If you want peace with this, then you tell H you are going, and that he can come along if he would like, but either way you're going with S. If he *chooses* not to go, you're off the hook! If he chooses to come, well now you've got to treat the rest of the trip with the same attitude. I'm going to enjoy this -- you can enjoy this too or not, but either way I'm going to enjoy it.
I dislike his company too much to risk his saying that he would want to, plus I'm quite sure he would. He doesn't like to be left out of anything. I don't have what it takes yet to offset his "meanness," and it's a little more difficult to hop on a plan and come home from the mountains than it is to hop in a cab and come home from a restaurant. I like your suggestion, I'm just not there yet.
