Pemi Loop Jan 24

Good luck!

There will be a group doing the Zealand Hut - Bondcliff traverse and finishing at LW Saturday so at least between Guyot and Bondcliff there will be a packed trail.....depending on how much the wind blows.

It will probably be a 24-hr ordeal +/- a few hours. Bring overnight equipment.

You seem to know what you are doing.....I tried a Pemi-loop last winter but bailed before Flume doing a clock-wise thingy.....think of all conceivable bail-out options you can....bring stoves to melt snow for water......

Between Guyot and Garfield is gonna be the deciding stretch.....that's where all the hard training will pay off.....

Bring an excellent headlamp......snowshoe equipment failure is a possibility to have to deal with....

That's my 5 cents.....and it's never wrong to bail out.....I do it all the time.....

A tough girl you are.......(yoda voice)

Mats Roing said:

You seem to know what you are doing.....I tried a Pemi-loop last winter but bailed before Flume doing a clock-wise thingy....

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You did?? What did you do?? Start a 9pm on a night were the winds were blowing 40 mph in the notch and 80 mph on the ridge?? Didn't you drive through a whiteout before getting to Lincoln Woods? Wasn't there 3 feet of new snow to break through? What -were- you thinking..

Mats Roing said:

It will probably be a 24-hr ordeal +/- a few hours. Bring overnight equipment.

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Matts - From one of the previous posts, I think? this is being planned as a 3 day hike.

Are you accusing me of being negligent? I also heard of someone trying to do two pemi-loops in a row.....now that's stupid! That deserves some spanking.....

leaf said:

You did?? What did you do?? Start a 9pm on a night were the winds were blowing 40 mph in the notch and 80 mph on the ridge?? Didn't you drive through a whiteout before getting to Lincoln Woods? Wasn't there 3 feet of new snow to break through? What -were- you thinking..

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Mats Roing said:

Are you accusing me of being negligent? I also heard of someone trying to do two pemi-loops in a row.....now that's stupid! That deserves some spanking.....

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who would think of doing that?! two pemi loops? in a row? with no sleep? that is absolutely negligent... but not as negligent as a winter pemi starting at 9pm. oh wait, didn't that double pemi chick start at 9pm too? the horror of it all.

The horror...the horror......what movie is that from again?

You still need spanking Leaf.....

I have no idea who is doing the Bonds traverse......I'll let you know if I find out....

leaf said:

who would think of doing that?! two pemi loops? in a row? with no sleep? that is absolutely negligent... but not as negligent as a winter pemi starting at 9pm. oh wait, didn't that double pemi chick start at 9pm too? the horror of it all.

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The horror...

Marlon Brando... Apemiloop Now.

KDT

Make sure you go to the Cactus Club the night before you begin your trip.

Tim

Let's try to focus a little, thanks.

I am planning on heading into the bonds via this route . I am leaving on Fri. morn and will either head back out on Sun or Mon. If things are going well for me I might hook up with ya if you catch up. I will be solo, so that could be a very possible happening if the trails are difficult. I just got over surgery on my feet back in the spring and this is my first trip all year, so I don't have any idea how I am going to do???? I am planning on getting to Guyotte the second day. Hope to bump into you guys>>>>
Don

I am excited! It seems like there will be some signs of life on our adventure! It is always fun to run into people on the trail! We are definately bringing snowshoes and got the extension tails too! If the skies stay clear it should be a beautiful hike whether we finish or not!

My suggestion other than good luck is to be sure to use the provided priveys at LW if you need to go before or after your hike....right Matts

I think we should discuss the merits of packing out your solid waste on a multi-day winter pemi loop.

I can hold it!
Don't worry, I have a restop 2 and a pee funnel and pee bottle. I will not leave brown trail markers behind.

Go Danger Girl.
Looking forward to the Pemi pictures.
Its going to be a bit frosty for all of us theis weekend.

Kinda wondering how Dangergirl and her friend are making out...Mats saw tracks on Guyot Saturday.

She was planning a three day trip, so if all went well she should have returned yesterday, or she'll return today.

Well, we made an effort at the Pemi loop, but we made some mistakes and need to regroup and come up with a better plan. We had a blast. Saturday we hiked up and ran into a bunch of people from this forum! You were all so nice! Anyway, mistake #1 was that we decided to "experiment" with sleds. It was great on the flats but when we had to carry our packs it added over 3lbs to the pack weight! I also kinda panicked and packed a 5th day of food-another 3lbs! I also had some other gear that I should have swapped for lighter gear. In the end my 34.2lb pack ended up closer to 45lbs and Dons was around 50lbs.
The other issue I was having was being over trained. I did not take rest days to recover from my aggressive workouts and went into the trip tired, sore, and emotionally struggled with it.
But, we made it up to Bondcliff, popped up only to find it VERY windy. We decided to set up camp below Bondcliff (we later found out it was on a spruce trap!), but it was a great, comfortable, private, beautiful place to camp. It was also very sheltered from the wind. We had a great nights sleep and then decided to head up to Bondcliff to check out the conditions before deciding to move on or not. It was very windy, very cold. We talked it through and decided that we lost too much motivation to continue. It was an awesome view and we enjoyed it!
We came back to camp, gathered our belongings, and headed down back to the car. That night we went to the Blackberry crossings campground and stayed the night. We woke up Monday morning, got breakfast at Peaches and then decided to hike up Mt Chocura. To our dismay we found that the Piper Trail had no parking area so we looked at the map and made our way to the Hammond Trail. It was noon when we started. The trail was not broken until we got to the Liberty trail, but it was so pretty! What an beautiful way to ascend Chocura!
It felt like spring time until we got .5 miles from the summit. Then it really got cold. We summitted at 2:52pm took a few pictures and made our way down. It was crystal clear, but the wind was very steady and it was bitter cold. We got down to the hut and had a quick lunch and then hiked down to the car. We finished around 4:40pm. I absolutely love that mountain! We hiked it last summer and it was on our list for this winter! It was nice to accomplish one of our winter goals this weekend!
So, as for the pemi loop. We plan to have lighter packs (no sleds), be physically peaked for the trip instead of overtrained, and hopefully pull it off next time. This is definately WAY harder than the presi traverse, more so than we had anticipated.
We got a taste of it this weekend and now we really have the motivation! It seems like it always takes us 2 trys for all our trips anyways!
Thanks for all the help! I am posting pictures on my flickr account now and should have a link in an hour or so.

Nice to meet you guys Saturday! On the Hammond Trail, did you happen to do the very short bushwhack to the Bald Mountain ledges?

Nice to meet you too! I think we did. Is that where you can go off to the right (when ascending) and get the nice view? If it was then we did! It was such a pretty day and if it weren't for the bitter cold and high winds we would have loved to eat lunch on the summit! Great views of the entire presi range too!