What's left of Cinema Gully, caught on our way out. Not much. Probably even less now.

So that was it. Our second ice trip this season. And now: done. Over. It would obviously have been desirable to get a few more climbs in. When we were planning winter trips late last year, Brian and I had entertained a weeklong Northeast ice and ski tour. Having experienced this season, that prospect now seems about as exciting as working lint duty at a sweater factory.

Still, we had climbed well on the occasions we had made it out, and we were successful on all attempts this time around (working with what was dealt us), a far cry from last year (with only two trips this year, we had a better record, comparatively). Our partnership has matured nicely over the last year and a half. Confidence is building as a team as well as individually (this is incredibly peculiar for me, I can assure you; Brian has always been fairly confident). And most importantly, our mental states continue to de-evolve, keeping the two of us endlessly amused with the trivialities of being.

What else? Oh yes. I screwed up the travel arrangements. I booked our flight out of Manchester at 6AM Tuesday. That's what I thought, anyway. It turned out I'd actually scheduled a 6PM flight. With the drive back to the airport, this left us time to do precisely not one productive thing with ourselves before the flight. So we decided to drive down early and see if we might be able to latch on to an earlier flight. Which seemed perfectly plausible, what with the airlines being so relaxed and accomodating these days.

Oddly enough, we got in just in time to make a delayed 3PM nonstop flight (the VP of my department happened to be on the same flight - he has family outside Boston and had flown through Manchester - pissah!). We landed, walked off the plane, descended the stairway to baggage claim where our gear was already waiting. Upon exiting the airport we found our car lot shuttle patiently marking time. We boarded, were carted over to my Jeep, loaded up, and caught green lights all the way to Brian's place. It was rush hour. We couldn't believe our luck. What is all of this, this... right-going?

Here's hoping for a winter next year. And... that's all I have to say about that.¹⁹

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¹⁹I apologize. I want you to know that I am fully aware of the fact that this was not one of my better efforts, on any level. The organization, writing... really the everything, could be better. I'm tired. And distracted. I am On To The Next Thing, whatever that may be, though this was a great trip and my lack of usual attention to tangential detail shouldn't take anything away from it. And in all honesty I must tell you that it's one hell of a lot easier to write these things when something doesn't go so well. Much more fodder than all of this bloody pie-in-the-sky outcome. Ever notice that there aren't too many great novels centered around happy characters? Ever wonder why? Because happy characters are boring to write, that's why. At any rate, I'll do better next time. And for what it's worth, I'll take success and little to say about it over failure and endless moping any day. I'm done now.