Creaky Knees
New member
Trail Conditions: Hale Brook, Lend A Hand were well packed out on 3/7, Twinway, Bondcliff, Wilderness all packed out well on 3/8, especially after the Ed Hawkins train from Saturday. Treeless peaks were ice and corn snow after the rain overnight. Only blowdowns were on lower Bondcliff and Wilderness. Most water crossings fine, but the snow bridges are going fast.
Special Equipment Required: Snowshoes mandatory due to warm temps. No real need for traction or crampons. Some postholes from bare booters were 4-5' down - ouch.
Comments: Great views from Hale since a solo gentleman has made it is weekend winter purpose to build a 10-15' snow porch on top of Hale. Damselfly and her husband knocked off S. Hale on the way to the hut. Sunday morning started out foggy and a little windy. No real problems to Zealand, W. Bond and Bond with still strong winds and fog with just a peak of blue every now and then. On the way down to Bondcliff, the skies opened to blue sky, but the col wanted to make sure that Spaderman, Great Pumpkin and I were worthy of finishing our 48, W48 and W48 respectively on Bondcliff. It greeted us with 70+ mile an hour winds that knocked us around pretty good. Because of very real safety concerns, we needed to descend off trail to get out of the wind for about 500 yards, but when we rejoined the trail on the way up to Bondcliff, the wind was far more manageable. 10 minutes on Bondcliff for pictures and then off to the 9 mile slog out. We were accompanied by Roger B (turned around at hut due to equipment problems, Maddog Murray, Andy V, Roy T, Beth & Steve Z. Thanks to all for accompanying us on our completions
whitemtns48 at yahoo dot com
Special Equipment Required: Snowshoes mandatory due to warm temps. No real need for traction or crampons. Some postholes from bare booters were 4-5' down - ouch.
Comments: Great views from Hale since a solo gentleman has made it is weekend winter purpose to build a 10-15' snow porch on top of Hale. Damselfly and her husband knocked off S. Hale on the way to the hut. Sunday morning started out foggy and a little windy. No real problems to Zealand, W. Bond and Bond with still strong winds and fog with just a peak of blue every now and then. On the way down to Bondcliff, the skies opened to blue sky, but the col wanted to make sure that Spaderman, Great Pumpkin and I were worthy of finishing our 48, W48 and W48 respectively on Bondcliff. It greeted us with 70+ mile an hour winds that knocked us around pretty good. Because of very real safety concerns, we needed to descend off trail to get out of the wind for about 500 yards, but when we rejoined the trail on the way up to Bondcliff, the wind was far more manageable. 10 minutes on Bondcliff for pictures and then off to the 9 mile slog out. We were accompanied by Roger B (turned around at hut due to equipment problems, Maddog Murray, Andy V, Roy T, Beth & Steve Z. Thanks to all for accompanying us on our completions
whitemtns48 at yahoo dot com
