THE MOUNT ROSE OBSERVATORY
While Californians rightly and justly claim Tahoe as their own, it
must not be forgotten that Nevadans have an equal claim. In the Nevada
State University, situated at Reno, there is a magnificent band
of young men, working and teaching as professors, who regard
all opportunities as sacred trusts, and who are making for their
university a wonderful record of scientific achievement for universal
benefit.
Located on the Nevada side of the Tahoe region line, at the northeast
end of the Lake, is Mount Rose. It is one of the most salient and
important of the peaks that surround Tahoe, its elevation being
10,800 feet. The professor of Latin in the Nevada University, James E.
Church, Jr., a strenuous nature-lover, a mountain-climber, gifted with
robust physical and mental health, making the ascent of Mt. Whitney in
March, 1905, was suddenly seized with the idea that a meteorological
observatory could be established on Mt. Rose, and records of
temperature, wind, snow or rain-fall taken throughout the winter
months. The summit of Mt. Rose by road is approximately twenty miles
in a southwesterly direction from Reno, and Professor Church and his
associates deemed it near enough for week-end visits. The courage,
energy and robust manliness required to carry the work along can be
appreciated only by those who have gone over the ground in winter, and
forms another chapter of quiet and unknown heroism in the interest of
science written by so many of our younger western professors who are
not content with mere academic attainment and distinction.
The idea of obtaining winter temperatures on the mountains of the
Pacific Coast was first suggested by Professor McAdie, head of the
Weather Bureau in San Francisco.[1] He responded to the request for
instruments, and through his recommendation, thermometers, rain-gauge,
etc., were speedily forthcoming from the Weather Bureau. On June 24,
1905, with "Billy" and "Randy," family ponies, loaded with a newly
designed thermometer-shelter, constructed so as to withstand winter
gales and yet allow the easy exit of snow, the first advance on Mt.
Rose was made.
From that day the work has been carried on with a vigor and enthusiasm
that are thrilling in their inspiration. An improved instrument was
added that recorded temperatures on a self-registering roll, all
fluctuations, and the highest and lowest temperatures, wind-pressures,
all variations in humidity, temperature, and air pressure as well as
the directions and the velocity of the wind for periods of seventy
days and more. This instrument was the achievement of Professor S.P.
Fergusson, for many years a pioneer worker in mountain meteorology
at Blue Hill Observatory and an associate of Professor Church at the
Mount Rose Observatory, which has now become a part of the University
of Nevada.
After two winters' work it was discovered, on making comparisons with
the records at the Central Weather Station at Reno, 6268 feet
below, that frost forecast could probably be made on Mt. Rose from
twenty-four to forty-eight hours in advance of the appearance of the
frost in the lower levels, provided the weather current was traveling
in its normal course eastward from the coast.
[Footnote 1: Since this was written Professor McAdie has been
appointed to the chair of Meteorology at Harvard University.]
Second only in importance was the discovery and photographic
recording of evidence of the value of timber high up on mountains, and
especially on the lips of canyons, for holding the snow until late in
the season.
This latter phase of the Observatory's work has developed into a most
novel and valuable contribution to practical forestry and conservation
of water, under Dr. Church's clear and logical direction. At
Contact Pass, 9000 feet elevation, and at the base of the mountain,
supplementary stations have been established, where measurements of
snow depth and density, the evaporation of snow, and temperatures
within the snow have been taken. Lake Tahoe, with its seventy miles of
coast line also affords ready access throughout the winter, by means
of motor boat, snow-shoes and explorer's camp, to forests of various
types and densities where snow measurements of the highest importance
have been made.
Delicate instruments of measurement and weight, etc., have been
invented by Dr. Church and his associates to meet the needs as they
have arisen, and continuous observations for several years seem to
justify the following general conclusions. These are quoted from
a bulletin by Dr. Church, issued by the International Irrigation
Congress.
