Arctic Wednesdays 2026: Week 3 Post-Trip Blog

 “I’m disappointed that I won’t even be THAT cold!”

Those were some famous last words. As we prepared for my trek up Mount Washington, my students and I watched the summit cameras all week. Students enjoyed observing the ever changing summit views, making predictions about the current summit conditions, and asking questions about the geography and weather extremes. The week prior to my ascent had been peppered with very cold temperatures even here in Salem, NH.

The morning started with a nice snowy drive across the foothills of the Presidential Range. We got a beautiful ride up to about 3500 feet in the sunshine. We hopped off and stretched our legs, throwing some snowballs and taking in the views and nice weather.

The summit was a different story! The whole summit was “socked in” and freezing fog obscured the views. The winds were calm upon arrival, but quickly inched up towards 55 miles per hour as the day went on. We watched the weather observers swap out the anemometers after lunch due to icing and could hear the banging from the tower as they worked to remove rime ice that was forming on the top of the tower.

After Zooming back to our classrooms to connect with our students, Jess and I headed out to explore the wild summit conditions. At this point in the day the temperature was -1 degree F with a windchill of -26 F. Brrrr!!! Our students had given us lots of strange scientific inquiries to attempt while we were there. We tried, unsuccessfully, to play a game of ping pong (bye bye ball!), threw a frisbee (similar result to the ball) and attempted bubble blowing (the solution immediately froze on the wand as I pulled it out). We jumped to see if the wind would blow us (barely) and watched rime ice form on our clothing as we walked to get our picture at the summit sign. Our hands froze as we took them out of the gloves to take videos, and any exposed skin on our faces started to get all icy. It was chilly to say the least. We were grateful to head in and warm up after about 15 minutes outside.

As we headed out towards the snowcat to head back down the mountain and out of the harsh weather, you’ll never guess what was sitting in the snow near the tracks of the vehicle. The long-lost ping pong ball from the afternoon silliness on the observation deck! Our trip down took us out of the freezing fog and back into lower altitudes that were experiencing a beautiful afternoon with a sunset of sherbert colors blanketing the mountains for the ride home. All in all, a 10/10 day on Mount Washington and an experience of a lifetime!

Jacqueline Duane
8th Grade Science
Woodbury School
Salem, NH