Way Back Home

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The concept of returning to Madison never seemed real. How could it? The place didn't seem real even when I was there. 

I got two e-mails yesterday, three minutes apart, from two totally separate people. Both were about returning to Madison. The first was from Marc, who I worked with doing the time-lapse photo project at the hut. You can view the video from the fall here (click). Marc was wondering when construction was reopening for the spring and when I would be going back up. 

I didn't have the answer because I had not yet heard from Charlie, the AMC construction supervisor. 

Until three minutes later. 

I got a simple e-mail from Charlie, asking if I was going to be able to return and letting me know there was an airlift tentatively scheduled for March 28. Airlifts are very tentative (click). I immediately called him and discussed my return. It's all set. The same role, the same job.

So there we have it, I am going back. It was never really in doubt, but now it feels much more real. Come late March we'll be waiting for a weather window to get tools, personal gear and food back up to the hut. We'll be digging out, chipping ice, melting snow for water and fighting to get generators and air compressors started. We'll be checking forecasts, spring skiing out our front door, watching the sunrise over Madison and set over the Durand Ridge of Mt. Adams. We'll be cooking scrambled eggs and prosciutto in the morning and drinking crappy coffee that taste o-so-good. We'll be stoking the barrel wood stoves, staying warm, drying out clothes. 

And then there is the work. Finishing the interior wood paneling, doing the wood floors and trimming the windows. We'll be knocking down the old bathroom, and rebuilding it into what will become the third bunk room. Finally, we'll be turning each room into what it is supposed to be: a kitchen, a crew room, a pantry, bunkrooms, dinning room, bathroom. 

And for good measure, these are the Mt. Washington (similar to Madison) summit conditions as I was writing this post this morning. 

I can't wait!