Vibe-Winter-2425 - Flipbook - Page 65
SCALING THE MOUNTAIN
The 30-foot birch poles stand up beside the Auto Road
like the pylons of an unfinished chairlift. Here in the alpine
zone, they tower over everything around us, marking the
way to the summit in all weather conditions—or at least,
that’s the idea.
“There have been years that the tops of those have
been completely covered,” says Jon Powers, transportation
coordinator for the Mount Washington Observatory.
Powers, behind the wheel of the Observatory’s white
pickup truck, has offered to show me how staff make the
trip to the summit in the unpredictable winter and shoulder seasons. As luck would have it, the White Mountains
have delivered an unseasonably warm November day, and
tourists zoom by on their way up the Auto Road. On this
mountain, you can never be too prepared, and halfway up
the road, the Observatory’s white Bombardier snow cat
sits parked at an overlook, lying in wait for colder temperatures. At the first sign of reliable snow, operators will trade
their tires for treads and fire up the snow cat.
Operating a snow cat is far more than just driving over
snow. The machine’s blade is made for leveling and shaping
snow rather than clearing it, allowing operators to widen
the road as they go. Underneath the treads, 196 carbide
picks provide traction, keeping the occupants from falling
into a treacherous slide. The greatest challenge, Powers
says, is visibility. With the mountain’s high winds and
constant drifts, the landscape is never static, and operators
are often navigating through poor visibility on a path that
shifts by the hour.
“Say on Wednesday you went up on shift change and
made the road perfectly clean,” he says. “If there’s a snow-
With the mountain’s high winds
and constant drifts, the landscape
is never static, and operators are often
navigating through poor visibility on
a path that shifts by the hour.
storm overnight and you get enough snow and the right
winds, there’s no road anymore, so you have to rebuild the
whole thing.”
Powers—who works as a captain and paramedic for
the Conway Fire Department when he’s not on the Auto
Road—oversees a team of three operators in charge of
getting people and supplies up and down the mountain.
In the winter, the snow cat operates as many as five days a
week. This includes weekly shift changes, EduTrips, media
trips, and other opportunities to get the word out about
the Observatory’s work.
On a good day, traveling at a max speed of 8 miles
an hour, the snow cat can reach the summit in about 90
minutes. More often, the trip lasts several hours. Powers
recalls one EduTrip last year when the journey took seven
and a half hours. In the worst conditions, the snow cat turns
around before reaching the summit. It’s a call made by the
operator, he says, one that can distinguish an inexperienced driver from a good one.
Winter 2024/25
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hours, info & even
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Soups, salads sandwiches and more
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