The Summit Is On The Grid

[Bill O]

According to this morning's comment the summit is now running on grid power. No more generators. A huge step in returning the summit to a more natural state. It must feel like a totally different place when the observers are outside.

And when those generators are removed getting the precip can will take on a whole new challenge.

[Brad]

I wonder how long the actual power outage was when they did the switch over. I know they were concerned about sensitive equipment and turned them off for the duration. The WHOM folks must have had a lot of concerns also. Looks like it was successful.

[JimS]

I can't imagine what Ryan, the night observer went through last night. On night shift, you are completely attuned to EVERYTHING, and gain comfort through the familair. You know every creak, every sound, every light, and every brick that moves when you work nights on the summit.

All that changes in one night?! Now you suddenly hear the spooky sounds of the wind through the radio towers, of ice twinking down the structures like shattered glass. I'm sure even the tower door closing behind you had a very different resonance. Everything is different and nothing familiar. Wierd and a bit scary. Have fun this week Ryan...glad it's not me!

But oh...those nights when you look up at the stars and are, in your mind, transported millions of light years away from where you are standing...only brough back to place by the racketing hummm of the generators...those nights will now be something special indeed!!!

With both sides of the reduction in noise, I'm reminded of an old simon and garfunkle song...

Hello darkness, my old friend,
Ive come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
A neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

[spyboy]

Are there still generators up there (incase the grid line goes down?)

What about the big tanks up there?

Kirk

[Bill O]

The generators are still there, for now. Afterall, they just turned them off last night.

My guess is they downsize to one or two for emergencies and they move them to a more permanent location. Thus reopening the original entrace.

[Steve M]

The generators are still there, for now. Afterall, they just turned them off last night.

My guess is they downsize to one or two for emergencies and they move them to a more permanent location. Thus reopening the original entrace.

I can't wait to see how things look when they are done.

[spyboy]

Well, that's what I meant (after they're gone)

K

The generators are still there, for now. Afterall, they just turned them off last night.

My guess is they downsize to one or two for emergencies and they move them to a more permanent location. Thus reopening the original entrace.

[KD Talbot]

The new foundation is already laid for the generator shack. It will be just outside the main entrance, near the Nelson Crag Trail.

Jimmy's reference to "The Sounds of Silence" is indeed appropriate, but today the wind is howling through the radio antennae loud enough to drown out the generators.

The actual switch over took only a few seconds, just like when they used to switch generators. There were some definite concerns for WHOM, today is one of their biggest advertising days and they could have lost thousands if they had been down for any amount of time.

KDT

[harrywaldron]

This is indeed a great improvement, until maybe they get their 1st electric bill .. Still, these improvements should help this key weather and scientic station in the years ahead

[Bill O]

This is indeed a great improvement, until maybe they get their 1st electric bill .. Still, these improvements should help this key weather and scientic station in the years ahead

Excluding the cost to install the power the electric rate must be a fraction of what it was before. No more driving kerosene tankers up the auto road.