WEATHERING HEIGHTS:

MOUNT WASHINGTON SUMMIT -- We are at the top of New England at 6,288 feet above sea level and the rugged, majestic beauty of this place above wind-battered birches and snow-dusted pines is nothing less than stunning.

It's 8 degrees at the top of Mount Washington, with 42-mile-per-hour winds gusting to 51, and for some reason Hayden Pearson, a 27-year-old research specialist and mountain weather observer, can't stop smiling.

"On a perfectly clear day here on the summit, you can see up to 130 miles," he tells me, his breath riding on the arctic air. "What that means is that you can see five states and two countries.

"You can see all of New Hampshire. You can see into Maine and Vermont. You can see the Adirondacks in New York. You can see down to the northern part of Massachusetts. You're seeing the US and over the border into the southern part of Canada. And looking off to the east you can see Casco Bay."

How'd you like to earn your living where winds have been measured at over 200 miles per hour and ice forms a beautiful but hard and merciless cocoon around the Mount Washington Observatory?

That's precisely what Hayden Pearson is doing.

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