tasting humble pie: Mt Madison 1/17/10

[Chip]

I realized on Thursday that I had Monday off so my family made plans to head to NH. Paradox and his real friend, Henry, were planning on doing Isolation on Saturday and some sort of list obligations on Sunday. Peak above the Nubble was mentioned, which I had no interest in. On Saturday the forecast for Sunday improved dramatically and Paradox and Henry made the decision to do Madison, Adams and another Adams. I hesitated as I have some sort of flu/cold/chest/sinus thing going on and I haven't gotten out much lately, but I agreed to tag along and make the attempt.

Sunday started at 8am at Appalachia Trailhead for Valley Way. I was dragging and sweating almost immediately. I couldn't breath and remembered I had forgotten to take anything for my congestion. At about mile 2 Paradox dosed me some Sudafed, handed me his car keys, slapped me on the back and said something like "Get outta the way". He and Henry quickly disappeared up the trail. At this point, about 9:30, I figured I could head back down and hang in the car for 6 hours or call it "exercise" and keep moving forward. So I moved forward.

Before too long the Sudafed kicked in, the trees got short and the sky got blue. At about 11am I popped out of the scrub just below Madison Hut to see Paradox and Henry beginning the ascent of Madison. I got to the hut, switched from snowshoes to crampons, drank some water and headed up Madison. About half way up I saw Paradox and Henry descending. In passing Paradox unceremoniously pushed me into the krumholtz and may have spat. I was just happy to be there, took no notice, and kept moving up.

It had turned out to be a beautiful day; almost no wind, relatively warm and blue skies. At the summit I took pics and some video and headed back to the Hut. Taking a break and more video there I recognized Ed Hawkins. There was a small group talking with him. A guy mentioned Mats and Farmer, I mentioned VFTT and their record attempt and it turns out the others were Jeremy (of the new Trail Conditions site) and J&J ! Cool. It turns out Ed was about to finish his 3rd Grid on Madison !



So Mats and Farmer are working on a Winter Record, Ed is about to finish his 3rd Grid, Paradox and Henry are ticking off lists and I'm happy to have made a summit. Oh well. Humble Pie. Eat it. Good for the soul.

Here's the vids and the link to my pics; Thanks for looking;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb-4VArYnt4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6YzgkRfiSo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMmOiBTD_QU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt0nL21xJcI

http://picasaweb.google.com/ChipDia...kinsJeremyAndJJ#slideshow/5428235860808530914

 

[Paradox]

Laughed so hard, I was "relieved" to be wearing Depends. It was great to see you again, and feeling well enough to film the videos. Apparently, spittle freezes at those temperatures. It's a good thing I had not seen the snowshoe thread until this morning, or the whole conversation would have shifted.

At any rate here are the photos that Henry and I took on Webshots.

And a GPS track and photos on Wikiloc