Mountain Pancakes

Day 113: When the Mountain makes pancakes, it's a sure sign the weather is about to change (and it did, so there's no hope of seeing that elusive comet any time this week). Mount Rainier is famous for its lenticular cloud formations. In fact, at least once, they've been reported as UFOs, although I can't quite imagine why. Admittedly, they're dramatic. One time when I was backpacking on the north side, I saw one incoming which looked exactly like Capt. Kirk's Enterprise complete with warp nacelles, at least to my imaginative mind. Sometimes, they pile up on one side or another of the peak; others will accumulate on or over the summit, often lowering as a developing weather system gains strength. They occur when moist, stable air flows over the summit to create a series of waves and troughs. Unequal dew point and ambient temperature in the bottoms of the troughs causes evaporation. At the peaks of the waves where dew point and temperature are equal, condensation occurs. When this recipe is exactly right, the Mountain makes pancakes. Or maybe, like the Lemurians who were reported to live in Mount Shasta, there really is a race of aliens occupying the ice caves on the summit, flying in and out in their saucer-shaped spaceships disguised as clouds.