Mount Zealand

Also on this trip

Trails Used

Zealand Road, Zealand Trail, Twinway, Bondcliff Trail, West Bond Spur, Lincoln Woods

Trail Conditions

Equipment

Notes

Zearoad is rough, crusty mix of everything, zea trail is better as everyone actually walked in a single file instead of neurosis on the road making everywhere equally tedious. Spikes went on leaving the hut and stayed on until the old wilderness trail jct on Bondcliff trail at the start of the death march. Snowshoes stayed in the car which is good bc otherwise I likely woulda thrown them off Zeacliff, the stretch up to it from the hut was in the best shape from being northeast aspect. A semi consolidated mess showing the early signs of becoming monorail in the near future across twinway. Guyot was brutally punchy, collapsing crust and the mean alpine winds made me cry. Very mealy snowpack on the ridge over to treeline on Bondcliff and on West Bond spur. Semi punchy, kinda bony, and a little crusty on Bondcliff tho the winds mostly behaved thankfully. Mashy springy mess become very slushy on the stupid 1984 relo stretch which had lotsa open leaves and muddy wet puddles. Only a few railroad ties exposed w/minimal slushiness, most of the dirt patches were nice and dry on the last forever 5 miles out. Lotta semi-crusty mix of ice and slushy granular on LW

Parking

Winter lot has many open spots and quiet @LW

Water Crossings

Big step needed on the one above the hut. The bottom 3 on Bondcliff and the 1 on Zealand trails are rock hops. The top 2 on Bondcliff have decent snowbridges

Wildlife

N/A

Also on this trip

Trails Used

Little River Road, North Twin Trail, North Twin Spur, Twinway, Zealand Spur, Lend-A-Hand Trail, Firewardens Trail

Trail Conditions

Equipment

Notes

Bareboots from 7Dwarfs to the N. Twin TH, then micros to about half way up N. Twin, then snowshoes to S. Twin, across to Guyot, and down to Lend-A-Hand, then back to Micros. North Twin to South Twin was nicely packed, the rest of the trails were varying amounts of lumpy, churned, loose snow. Most people seem to be going with microspikes now, and the monorail is supportive but there is a few inches of snow that got rained on on top, and is now getting churned up, so a lot of lump. I was super psyched when I got to S. Twin and saw that a couple of people had broken trail to Guyot, probably yesterday or the day before. Remarkably few trees down between S. Twin and Guyot made for mostly easy navigation. You'll definitely want snowshoes for this stretch. It was much colder up above 3500' today, the snow below that level melted quite a bit and the last half mile of N. Twin trail to the TH and Haystack rd has some dirt patches exposed now. Above 3500', not a lot melted.

Parking

Parked at 7 Dwarfs. $10 in the mailbox by the office door with my make/model/plate on a napkin which I origami'd into an envelope. Met a couple just heading out who parked at the end of the road near the bridge and convinced them to move to 7Ds. They asked if I thought they'd get towed and I don't know, but it would sure suck to finish the hike to an empty spot where your car USED to be, probably with no cell service. I assume the property owner at the end of the road got salty at some point when hikers blocked his driveway or something like that...so use the Dwarfs.

Water Crossings

The new log at the main crossing is solid and made crossing a breeze.

Trails Used

Zealand Road, Zealand Trail, Twinway

Trail Conditions

Equipment

Notes

Had a beautiful ski in on fresh snow. Switched boots at the Hut and put on snowshoes. There is still a lot of snow out there and it is deep on either side of the trail. Broke trail through maybe 6-8 inches, no biggie. But once I reached the trail junction for Zeacliff up top, I came down off the big open rock and stepped right through the snow into one of the notorious mud bogs. One entire snowshoed foot disappeared up to the mid calf and I was stuck there for a minute. Complete mud and ice water encapsulation of my foot, sock, boot, snowshoe and pantleg. I thought about continuing on to tag Zealand but it was silly. My foot was collecting snow/ice and was getting heavier and colder. Easy decision. Got back to the hut and got some new socks and had a nice ski out. Frustrating but what can you do? Long way of saying, watch out for the mud bog!!!!!! Do not head up above Zealand Hut in spikes or bare boots. Just isn't going to work right now.

Water Crossings

some minor challenges, but nothing too serious