If you’ve been reading our content for a while, you’re likely familiar with one guest in particular: the fellow working on his Grid — the one who just got himself down to a remaining 100 summits. He’s the one that usually goes out with Redline Guide Chase Hall but on this adventure Chase had some plans so Redline Guide Debra McCown took the lead. On this trip, which was originally just for Bondcliff, ended up including Mt Bond and West Bond. Hey, we get it; while you’re in the neighborhood, you may as well got for it. What follows is a short summary from Debra along with some photos of this awesome holiday adventure.
All I want for Christmas…
When he first booked the hike, he wasn’t sure if he’d do more than Mt Bondcliff. That was the one he wanted most. It was December 23 — two days before Christmas.
Bondcliff and two other nearby peaks, Mt Bond and West Bond — collectively referred to as the Bonds — are considered among the most challenging objectives for hikers aiming to complete the New Hampshire 48 and especially the Grid, which involves hiking the 48 peaks in all 12 months of the year. This guest is Gridding, and he ‘needed’ them for December.
The forecast was uncertain, with snow and wind expected. We didn’t know what the snow conditions would look like on the Bonds, which don’t get a ton of traffic in the winter. But, as it turned out, the snow was okay. We did the first several miles in spikes, then put on our snowshoes to break trail in several inches of soft, drifted snow on top of a previously defined trail.
For the summit of Bondcliff, we put on our spikes again. And then the guest employed an effective strategy: ‘Let’s keep walking and see what happens.’ The wind was calm. There was no precipitation yet. Our feet crunched the rime ice through an eerie fog. We kept walking.
Soon we arrived at the summit of Mt Bond and then continued on to West Bond, catching glimpses of views through the clouds as we broke trail, snowshoeing among trees that were beautifully coated in rime ice. The arriving snow held off until we were coming back over Bondcliff to return to treeline. We got a brief taste of the wind and snow above treeline before we got down into the trees for the long snowshoe back to the car.
It snowed on us all the way down, steady but light and sparkling and beautiful, accumulating slowly on the trail as we hiked. It was exactly the kind of snow that defines ‘White Christmas’ on nostalgic Christmas cards. It was the perfect end to a great day outside and a tiring but happily won pre-Christmas accomplishment on the trails! —Debra
When he first booked the hike, he wasn’t sure if he’d do more than Mt Bondcliff. That was the one he wanted most. It was December 23 — two days before Christmas.
