April is likely to be primarily essentially the most troublesome month to hike the White Mountain 4000 footers and mountaineering out to The Bonds is probably in all probability essentially the most troublesome hikes to finish because of the hole and early spring snow circumstances. This April has been notably troublesome because of it snowed an extra 5 toes earlier contained in the month along with to the snowpack and prolonging winter circumstances.
The Bonds are a cluster of three adjoining 4000-footers together with Bondcliff, Mt Bond, and West Bond Mountain. They’re positioned deep contained in the Pemigewasset Wilderness Home and actually distant requiring every a 22-mile out and as soon as extra or a 26-mile traverse relying on the route (in winter circumstances). Most individuals do the route in a single very extended day. When you presumably can backpack it, the added winter gear weight would make it reasonably extra troublesome. That acknowledged, it’s a satisfying backpacking journey in hotter native climate and I’ve achieved it many instances.
With a difficult frost forecast in a single day, my good pal Karen and I made a decision to maneuver out to the Bonds early contained in the morning to attempt to summit the peaks before the snow warmed and turned to slush. The wind forecast was inexpensive, which is nice due to these peaks all have appreciable wind publicity. Karen and I’ve been mountaineering The Grid collectively for numerous years and he or she’s a safe companion. The Grid entails mountaineering all 48 of the 4000 footers in every calendar month of the 12 months for a complete of 576 summits. This was to be my twelfth and shutting hike to the Bonds for The Grid, whereas Karen nonetheless has numerous extra months to finish.
We met on the Lincoln Woods trailhead and began at 7:18 am. The primary 4.7 miles are alongside the Lincoln Woods Path and Bondcliff Path, that are the gateway to the Pemigewasset Wilderness. The path, which used to assist a logging railroad, nonetheless has embedded railroad ties on the bottom. However it completely’s a quick and flat stretch of path and we chewed up the opening in 2 hours.
For this hike, we’d every packed winter mountaineering gear with additional gloves, layers, and lots of and a great deal of meals. We furthermore launched Hillsound Path Crampons and snowshoes, which collectively add about 6 lbs to a backpack load. We each carried about 2L of water nonetheless contemplate to resupply by the use of the day on the stream crossings beneath the peaks. I haven’t drunk enough water on my closing numerous Grid hikes and I used to be decided to devour enough on this one. I ended up consuming 4L and was nonetheless thirsty on the tip.
We began climbing the Bondcliff Path which was dry and snow-free, switching to Hillsound Path crampons at 2400′ for added traction on the snow. The path is well-shaded by bushes down low and the snow was firm enough to assist us with out snowshoes. After numerous stream crossings and additional climbing, we arrived at a rocky outcrop, generally known as the Hillary Step, on the south finish of the Bondcliff Mtn summit. It’s sometimes a difficult scramble to ascend, nonetheless the snow at its foot was piled deep making it reasonably rather a lot easier to climb up.
The summit of Bondcliff was fully snow-free, so we ducked out behind a boulder out of the wind and had lunch. Two women approached us from the north as we rested and came visiting to say good day. Each Karen and I knew Donna and her companion, who was the mom of 1 totally different of my mates! Everytime you hike contained in the White Mountains typically, notably on the 4000-footers, you regularly run into individuals who do the same situation. That camaraderie is probably considered one of many charming factors about mountaineering the big lists contained in the Whites. They’d spent the night time at Zealand Hut and had been mountaineering the Bonds from the northerly course, the whole 26-mile winter route.
We scale back up up and continued with our hikes, Karen and I heading to Mt Bond subsequent, which is the tallest of the Bonds. The path to the summit climbs up the west face of the mountain and should get fairly nasty if the wind is blowing due to it’s completely uncovered to the native climate. We’d lucked out and skilled nice native climate sunny all day, with low wind.
Nonetheless, the climb to the Bond summit was a grind over a rocky path after which as soon as extra into our Hillsounds as quickly as we encountered snow larger up. As we headed within the path of the West Bond Spur, the path to our to our remaining peak, we encountered a rigorously post-holed path. Nonetheless the snow was nonetheless chilly enough that it held our boots, so we didn’t add to the mayhem that post-holing may set off.
As shortly as on the path junction, we met one totally different hiker, named Alan. I’d by no means met him before nonetheless we now have quite a lot of mutual mates and we shortly put 2 & 2 collectively. We hiked out with him to West Bond and savored the views. It was 2:30pm and we’d been mountaineering for 11 miles in 7 hours, nearly repeatedly, apart from our transient lunch break on Bondcliff. Now it was time to hike as soon as extra the best method we’d come.
This concerned summitting Mt Bond and Bondcliff as quickly as additional, before making our methodology as soon as extra to the Lincoln Woods trailhead. That took one totally different 6:30 hours and we had been carrying headlamps on the tip.
Nonetheless we’d had a terrific hike and I’d gridded out the Bonds. Not solely that, I’d achieved mountaineering all 48 of the 4000 footers in April, leaving solely 5 extra summits to climb in Might to complete the Grid (571/576). It’s arduous to consider that that multi-year effort is about to return to an finish, and whereas I’ve cherished it and the camaraderie of the hills, I’m wanting ahead to mountaineering new territory.
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