Mt Washington deep-freeze

[DaveTV]

OUCH! - I was out there today, good conditions but nasty frostbite weather..

[funkendrenchman]

WC
-59°F

[DaveTV]

Yikes -69WC

[Free Range Lobster]

Cold up theya.

[iceman]

Minus 25 with 87 MPH winds, yeah that's cold.

[DaveTV]

[Tuckerman]

It's just getting colder now we at -60 WC and 93MPH guests .

I like this
"A record high and a record low set less than 36 hours apart! That is a temperature change of 64 degrees in less than a day and a half!"
Tim Markle - Chief Observer

[Free Range Lobster]

Fuck.
That.

[ak_powder_monkey]

thats not that cold

[road trip]

And for those that didn't read the link, the "Flash Freeze" water in that bucket was boiling...

[BigDaddy]

Did four runs at Waterville with an air temp of -25 and the wind chill at -100 about twenty years ago. You kids today are spoiled by this global warming thing!

[mrw]

3 pm here I just got back from Mt Washington. Freaking cold out there.Skied Cannon yesterday with Mrs MRW. Blue ice with a 1/2 in of powder covering.I have promised her a mellow Tuesday so, maybe Bretton Woods tomorrow.A few pics from Cannon and Mt Wash
Attachment 10744

Attachment 10745

Attachment 10746

Attachment 10747

Attachment 10748

[mrw]

One from yesterday at Cannon. It was too cold to stop and take pics


Attachment 10750

[vinzclortho]

Mount Washington is definitely a wicked bizzah place. I used to work with this guy who was studying meterology and spent a year in the observatory at the summit. Guy told me some really fucked up stories, stuff like they would put light bulbs out on the deck and lightning storms in the area would cause the bulbs to light up. Something or other about a ghost up there. Weird shit. The view from my buddy's condo window is the backside of Mt. Washington and it's bizzah, you'd swear it's not that much higher in elevation from the surrounding peaks, but it's the only one that's lacking trees near the summit and is totally covered in snow. I remember hiking ....the peak next to Mt. Washington, as a young clortho and it was warm and sunny and beautiful right until I hit a certain elevation and then it was godamn freezing cold. It was this weird temperature line you could actually walk through and pin point where the cold air was. That area of the world is definitely fuckin weird.

[DaveTV]

You are referring to "The Presence".. - some weird shit up there

[vinzclortho]

cool explaination of Davetv's pic, including a Spock quote:

Some of you may be wondering why this works better with hot water rather than cold water. After all, the colder the water the closer it is to freezing. It’s all about physics. As Spock once said, “Even logic must give way to physics.” There many processes at work here. The first is called heat transfer, which is proportional to the difference in temperature between two objects. Hence, the hot water will lose heat faster than the cold water. The second process has to do with the droplet size of water. The hotter the water the closer it is to steam, and the more kinetic energy. The process of throwing the “high energy” hot water allows for smaller water droplets to form. The smaller water droplets can lose heat more quickly through evaporation, and hence when placed in a sub-freezing environment freeze quickly into ice crystals. The last process is time. Everything happens so suddenly and violently that the once hot water simply “flash freezes.” If, say, a tray of hot water and a tray of cold water are placed next to each other in a refrigerator freezer the cold water will, indeed, freeze first. Mostly because the hot water is not allowed to break into smaller droplets, and the transfer of heat by the hot water is reduced as the hot water cools and does not have time to catch up to the falling temperature of the cold water. So I guess given time, and controlled conditions, logic does prevail!

[BigDaddy]

So is this why you have to back up while peeing at the summit?!

[mrw]

We drove the 6 miles to the bottom of the cog. 3/4 of the way up, my wife says, " somethings burning" sure enough, I smelled it to. We got to the upper parking lot and I popped the hood but saw no leaks, loose belts etc. Went inside, took a leak, killed a half hour and fired it up, no smell all the way back to Cannon. I think I felt the presence

[DaveTV]

It doesn't look like the summit of Wildcat even opened - I've seen no chairs unloading today, and no tracks on the beginning of the Wildcat trail.. http://www.mountwashington.org/cam/network/ravines.php

[H-man]

It doesn't look like the summit of Wildcat even opened - I've seen no chairs unloading today, and no tracks on the beginning of the Wildcat trail.. http://www.mountwashington.org/cam/network/ravines.php

WTF?? How come I didn't know about that ravine camera page???

Thanks Dave!

[MassLiberal]

The ravine shots look sorta blurry. Has anyone been up there recently?? how's the snowpack??

[BigDaddy]

WTF?? How come I didn't know about that ravine camera page???

Thanks Dave!

DITTO! Much appreciated!

But what's this thing called the "internet" all about?!

[JMO]

It doesn't look like the summit of Wildcat even opened - I've seen no chairs unloading today, and no tracks on the beginning of the Wildcat trail.. http://www.mountwashington.org/cam/network/ravines.php

That reminds me of a race I DQ'ed out of once in college at Wildcat. It was -20F and the fuel lines in the lift froze. So we had to hike the course (sort of helped get the blood flowing but not by much - toes felt like pieces of stone in the boot with every step).

Fortunately, I missed a gate on the first run and spent the rest of the day in the lodge.

H-man: that cam has been set up at Wildcat for at least two years now. I thought for sure you guys were the reason behind it.

[Anxious Mo-Fo]

Not quite as brutal now.

Summit Conditions as of 8:28 PM EST
Temp -17.1°F Wind W89 MPH Gust 106 MPH WC -55°F

[funkendrenchman]

cool explaination of Davetv's pic, including a Spock quote:

Some of you may be wondering why this works better with hot water rather than cold water. After all, the colder the water the closer it is to freezing. It’s all about physics. As Spock once said, “Even logic must give way to physics.” There many processes at work here. The first is called heat transfer, which is proportional to the difference in temperature between two objects. Hence, the hot water will lose heat faster than the cold water. The second process has to do with the droplet size of water. The hotter the water the closer it is to steam, and the more kinetic energy. The process of throwing the “high energy” hot water allows for smaller water droplets to form. The smaller water droplets can lose heat more quickly through evaporation, and hence when placed in a sub-freezing environment freeze quickly into ice crystals. The last process is time. Everything happens so suddenly and violently that the once hot water simply “flash freezes.” If, say, a tray of hot water and a tray of cold water are placed next to each other in a refrigerator freezer the cold water will, indeed, freeze first. Mostly because the hot water is not allowed to break into smaller droplets, and the transfer of heat by the hot water is reduced as the hot water cools and does not have time to catch up to the falling temperature of the cold water. So I guess given time, and controlled conditions, logic does prevail!

Hot water does in fact freeze faster than cold water. Although, if you have the cold water very close to the freezing point, the hot water simply can't catch up and will freeze after the cold water does. I am not sure what the exact point is (I'm sure it varies) at which cold water freezes slower than hot water.