. Brian also made his secret family recipe ribs --very tasty-- and Mike made us some sushi. Mike's girlfriend, Chris, came up for a bit so I had another girl my age on the mountain to hang out and gab with. We played bag-o (bean bag tossin') and soccer in the rotunda a few nights, and of course watched a good amount of scrubs. This was our last week of overnight trips, which all of the crew members were pretty excited about, and we had some good laughs with and about the hikers and edutrippers that came up this time.


Sunset with a few clouds over the valley (Ed O'Malley)


Brian and the kitty mitten

This was the first week that I had seen Marty go outside. He doesn't really seem to like getting his paws icy, but he does pretty well for a cat in the wind and on slick surfaces. As Brian puts it, he has built-in crampons --although he doesn't always think to use them. Ed and I successfully did a couple of photo shoots for posters, postcards, and other gift shop goods. His long, black fur looks really neat on the white snow and amongst all of the black rocks on the summit. He's also a really good little cat for the summit because he sticks close to you as you walk around, and meows for you if you get too far away. I'm hoping that I might see him take a bit of a hike before I leave.


Me with Marty before a photo shoot (Ed O'Malley)


Marty as he's slowly coaxed away from the tower door... (Ed O'Malley)


Marking his territory on the staircase at Tip Top House (Ed O'Malley)


Getting Marty into the perfect shot required us to lead him around, snap a few shots, and round him up again. He didn't like having his feet in the snow very much, so he didn't stay in one place for too long and didn't often sit down. (Ed O'Malley)


Coming out from under a boulder in front of Tip Top House (Ed O'Malley)


Washing in front of the summit sign (Ed O'Malley)


Waiting for Marty at the summit sign (Ed O'Malley)


Sliding down the Yankee drift (Ed O'Malley)

After our grand adventure on Tuesday, I didn't really get out much the rest of the week. The weather was still a bit wintry, with freezing rain a few days and freezing fog a few others. On the last night of our shift, Mike and I took a little hike down to the Great Gulf. There was a gorgeous undercast sunset and the Gulf was filled with fog afterward. The clouds lapping at the mountains remind me so much of the ocean I can hear the Yaquina Bay fog horn sometimes. We followed the cairns back up and hardly used our headlamps because the moonlight was so bright.

We went out to the Red Park Pub across the street from my house when we got back, and then progressed to Flatbread Pizza (excellent food --sustainable, too!). The volunteers, Mike, Brian, Cara, Ryan, his parents and I chatted for quite a while there. It was great to meet Ryan's parents and to have him come out, as he lives out of town and doesn't often come out with us.

A few days later, my cousin Pat came up for a visit. We did some shopping in North Conway, hung out with Brian a bit at his new pad, and Pat made some excellent Italian food for me. I'm hoping I'll get to hang out with him again and possibly Jay (he's doing his residency at Penn State Hospital right now) while I'm out here.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we'll be heading over to Portland for a Gaelic Storm concert before our next shift. It promises to be an excellent night of good music and good friends, then on to week seven! Only a few more shifts to do all my research and enjoy New England. I'm still looking forward to sunny weather out here! The river out front is running beautifully and the rain is bringing some green back to the area. Can't wait to explore more now that the snow cover is leaving.

Scruffy, blown clouds over Wildcat (Ed O'Malley)


The observatory from below (Ed O'Malley)


Rime ice on the radio tower cables (Ed O'Malley)


Closeup of rime ice on the radio tower cables (Ed O'Malley) --patterns like these are caused by sublimation of some of the ice.


Clouds rolling over Monroe and Lakes of the Clouds (Ed O'Malley)


Looking back from the Apline Gardens over Tuckerman Ravine (the hole on the left; Ed O'Malley)


Whispy morning clouds over the mountains to the south (Ed O'Malley)


Chris and Mike heading off to the East Snowfields for a ski/board (Ed O'Malley)