Mt Washington State Park, April 2, 2012

During the last week of March the mountain returned to more seasonal weather. The crew from the Mount Washington Observatory, this past week recorded a low temperature of -8F, 13.6″ of snow along with a peak wind gust of 113mph out of the North. Freezing fog in the latter half of the week created a heavy accumulation of ‘rime ice‘.

Rime Ice
Rime Ice on Pick-Up

Once the sky cleared there were some frosty looking mountains in the neighborhood.

Wamsutta Spur into Great Gulf Wilderness
Mt Moriah 4,047′
Imp Mountain 3,708′

Not only did our blood thin from 3 weeks of unseasonal heat, our mountain travel equipment balked more after the temperatures dropped below zero.  A portable generator was needed to plug in the ‘Cat’ diesel block heaters with an added boost to the batteries required before the engine would roar to life. On the summit ‘Marty Cat’ however remained comfortable in the Sherman Adams Building despite the return of cold weather!

Cold Cat
Warm Cat

Rapid and extreme weather shifts are typical in New England high mountains and it’s a good reminder for all hikers to review this NH Outdoor Council video:

More good information to review can be found on NH’s Hike Safe web site. Winter is never far from the high peaks even in the warmest months of the year. Just carrying a water bottle and cell phone is irresponsible. You would be amazed at how many ‘hikers’ head out on day hikes so poorly prepared.

One of the highlights of this past week was a visit from Randy Perkins & Paul Lentine, account managers with Public Service of New Hampshire.

Randy Perkins & Paul Lentine from PSNH, Sebago Lake and Atlantic Ocean in background

Over the past season park staff took advantage of PSNH’s energy saving rebate program by retrofitting 130 older light and electric fixtures within the Sherman Adams Summit Building with new energy efficient units. This effort is helping the summit save 7,200 Kw of energy per year along with our park doing its part to help reduce greenhouse gas and acid rain caused by power plant emissions. For Mt Washington State Park’s efforts in participating in the PSNH sponsored energy saving program, Paul & Randy traveled to the summit to hand deliver a handsome $2,000 rebate check! If we can participate in PSNH’s rebate program at the summit of Mt Washington than you can do it too! For more information about PSNH’s ‘Going Green’ program visit their web site.

Summit of Mt Washington March 31st 2012
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Mike Pelchat, Manager of Mt. Washington State Park

I've been working atop Mt Washington for past 30 years so you can guess I like it above the tree line! After all these years I still never tire of the beauty of our NH White Mtns and consider my employment an extreme honor and privilege to work for the State Of NH and serve its visitors. When not on the summit you can find me enjoying the rock & ice climbing one of the many beautiful granite cliffs we have in Franconia, Crawford or Echo Lake State Parks. I have taken these climbing skills learned at our NH State Parks to climb in Alaska, Andes, Canadian Arctic and Himalayas. I live in Gorham NH with my wife Diane Holmes.

2 thoughts to “Mt Washington State Park, April 2, 2012”

  1. Dose wife go climbing too? Me I’m afraid of heights an falling too the ground ,I can’t even stand on step ladder. I look on the bright side a man in Europe his nick name is Spider-Man he has a fear of heights but too help him cope with his fair he climes building all over he alw getting in trouble for scaling tall buildings too. What away too deal with fair just go scale a tall building .If I Remeber correctly he was using suction cups on feet an hands too reach the top of skyscraper. He basically crawled too top with no rope on the way to top. That’s impressive kinde of like climbers free climbing with no rope wen they make a mistake they all done no second chance…

  2. If u want too see deepest snow on planet earth,you must type in (Japan snow highway) Kinde of like Mtwashington bad weather except the Japan alps got perfect condition for the deepest snow in the world u must look up an u won’t believe 50 feet deep an cars look like toys an they don’t plow roads they use a special truck with snow blower in front an a huge snorkel too expell the snow wen they get 20 feet an up wow.

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