Mt. Washington's chill extremes lure two young visitors from
Russia's frozen North
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By Tatiana Kikitina and Anna
Baladina
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IN THIS CASE, THE IRON IS BRUTALLY COLD, BUT THE WORK
MUST STILL GO ON--Russian meteorologist Tatiana Nikitina
strikes away the ice coating on a tower atop Mt.
Washington. Nikitina and an interpreter, Anna Balandina,
recently spent two weeks at the Mt. Washington
Observatory as part of an exchange program.
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(Note: The following account of two weeks spent on Mt.
Washington by two Russian women was arranged by Alice Strait of
Gilead. Strait is a volunteer with the Archangel Committee of
Portland, an organization that arranges exchanges between the
Portland area and its sister city region of Archangel in Russia.
For several years Strait has sold Russian crafts at the Blue
Mountain Crafts Fair to raise funds to support this project.)
It seems that extremes have been always attractive for human
nature.
People often try to reach the limit of their possibility to
precept the outward things, especially in relationship with wild
nature.
For us — two strangers from remote islands in northern part of
Russia — to visit the Mt. Washington Observatory has meant to
discover our own limits.
We are Tatiana Nikitina, a meteorologist, and Anna Balandina, an
interpreter. We live on the small Solovki Islands, which are
located in the southern part of the White Sea (Archangel Region,
Northern Russia).
Our archipelago is situated only 100 miles south of the Polar
Circle. For 8 months of the year Solovki is surrounded with
thick coastal ice and during this time communication with the
Mainland is only possible via air.
Twice a week (if the weather is fair) we have an airplane from
Archangel, which is the main city of our region and also the
sister-city of Portland, Maine, USA.
Solovki is often described as the area of extreme conditions —
geographical, climatic, political, historical and emotional.
For medieval society the archipelago was a real “terra
incognito” on the back of beyond, for modern Russia it is a
metaphorical border of the Russian world.
Extremes are in harmony with Solovki spirit, so we were really
interested in the possibility to visit Mount Washington, which
is well-known as a place with severe weather conditions. In
short, we were going to spend our annual holiday neither on
Hawaii, nor in Turkey, but in the home of the worst weather in
the world.
Background for our visit
In December 2005 four people from Solovki community visited
Portland. Their visit was a part of the exchange program “Open
World” which is run by The Library of Congress. This visit was
greatly supported by Archangel Committee (Portland, Maine).
Since that time, our community stays in touch with the people
from Portland; they have visited our islands a couple of times
and people from Solovki have visited Portland.
This coming December a delegation from Solovki will visit
Portland four times as part of the “Open World” exchange
program.
We were looking for possibility to develop our collaboration.
This possibility appeared when Dennis Marrotte, vice Co-Chair
Archangel Committee, found out about the Solovki
hydrometeorology station and decided to organize some
professional exchange between MW Observatory and our local
weather station.
It took two years to arrange all the things, and finally on Oct.
18 we arrived in Portland.
That was the beginning of the big adventure.
On the summit
The first words we heard from everyone we met in USA before
coming up to Mount Washington were: “Do you know the forecast
for the next few days? It seems there will be a real snow
storm!” And everybody looked so exited about it.
During the last few winters there was only a small amount of
snow on Solovki so we were looking for some snow as well.
Usually first impressions are the most true, the most pure. Our
first impressions about the mountain were really deep — we met
something absolutely unfamiliar and unbelievable beautiful.
Living on Solovki we deal with wild nature all the time — it is
all around you, but all that primeval nature of our Islands is
on another scale when compared to The White Mountains.
If I may say so its scale is in the right proportion with a
scale of human being. And there, on the Mount Washington we met
something which didn’t fit easy to our imagination, which was
much bigger than our possibility to precept.
First couple of days on the mountain we felt really weird in our
bodies and in our minds — we were very slow and soporific. It
was so because of eight hours shift in time but also there was
20 percent less oxygen on the mountain than down in the valley.
The air was really dry — we could feel it with every single
breath and movement. In the next few days we managed to adjust
ourselves to all the new surroundings but we didn’t stop feeling
strange — we just got used to it as a cosmonaut gets used to the
state of weightlessness but he never forgets about real earth
gravity.
As we settled down on the mountain we started to work with the
crews. Tatiana took part in observations and forecasting which
were quite familiar to her.
The most exciting part of the work for her was deicing —she had
never done this before.
Principle of operation for most of the instruments here are the
same as on Solovki station; the biggest difference was an
absence of marine observations which is so usual for our
Islands.
We have known a lot about local natural and climatic phenomena;
some of them are very much alike with Solovki (frequent weather
changes, fog, temperature regime, permanent winds); others are
absolutely unknown (rime ice, speed of wind, thunderstorm when
it is bellow freezing).
During two weeks we worked with the both crews of MW Obs, and
all those people were great — friendly, open and supportive.
To be honest it was not easy all the time to be in a small
isolated space, but it was much easier to do with them. And we
think our holiday was successful.
We would like to say “thanks” to all the people who took part in
this small pilot project.
We do hope it will develop, because we think it’s important to
see how in different parts of the world people deal with wild
nature and how they take care of it.
About Solovki
The Solovki Archipelago is situated in the northern part of
Onega Bay in the White Sea of Northern Russia — 65 degrees
northern latitude and 35 degrees eastern longitude.
Population of the islands is about 900 permanent residents and
up to 40,000 annual visitors and pilgrims.
Solovki is known for its unique cultural history:
The largest North European collection of labyrinths and pagan
sanctuaries (II millennium BC).
The majestic history of the Solovki Male Transfiguration
Orthodox Monastery. 1436-1920 and 1980s-present.
The tragic events of the GULAG epoch. The first and most
terrible concentration camp in the gulag system of forced labor.
1923-1939.
The site of some of North Europe’s most phenomenal primeval
nature.
Solovki now has one of the largest Federal Museum Reserves in
Russia, whose role is to preserve and maintain Solovki’s legacy
as a historically significant centre for knowledge. |
