Dan Dunn

Edutrips are run by the Mount Washington Observatory.  I heard about the trips a few years ago, but it wasn’t until this fall that I pulled the trigger and signed up.

In preparation I bought lots of gear (non-cotton layers, jackets, boots, crampons, etc.) and got myself in better shape.  If things go perfectly, you don’t need all of the equipment.  But they were very clear that things don’t always go perfectly.  In those cases you need to be able to hike out safely in severe conditions.

At 8AM I arrived at the bottom of the Auto Road.  The picture above is from the parking lot.  It was cool – 20F or so, but not bad.  While it was sunny at the bottom, the top was clearly “in the clouds.”  We weren’t going to see the sun for a while. A 24-second video of the scene. (The picture above, by the way, is an autostitched panorama created from 5 photos)

We shook hands and met each other.  There was the group leader, a group assistant, the snowcat driver, 8 Edutrippers, and a reporter from Germany.  We walked over to the garage and the gear was loaded onto the snowcat.  One person rode up front with the driver, and the 10 of us packed into the back.
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