Mount Washington Valley News Brought To You By Horsefeathers

Conway Daily Sun
MOUNT WASHINGTON - Pinkham Notch, NH— Mount Washington’s notorious weather has once again captured the attention of The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore, who will pay a visit to the Mount Washington Observatory summit weather station next week.
Perched atop the rocky, windswept summit of the tallest peak in the Northeast, the observatory has made its name recording some of the world’s most extreme conditions — and that’s exactly what Cantore is looking for.
The Weather Channel crew will be filming for a show called “Cantore’s Stories,” which sends the meteorologist to some of the most diverse weather climates in America and abroad. Each half-hour episode gives viewers a new perspective on extreme weather destinations, from the scorching hot Death Valley, Calif., to International Falls, Minn., dubbed the “Icebox of the Nation.”
Through interviews with the people who live and work in these environments, the show illustrates how weather influences their way of life.
For the staff of the Mount Washington Observatory, extreme weather is their way of life.
“There are times when we don’t see the sun for an entire week-long shift,” says veteran observatory meteorologist Ryan Knapp, referring to the mountain’s tendency to be enveloped in thick, disorienting fog. Knapp and fellow crew members venture outside every hour of every day, often enduring sub-zero temperatures, hurricane-force winds, freezing fog and blowing snow to record and disseminate critical weather data.
“You have to respect it,” Cantore noted during his last visit to the observatory in 2008. “You can’t just walk outside in an 80 mph wind.” Read the rest of this entry »

By Tom Eastman

Back when it started, Black was known as Moody’s, as farmer Edwin Moody had his farmhouse which took in some lodgers and a hill behind the house. In 1935, he and local inventor George Morton and Phil Robertson of the local electric company at Goodrich Falls hydro-electric dam put up a tow, and soon skiers were flocking to the place.

“Phil [Robertson] needed a day time power customer because they were dealing with hyrdo-electric — that’s part of the story behind the lift at Moody’s. They could not turn off the river, obviously, and it made sense to try and develop a big customer during the day that would counteract the draw they needed for the nighttime when everyone would be turning on their electric lights,” notes Jeff Leich of the New England Ski Museum. (He added that Robertson played a pivotal role in the valley’s ski history: after putting up the lift at Moody’s, he later worked at Cranmore Mountain as general manager for 25 years for Cranmore developer Harvey Dow Gibson (1882-1950), and then went on to become a founder at Attitash, where “his vision of the Cog Monorail never took fruition,” said Leich. Still, think of the link there: the Shovel Handle, the Skimobile, and the Cog Monorail — all part of valley ski history.)

In fall 1936, Bill and Betty Whitney bought the farm, and renamed it Whitneys’ (that’s a possessive plural, Betty always said, because it took two people to make a go of the ski and innkeeping business).
That 1936-37 season was the same first winter for Carroll Reed’s Eastern Slope Ski School, the American branch of skimeister Hannes Scchneider’s ski school in St. Anton, Austria. Although they skied on a combination of frozen sheep manure and smashed apples at the nearby golf course of the Eagle Mountain House for much of that first winter, the ski school was a resounding success, and the area then known as the Eastern Slope Region was on its way to becoming a ski resort.
The following winter, Bill Whitney retrofitted Black’s rope tow by turning the bullwheel horizontal so it would not slip off so easily. He also ordered 72 shovel handles from Sears Roebuck — he attached the handles to the slippery rope, making it easier for skiers to hang on. Henceforth, the lift acquired a nickname — the Shovel Handle. Today, the Shovel Handle Pub at Whitneys’ carries on the old tow’s name. Read the rest of this entry »

JACKSON NH
Join us for the 15th annual Ice Carvers Competition held on Monday Jan 11th, 2010.
Carvers will have 3 hours to transform a 300 pound block of ice into a work of art. Prizes will be given out to 1st ($500 cash), 2nd ($250 cash) and 3rd place (overnight in deluxe room with king bed, gas fireplace, Jacuzzi including 4 course dinner and breakfast). Carvers will be judged on workmanship, creativity and technical difficulty.

Carving will start at 10am and end at 1pm then an awards ceremony will take place in the lobby at the Wentworth, An Elegant Country Inn. Lunch will served in dining room immediately following for $15.75 all inclusive.

For complete details call the Wentworth at 603-383-9700 or e-mail Kathleen@thewentworth.com.

http://www.thewentworth.com

Pinkham Notch NH - Saturday, January 9
Dr. Brian Irwin will hold a book signing and reading for his new book “Recompense: Streams, Summits and Reflections” from 6 to 8 p.m. at Pinkham Notch Visitor Center. Irwin is a family physician at Tamworth Family Medicine, a division of Huggins Hospital, and writes a health column for the Conway Daily Sun. Containing some articles that have been previously published in magazines and medical journals, “Recompense” is a compilation of essays, exploring the tenderness of life, the realities of death, and the strings within each person that holds all facets together. For more information visit www.recompensethebook.com.