Outdoor kitchen to spend a year uncovered atop Mount Washington

RTA Outdoor Living, a New Hampshire company that sells prefabricated outdoor kitchens, announced Oct. 14 that it installed a fully functional outdoor kitchen at the 6,288-foot summit of Mount Washington in August and will leave it uncovered through August 2027.

Staff at Mount Washington Observatory will document the kitchen’s condition alongside summit weather records, and RTA plans a final comparison against the kitchen’s original condition after 12 months. The company said it donated the kitchen to the observatory for permanent use. RTA said the project is not a controlled scientific test or product certification, but an observation of how one installation responds to a year of exposure.

“Every outdoor kitchen company says its product is built to last. We wanted to test that claim somewhere the weather does not negotiate,” says Tommy Gubanc, head of marketing at RTA. “We do not know exactly what a Mount Washington winter will do to this kitchen. We do know we will show people the answer either way.”

Mount Washington records hurricane-force gusts on about 110 days a year. In 1934, observatory staff recorded a 231 mph gust at the summit, a world record that stood for 62 years and remains the highest recorded in the Northern and Western Hemispheres. Jay Broccolo, the observatory’s director of weather operations, says the summit may see hundreds of freeze-thaw cycles a year, which can be hard on outdoor materials because moisture that enters small openings or porous surfaces can freeze, expand and cause cracking or separation.

The kitchen has already experienced a 103.9 mph gust on Sept. 10 and a 110 mph gust on Oct. 6, the latter with snow, rime ice and subzero wind chills, RTA said.

“After seeing how ruggedly it was built, I expect it to make it through the winter and possibly several winters,” says Broccolo. “Even so, I would be surprised if a full Mount Washington winter left it completely unchanged.”

The summit kitchen is a 10-foot island with a handmade concrete countertop, concrete panels, two 36-inch Coyote Outdoor Living grills and double access doors. RTA said it is built from the company’s standard production components and could be replicated in a homeowner’s backyard. The company sells custom kitchens directly to homeowners nationwide online, designs its panelized system in New Hampshire and manufactures it in Indiana.

Installers trucked the components up the Mount Washington Auto Road and, because of the high winds, anchored the island to an adjacent concrete wall with stainless steel support members. The team also devised a way to secure the grill hoods and access doors when the kitchen is not in use. RTA photographed and filmed the installation and documented the countertops, panels, seams, corners, appliances, doors, drawers and hardware to establish a baseline for inspections.

“We documented where the kitchen started, and we are allowing Mount Washington to determine the result in public,” says Peter Kurst, project manager at RTA.

Observatory staff will examine the kitchen from repeatable reference points for cracking, chipping, seal separation, dents and changes in operation. Drew Bush, the observatory’s executive director, said the summit station is staffed around the clock, allowing staff to pair detailed weather records with direct observation.

RTA plans to return in winter to inspect the structure and in spring to check whether the grills still operate, followed by a comprehensive inspection in August 2027. RTA and the observatory expect to share observations and footage and eventually produce a short documentary. A live camera overlooking the kitchen is available at rtaoutdoorliving.com/outdoor-kitchen-on-mount-washington.

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