Mats Roing
New member
So Gillian and I headed for our completion of the W48 on the Bonds (she needed West Bond and Bond and I needed Zealand and West Bond).
Stoney, Spandex and I started from Zealand Hut Friday evening. Mtnpa had a headstart and was flirting with the hutkeeper by the time we got there. Another guy named Jack was also there to bag Guyot in the morning. Unfrozen Caveman, 7summit, Adventurist, Jferris, Gillian and Juniper came up after midnight. Jason and UFC had to bag Hale on the way in. It wa a weird night, when you went out to the other buidling for night business it was warmer outside than inside. By sunrise the picture was totally different; windy and cold outside. The hot water from the stove was great. We geared up and headed out all 11 of us. I kept a slow pace intentionally so some people got a tad cold. No major navigational issues on the ridge. It was a beautiful brisk day in the woods. For some reason the Zealand sign pointed toward Guyot........some dude thought he was funny. After traffic jamming by the summit sign, many of us were cold so just me and Stoney (Jeff Stone who were on Denali with me last year) decided to check out the sailing wind on Guyot......it proved to be adequate
Jack had packed the trail for 300 feet towards Guyot and every foot helps Giggy, MEB and Little sister came up to Zealand in the morning also but Stoney and I never saw them.
We took turns packing the trail and it was fine until the wind tunnel at Guyot set in.....didn't feel much love from the sun here....sometimes it's an advantage to weigh over 200 lbs. We made it over and took shelter in the bushes before heading over the 2nd Guyot summit. Checked our faces and enjoyed the great views. Most of the time it was nice along the ridge. Saw some snowshoe tracks and figured it must be Dangergirl and her companion on the Pemi traverse. Someone had bivied at the intersection to the Guyot campsite. On to West Bond cut-off......broke the trail to West Bond and the W48 was a done deal.......but no celebrations were really made up there......we saw the wind going over Bondcliff risked getting speeding tickets so we decided to go down that way......bailout-option would have been to head down to Bondcliff trail from the lowpoint instead of bagging Bondcliff. By the time we were down at the col it was wicked windy. Had to take shelter behind whatever was possible, held on to each other and bowed down on the knees to avoid getting blown off. We had a discussion what to do and decided to traverse a bit lower on the Bondclifff and if that didn't work head into the woods. Down below it was more gusty so there were breaks in the wind where we could move forward and slowly we made our way up to Bondcliff summit. The summit area wasn't too bad compared to the col. Sun was on it's last hurrah when headed down into the woods behind Bondcliff. We didn't have a thermoter although at Lincoln Woods the car said -17F.
Frodo, rocket21, NeighborDave, Darlene58, Stevo, Arm, Hamtero, Donna and DaveBear had intended to meet us on the Bonds but they turned back on Bondcliff due to the wind. It was probably 4:30 when we left Bondcliff since the sun was just a tad above the horizon and in 20 minutes it was gone. Made good time down the remaining 9.1 miles and were back at LW by 8:20pm. DaveBear, the great dude, came to met us in the parking lot with some goodies. Celebration at the mountainhouse afterwards. Mtnmama makes the best chicken soup there is!
Next time Gillian will make it I'm sure A strong hiker she is. She likes to do one-day pemi loops in November by the way
Great to see so many familiar faces again!
Stoney, Spandex and I started from Zealand Hut Friday evening. Mtnpa had a headstart and was flirting with the hutkeeper by the time we got there. Another guy named Jack was also there to bag Guyot in the morning. Unfrozen Caveman, 7summit, Adventurist, Jferris, Gillian and Juniper came up after midnight. Jason and UFC had to bag Hale on the way in. It wa a weird night, when you went out to the other buidling for night business it was warmer outside than inside. By sunrise the picture was totally different; windy and cold outside. The hot water from the stove was great. We geared up and headed out all 11 of us. I kept a slow pace intentionally so some people got a tad cold. No major navigational issues on the ridge. It was a beautiful brisk day in the woods. For some reason the Zealand sign pointed toward Guyot........some dude thought he was funny. After traffic jamming by the summit sign, many of us were cold so just me and Stoney (Jeff Stone who were on Denali with me last year) decided to check out the sailing wind on Guyot......it proved to be adequate
Jack had packed the trail for 300 feet towards Guyot and every foot helps Giggy, MEB and Little sister came up to Zealand in the morning also but Stoney and I never saw them.We took turns packing the trail and it was fine until the wind tunnel at Guyot set in.....didn't feel much love from the sun here....sometimes it's an advantage to weigh over 200 lbs. We made it over and took shelter in the bushes before heading over the 2nd Guyot summit. Checked our faces and enjoyed the great views. Most of the time it was nice along the ridge. Saw some snowshoe tracks and figured it must be Dangergirl and her companion on the Pemi traverse. Someone had bivied at the intersection to the Guyot campsite. On to West Bond cut-off......broke the trail to West Bond and the W48 was a done deal.......but no celebrations were really made up there......we saw the wind going over Bondcliff risked getting speeding tickets so we decided to go down that way......bailout-option would have been to head down to Bondcliff trail from the lowpoint instead of bagging Bondcliff. By the time we were down at the col it was wicked windy. Had to take shelter behind whatever was possible, held on to each other and bowed down on the knees to avoid getting blown off. We had a discussion what to do and decided to traverse a bit lower on the Bondclifff and if that didn't work head into the woods. Down below it was more gusty so there were breaks in the wind where we could move forward and slowly we made our way up to Bondcliff summit. The summit area wasn't too bad compared to the col. Sun was on it's last hurrah when headed down into the woods behind Bondcliff. We didn't have a thermoter although at Lincoln Woods the car said -17F.
Frodo, rocket21, NeighborDave, Darlene58, Stevo, Arm, Hamtero, Donna and DaveBear had intended to meet us on the Bonds but they turned back on Bondcliff due to the wind. It was probably 4:30 when we left Bondcliff since the sun was just a tad above the horizon and in 20 minutes it was gone. Made good time down the remaining 9.1 miles and were back at LW by 8:20pm. DaveBear, the great dude, came to met us in the parking lot with some goodies. Celebration at the mountainhouse afterwards. Mtnmama makes the best chicken soup there is!
Next time Gillian will make it I'm sure
A strong hiker she is. She likes to do one-day pemi loops in November by the wayGreat to see so many familiar faces again!
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