56 Days...

56 Days to go...

It always blows my mind when getting ready for an expedition.  Time seems to distort itself without warning.  It seems like mere moments ago, I took over the living room packing all of my equipment for the 2008 endeavour.  Suddenly it seems, it's May 4th, 2009, and 18 of us are looking at our objective a quickly closing 8 weeks away.  

Certainly, every time that departure dates creep ever closer, my mind starts running constantly and somewhat frantically: have the vans been reserved?  What will the weather be like?  How is my fitness and focus?  Have we raised enough money yet?  While some of these questions are easier than others to answer, they nevertheless continuously play through my mind like some irritating clip show.

The nicer weather does quite a bit to help out.  Seemingly endless miles spent on the treadmill turn their way to running outside.  Suffering through the roll-of-the-dice weather of training climbs on Mt. Washington lend themselves to longer, nicer days of mountaineering (for Mt. Washington, anyway).  Money which has been a slow trickle (note: $12,000 thus far has been raised) so far will begin to flood the donation pages and mailbox at the office.  

To be certain, the next 56 days will scream by, time distorting itself into a greater frenzy.  Before anyone realizes it, we'll be boarding our flight, saying goodbye to family and friends for a week, and start our journey, mindful of the fact that we'll have raised at least $30,000.

56 days.  Wow.