Week 1: Post Trip Report

To whom it may concern, inform and inspire.

Well, that was an exceptional experience. One of my thoughts during the ride up the auto road was,” How do I take everyone with me,I wish everyone could be in this seat right now looking down into the Great Gulf and across to the Northern Presidentials.” The size and scope of the White Mountains is hard to relate to the casual observer that winds their way past in the valley along roads that are some 4,000 more feet below these massive peaks.



The major takeaways for me that I will try and relate to the staff and students when I return to Mountain Valley HS are:

# There was a dramatic and historic amount of shift in weather and snow pack in the preceding fortnight.
# Record Low Temps for extended period during first weeks of January.
# Record High Temps combined with 2.5 inches of rain over a 12 hour period.
# Snow Pack loss of 2 feet at higher Summits.
# Before and After pictures captured by Obs Staff tell the story (in the Observer Notes)
# How many career paths and educational tracks can lead you to working and studying on the Summit of Mount Washington.
# MVHS Alumni Connection Brian Gagnon UMaine Orono Engineering designed a heating system so that the wind instrument “Pitot Tube” would be heated to avoid Rime Ice build up and loss of data collection. Continuous Data Collection is imperative to accuracy for documentation of Legit Records.
#Math, Science and Engineering converge to work together and problem solve.
# To be successful the staff at MWOBs need to be able to communicate, be flexible, learn new skills, adapt, be resilient and dedicated.



I really enjoyed the weather meeting to prepare the upcoming forecast. Seeing how the meteorologists use the different variables to compile an accurate proposal that will help folks guide their own decisions in the coming days and weeks was very interesting.

Hearing the different perspectives and experience from each of the people on the team to solve a problem that had not a lot to do with meteorology was a great lesson to bring back to school. Expose yourself to many different areas of learning in multiple disciplines. Expand your electives to get a taste all the possible modes for expression and intellect. You never know when something you learned will help you be successful.



Specific to my Lifetime Pursuit Class : Looking at trends and records will help predict norms to expect during our Semester. Digging into specific forecasts and variable that are happening or will occur helps us inform our decision making as we look to choose the best activity for the day. We can be safer and mitigate for risk if we have a working understanding of the data and different modes the information is collected and disseminated as we get out into the field and actively engage the elements as they are.. Experiential Learning is where we are going…...

-Todd Papianou, Physical Education Teacher, Mountain Valley High School, Rumford, ME