Home4000-FootersOther White Mountain TripsTrail WorkOther StatesMemorabilia

Map

  Madison Hut page: 

1

2

3

4
 
Madison Spring Hut - page 4 of 4

After a while, the rain let up, so I decided I might as well make a summit attempt. Erin didn’t want to go, so she stayed in the hut. I started up the Osgood Trail. After passing through a small area of scrub, I scrambled up over the clutter of talus, following a line of cairns and paint blazes on the rocks. It was not a quick easy climb, especially since I was already tired, the rocks were wet, and 50+ mph winds were trying to blow me off balance.

About halfway up the 550-foot vertical rise of the summit cone, the wind suddenly picked up, pummeling me with thick sheets of rain which were blowing in sideways out of the Great Gulf. Cowering close down to the rocks, I waited for a couple of minutes to see if was going to subside, all the time thinking about McDonald Barr who died of hypothermia on Mt Madison in 1986 during an August storm. It did not let up, so I decided to play it safe and call it quits. Since I was getting battered by wind-driven raindrops and 75 mph gusts here, on the more-protected side of Mt Madison, I reasoned that conditions on the summit would be much worse. I picked my way carefully down the rocks, crouching low during the worst gusts, until I reached the safety of the hut again. By now, the rain and the wind had slackened a bit, but it was probably still worse higher up.

I found Erin inside the hut, and we refilled our water bottles, and then headed back down the mountain via the Valley Way, which is the safest route up or down during bad weather since it is more sheltered than the Airline or any of the other trails that converge in the vicinity of Mt Madison.

The upper part of the Valley Way was a little slow going because the rocks were wet and the footing was rough. About 45 minutes from the hut, it really began to pour and we had to put on our rain gear. We passed a croo member climbing up the trail with a heavy packboard full of food and supplies. He didn’t have on rain gear and was getting drenched.

About a half-hour from the car, the rain let up. Erin continued down the Valley Way, while I took an alternate parallel route down the Fallsway close to Snyder Brook by a series of small cascades. I returned to the Valley Way on the Maple Way and reached the car a couple of minutes after Erin.

We drove into Gorham and stopped at McDonald’s to get supper, then got some gas and a couple of sodas and headed back home, stopping only once along the way to call home and leave a message that we were on the way back. I was disappointed that I hadn’t summited, but was glad that we made it back down safely and had at least reached Madison Spring Hut. The mountain has to win some of the time.  

Rear kitchen door of Madison Spring Hut. The rear of the hut faces Mt Madison and the Osgood Trail.

Map

  Madison Hut page: 

1

2

3

4