The night of the Mt. Madison tragedy chronicled by Nick Howe in Not Without Peril was one of my more memorable nights in the Whites as well. The previous day I had hiked up to the Zeacliffs where I camped out for the night. Shortly after I set up my tent in the woods not far from the cliffs, a series of thunderstorms rolled in and continued all through the night. It was an unnerving night to say the least, and when I awoke the next morning most of my gear was pretty soaked. Nonetheless, I broke camp and headed up the Twinway with the idea that I would bag the Bonds that day and stay the night at Guyot.
The t-storms, however, refused to quit, and I endured two drenching downpours as I made my way slowly to the Bondcliff Trail. By the time I reached Guyot, the temperature had also dropped considerably and the winds had picked up significantly. As I crossed over the exposed summits of Guyot I was knocked over by the wind three different times and at one point resorted to crawling on my hands and knees as I knew I could not stay upright in those winds. Ultimately I made my way safely into the scrub, but due to the awful weather I knew the Bonds were out of the question that day. Soaked, tired, cold and more than a little scared by tumbles atop Guyot, I opted to call it a day and seek relief at Guyot Shelter. By the time I reached the shelter sometime around noon I was close to being hypothermic and immediately crawled into my sleeping bag in an attempt to warm myself up. That's pretty much where I stayed for the next 18 hours as the cold, wind and fog persisted and the temperature dropped into the 30s overnight. It wasn't until the next morning that I finally warmed up.
That morning is also when the caretaker at Guyot shared the sobering news that a hiker had just perished atop Madison. Ar that point I was thankful it wasn't me, given what I'd gone through the previous day.
For the record, I did bag Bond and West Bond that morning, despite the pea soup fog enveloping the high country and gusty winds. I chose not to go after Bondcliff, however, figuring that might be too much to handle under the prevailing conditions. Instead I decided to get down off the mountain as quickly as I could and I retraced my steps back down to the Zeacliffs and Zealand Hut. Enough was enough in my mind.
