 I saw this job description and it was the weirdest kind of mix and hodgepodge of characteristics that I'd ever seen advertised for somebody and I went oh my god this fits me perfectly you know must be able to drive a snow cat box ticked you know must be able to work on a furnace and keep a facility running box tick and so it kind of really intrigued me because it wasn't just putting my scientific skills to use but the entire repertoire that I've built over my entire career and even back into my childhood growing up in Denver Colorado we would get these snowstorms and at the time I remember pretending that I was an Antarctica just you know being out there and enjoying the the winter and doing important research or doing important work you know of course that kind of imparted itself on me and that's why I love working with it now. This lab was part of three labs initially built to study snow science in the western US of those three this is the last one standing really and has been collecting data since 1946. Donner Pass in the area where the lab is located is realistically one of the snowiest places in the continental US. How do these big months that it might be multiple tens of feet 10 20 30 feet really stack up and can I survive them in this kind of remote location and after having the third snowiest month in the labs history back in December of this past year I'm happy to say that I've passed that test. There's that childlike excitement for the storms but it's almost just as exciting to be able to take these measurements and collect this data and make these contributions to science so that we can really get a handle on our water resources and where the planet's going in terms of climate change and planetary changes a whole. In addition to working here I live here at the lab with my wife Megan and our two dogs. You know there there hadn't really been anybody full time at the lab for 18 months so when I first got here there were a lot of roommates that I had and not many that I wanted in the terms of having plenty of spiders and plenty of mice here and plenty of ground squirrels as well but then there was also issues like all the sinks were backed up so that needed to be taken care of. The internet here wasn't even fast enough to send an email at that point so that had to be remedied. So it was a very unique process getting the lab up and going after first being hired and it does feel at home not only for my career but for myself and my free time as well. When I'm able to wake up in the morning after a snowstorm and go out and do my measurements and then come inside it's really kind of nice and it's been great so far just being here secluded in the mountains.