Hutting it

It's a downright balmy -8.3° out right now, up twenty degrees from the low last night. I'm on fire duty tonight, Elaine is sleeping. As she should, because tomorrow is a big day. It's up to a hut, a solid 3,000 foot climb into one of our favorite mountain ranges. I have to do the climb too of course, but I I have a bit more experience to tap into, so it's good to let her rest. She'll do fine of course. Our first hut trip was 2,900 feet up and she rocked it, and last week we skied to the top of James Peak, more than 3,000 feet of climbing, and it was no problem. I've never been to this hut, but from what I have heard, it may offer the best skiing of all the 10th Mountain units. I'm excited. We're shooting for an early start, get up there mid-afternoon, take a sunset run, enjoy a yummy dinner and a cozy fire, a sound sleep, a pancake breakfast, a morning of laps, and then a screaming return home before work Saturday.

Elaine informed me today, on our drive home, that all her symptoms are gone. She dropped her meds a long time ago, but only recently did she stop taking a medication called Seroquel which helps her sleep but also has some harsh side-effects. Well, now she's off that too. And everything that haunted her for so long is gone. I'm not sure what more you could ask for. I know this whole thing of the past two years has been hard for a lot of people – myself included – and for that I am sorry. But, if you told me two years ago that Elaine would be basically completely healthy today, I'd have not believed it. It's…really a good thing. It makes it all worth it. Of course, this was not a charity case…I love her more than I love anything on the planet…but it's a happy, and I must say unexpected, residual result. Somewhere, somehow, despite all the opposition, somebody is smiling on it all.

So tomorrow we climb. Me and my wife, up a mountain into a range that we both agree might be the most beautiful in Colorado. Up 3,000 feet. In truth though, it's a small climb compared to the mountains we've already been through.