The Many New Hampshires

We exist on a fairly flat plain, in the sense that our lives are constructed on a pretty horizontal basis. People in Denver will disagree, but for most of us, we live within a fairly narrow range of elevations, and get all excited when we go up small hills and our ears pop. It becomes apparent just how limited our lives are in that regard when we fly a commercial plane or head for the hills -- the big hills.

That's what I did yesterday, taking the Cog railway up Mount Washington in northern New Hampshire, about a two and a half hour drive from my home in southern New Hampshire. At the base where we boarded the train -- which was already substantially up the side of the mountain -- it was 77 degrees and sticky. (This meant that it was at least 5 degrees warmer at home in southern NH.) Everyone was in short-sleeve shirts, many in shorts, with sunglasses, sun-tan lotion and a few with embarrassing Hawaiian shirts. Despite being repeatedly warned, such is human nature that we were nearly all shocked when we reached the summit after a 40 minute train ride and discovered a temperature of 46 degrees with winds of 50 mph (or more)... and this was a fairly mild summer's day on the summit. Visibility went from clear for literally hundreds of miles (during which you could see not only much of northern New Hampshire but also parts of Maine, Vermont and Quebec) to almost zero visibility with swirling clouds completely enveloping the summit...and all this happening in minutes. (Please see my video above, which was preceded and followed by moments of completely open, blue skies.)

It was a bit disconcerting to return to the base and the balmy 77 degrees, with all the tourists eager to take the train ride standing in line patiently and fanning themselves in the heat, while we dismounted from the train wind-whipped, our hair looking like Don King's, and wrapped up in our summer clothes like a bag lady in some alleyway. It was an amazingly educational experience, especially when you consider that a contingent of people have to put up with that mountain-top lifestyle year-round for our meteorological needs; Mount Washington has hosted some sort of weather service team since the late 19th century, and indeed you can visit some of their earlier digs while you're up there. It just goes to show you how easy it is to nudge us out of our comfort zone....