Packed — Away I Go

Photo 87/365

Espresso is looking bummed as I am all packed and ready to go. I think he has figured out that he isn't coming. This fall I had him fooled (he looked much happier).

I should be hitting the road around 5:30 a.m.

This will be my last daily post until Friday. I should be hiking up tomorrow to open the hut and then hiking down Thursday at the end of our shift. Weather permitting, we will have an airlift of supplies sometime during the week.

While I am gone the best place for updates will be my Twitter feed. You don't need an account, just go to www.twitter.com/meonmadison. For those who have never seen Twitter it can be a little confusing, but give it a shot, just look for the blurbs that are said by me (MeOnMadison). It's the easiest way for me to update as I can do it via text messages. They'll be short and sweet i.e. "Hiking up, clear weather." or "Airlifting today, woo hoo."

For the most accurate forecast you can check the Mount Washington Observatory website. The conditions and forecast are for the Summit of Washington, slightly more harsh but only a stone's throw away. It is the same forecast we get via radio at the hut. To get an idea of the temperature difference you can scroll down and look at the Auto Road vertical temperature profile for Mt. Washington.The hut is at 4800' on Mt. Madison, so our temps will be somewhere between the 5300' and 4300' readings.

To get visual idea of our conditions you can check the North view webcam from Mt. Washington. Often you'll only see clouds, but on a clear day you can see a deep dip in the in ridge, Madison Col. That is where I am at. The large peak on the right is Adams. Typically you can see Mt. Madison on the cam as well, but the camera has been spun to the left (west) slightly by wind and they have yet to turn it back.

Away I go again, same place, different journey. Onward.