The conservation of snow is dependent on mountains and forests
and is most complete where these two factors are combined. The
mountain range is not only the recipient of more snow than
the plain or the valley at its base, but in consequence of
the lower temperature prevailing on its slopes the snow there
melts more slowly.
However, mountains, because of their elevation, are exposed
to the sweep of violent winds which not only blow the snow in
considerable quantities to lower levels, where the temperature
is higher, but also dissipate and evaporate the snow to a
wasteful degree. The southern slopes, also, are so tilted as
to be more completely exposed to the direct rays of the sun,
and in the Sierra Nevada and probably elsewhere are subjected
to the persistent action of the prevailing southwest wind.
On the other hand, the mountain mass, by breaking the force of
the wind, causes much of the drifting snow to pile up on
its lee slope and at the base of its cliffs, where it finds
comparative shelter from the wind and sun.
Forests, also, conserve the snow. In wind-swept regions, they
break the force of the wind, catching the snow and holding it
in position even on the windward slopes of the mountains. On
the lower slopes, where the wind is less violent, the forests
catch the falling snow directly in proportion to their
openness, but conserve it after it has fallen directly in
proportion to their density. This phenomenon is due to the
crowns of the trees, which catch the falling snow and expose
it to rapid evaporation in the open air but likewise shut out
the sun and wind from the snow that has succeeded in passing
through the forest crowns to the ground. Both mountains
and forests, therefore, are to a certain extent wasters of
snow--the mountains because they are partially exposed to
sun and wind; the trees, because they catch a portion of
the falling snow on their branches and expose it to rapid
disintegration. However, the mountains by their mass and
elevation conserve immeasurably more snow than they waste, and
forested areas conserve far more snow than unforested. If the
unforested mountain slopes can be covered with timber, much
of the waste now occurring on them can be prevented, and by
thinning the denser forests the source of waste in them also
can be checked.
The experiences met with by the voluntary band of observers to secure
the data needed in their work are romantic in the extreme. An average
winter trip requires from a day and a half to two days and a half
from Reno. From the base of the mountain the ascent must be made on
snow-shoes. When work first began there was no building on the summit,
and no shelter station on the way. Imagine these brave fellows, daring
the storms and blizzards and fierce temperatures of winter calmly
ascending these rugged and steep slopes, in the face of every kind of
winter threat, merely to make scientific observations. In March, 1906,
Professor Johnson and Dr. Rudolph spent the night at timber-line in
a pit dug in the snow to obtain protection from a gale, at the
temperature of 5° Fahr. _below_ zero, and fought their way to
the summit. But so withering was the gale at that altitude even at
mid-day, that a precipitate retreat was made to avoid freezing. The
faces of the climbers showed plainly the punishment received. Three
days later Dr. Church attempted to rescue the record just as the storm
was passing. He made his way in an impenetrable fog to 10,000 feet,
when the snow and ice-crystals deposited by the storm in a state of
unstable equilibrium on crust and trees were hurled by a sudden
gale high into the air in a blinding blizzard. During his retreat he
wandered into the wildest part of the mountain before he escaped from
the skirts of the storm.
Other experiences read like chapters from Peary's or Nansen's records
in the Frozen North, and they are just as heroic and thrilling. Yet
in face of all these physical difficulties, which only the most superb
courage and enthusiasm could overcome, Dr. Church writes that, to
the spirit, the mountain reveals itself, at midnight and at noon,
at twilight and at dawn, in storm and in calm, in frost-plume and in
verdure, as a wonderland so remote from the ordinary experiences of
life that the traveler unconsciously deems that he is entering another
world.
In the last days of October, 1913, I was privileged to make the trip
from Reno in the company of Dr. Church, and two others. We were just
ahead of winter's storms, however, though Old Boreas raved somewhat
wildly on the summit and covered it with snow a few hours after
our descent. The experience was one long to be remembered, and the
personal touch of the heroic spirit afforded by the trip will be a
permanent inspiration.