Eastern Slopes of Mt Washington Mt Washington started the week off last Sunday afternoon on a sad note. Let me first explain a little how Search and Rescue (SAR) on Mt Washington works. The 60-acre summit of Mt Washington is a NH State Park. The bulk of the mountain is part of the one million acres of […]
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, 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 […]
Mt Washington State Park: Monday, March 26th, 2012
It’s been a record breaking weather week on the summit of Mt Washington. Temperatures for the summit shattered six daily record highs with the warmest recorded by MWO of 54F on Wednesday, March 21st. That’s 15 degrees warmer than the record high for that day. In March temperatures should average well below freezing, with lots […]
Mt Washington State Park, March 19th, 2012
By the calendar this past week was still officially ‘winter’ but it definitely felt spring like on the summit of Mt Washington. We had all sorts of weather from light snow to rain to fog to stunning undercasts where the clouds are below the summit. Our summit weather stations’ web camera network caught some interesting […]
Mt Washington State Park Monday March 12th, 2012
Sherman Adams Summit Building Guess I shouldn’t quit my day job just yet to become a weather forecaster. Last week I wrote that a series of low pressure systems could give us a Nor’easter on Friday. Instead we got record high temps some rain on Friday and a peak gust at 120mph. Not the snow […]
Mt Washington State Park, Monday March 5, 2012
We saw an interesting large dog print the other day on our trip up the mountain. Guessing it spanned well over 4″ from tip of claw to its heel pad. It was traveling downhill towards Pinkham at 2000′ elevation coming from Great Gulf. Maybe it was just a large Eastern Coyote but when I saw […]
Working in the Cold: Mt Washington State Park Blog, Feb 27
The BR 275’s Bombardier Snow Tractors are mechanical marvels. The way their unique parts fit together is minute compared to the likes of a Space Shuttle, however, they are still very mechanically and electronically complex machines. These snow groomers are highly specialized for the work they are designed to do which is grooming alpine ski […]
Tuesday Feb 21, Mt Washington State Park Blog
Last Thursday morning we met Muddy Paw Sled Dog Kennel Musher Chase at base of carriage road after he just completed a practice dog sled run up to the tree line and back. Chase will be taking another practice run next week before his summit attempt on March 7th, 8th or 9th depending on weather. […]
Mount Washington State Park, Friday Feb 10th 2012
Mount Washington from the West Recently a caller asked us why is Mt Washington an ‘important mountain’? Good question and one with many answers. At 6,288′ it is the highest peak in New Hampshire and the highest point east of the Mississippi River and north of the Carolinas’. Along with its neighboring Presidential Range peaks […]
Mt Washington State Park, Friday Feb 3, 2012
Yesterday was ‘Groundhog Day’ which according to ancient German legend, if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on February 2nd there will be six more weeks of winter. If there is no shadow cast then superstition says it will be an early spring. While Punxsutawney Phil says six more weeks of winter, on Mt Washington […]