The summit is now in full swing in summer mode. Over the next 4 months more than 300,000 people from around the world will visit Mt Washington State Park. Kicking off summer is Motorcycle week in New Hampshire and they had great weather this year. All the ‘bikers’ we met were awesome. Thunder in the mountains is a […]
Author: 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.
Mt Washington State Park, Tuesday June 12, 2012
The last of the early June snowstorm left us this week. Our cool, wet weather has been replaced with near calm, warm, humid weather. The first wave of Alpine Flower Bloom is now past peak with several more peak blooms on the way. The warm near calm conditions are perfect for alpine insects to rise […]
Mt Washington State Park, Monday June 4, 2012
Weather was less than favorable on the summit this past weekend with heavy rain, freezing temperatures and winds near hurricane force. Despite these terrible weather conditions 31 hikers trekked up the various trails and 21 of them were under-prepared, needing assistance. Cold, wet hikers at MWSP, 1130am on 6/2/2012 State Park staff assisted these hikers […]
Mt Washington State Park, May 29, 2012
Memorial Day Weekend this year saw much better weather on the higher summits than last year and so we were visited by many more people. Mount Washington State Park on May 27, 2012 Saturday was the Mt Washington Auto Road’s Alton Weigel Day, where participants ascend the mountain in costume and/or by some unusual means. […]
Mt Washington State Park: Tuesday May 22, 2012
Mt Washington State Park is officially open for the season! Summit Sunday The Sherman Adams Summit Building is open from 8am to 6pm daily. We hope to get the Tip Top House Historic Site open for this weekend too. Tip Top House The Auto Road is open daily while the Cog is only running weekends […]
Mt Washington State Park, Monday May 14, 2012
Mt Jefferson The end of last week saw the summit slip back into winter. There was a definite snowline visible starting at 4,000′. There was only 2″ of new snow but 4″ of rime ice and winds gusting above 75mph. Iced over truck Buildings and vehicles quickly iced over and a plow truck was needed […]
Mt Washington State Park, Monday May 7, 2012
This weekend it is really starting to feel like spring is here in the mountains. The Cog Railway is operating weekends and was able to make it all the way to the summit on Saturday and Sunday. The Mt Washington Auto Road, is open to the tree line for private cars and with a little […]
Mt Washington State Park: April 30th, 2012
The mountain has been going back and forth from record high temperatures in March to record cold temperatures in April. Rime Ice and Tip Top House Historic Site This past weekend weather observers noted a low temp of 4F which may have broken the record low April 28th temperature of 8F set back in the […]
Mt. Washington State Park: April 23, 2012
Last week summit crews helped remove slush and snow from the upper sections of the Auto Road. Getting the slush pockets off the road helps us not only from getting stuck One last trip with the little demo Cat, mired in slush Slim moving a slushalanche but we can switch back to trucks for transport instead […]
Mt Washington State Park, April 16, 2012
The White Mountains of NH Looking at the above photograph it’s easy to see how our “White Mountains” have received this name. The mountains are white with snow most of the year but also when free from snow in the summer months the high peaks above the 4,000′ timberline still have a whitish appearance when viewed […]