Mountains to Ourselves

Matt on the Summit of Mt. Adams

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If you missed day one of my first stint back on Madison, read it here. 

3/29/11

After a morning of work, digging away snow and chipping away at ice, we needed a solid lunch break. A cold dark hut doesn't make for much a break though, so we strapped on our crampons, grabbed our mountaineering axes and headed for the summit of Mt. Adams. 

The visibility was poor from the start, but the snow was packed solid and easy to grip. We climbed out of Madison Col via the Gulfside Trail to where it joins the Airline at the rim of King Ravine. From there, it was up the Airline over Adam's multiple false summits to the peak of New Hampshire's second highest mountain. We were greeted by the typical winter welcoming committee, high winds and blowing snow, but stayed long enough to enjoy a few breaks in the clouds with views to the summit of Mt. Madison and across to the Carter Moriah Range before heading home via Lowe's Path and the Gulfside Trail. 

Me near the summit of Mt. Adams

Charlie had called Matt and I on the radio at 6:30 a.m. and told us what we had already assumed. The weather was no good, poor visibility and wind; no airlift. No one was hiking up either. We'd have the hut, Madison Col, the mountains, to ourselves for the day. We fried poptarts and toasted bagels and discussed our plan over breakfast. Digging out the generator/freezer shed and digging out the bomb platform (more propane tanks) were the first priority. We needed to see if we could get a generator running. 

The buried bomb platform & Matt chipping away at the generator shed

The bomb platform, a stand-alone deck north of the hut, was almost entirely buried. The top layer was wind-packed, sun-backed layer of crust that we broke into chunks with a spade, throwing them aside like bricks so we could scoop away the dry powdery snow underneath before reaching another layer of crust below. Layer by layer we dug away one storm at a time. 

Matt connecting the propane

We got the platform dug out and the shed opened, but hooking up the generators revealed what we already knew, none of them worked. Power tools could not be powered until we could airlift in new generators. We did find a bounty of food in the freezer though, a few items still edible. All we had was what we packed up with us, which wasn't much, so extra bags of bagels, english muffins, a blocks of butter were a welcome site. 

After our lunch break on Adams Matt and I reached our breaking point with our cave of a hut. It was time to take off some shutters. Our targets were the south-facing kitchen windows. The decision made all the difference. Sunlight. And our living space had a view.

Matt doing dishes with a view

We spent the rest of the day tinkering with tools and generators, taking inventory of what we had and what we didn't, cleaning and setting up. We were settling in quite well.