Lend a Hand!?

Now that Zealand Rd is officially open (woot!) I'm seriously considering Mt Hale tomorrow, heading up Hale Brook, then descending down Lend a Hand to the hut, and back out with either the road walk, or possibly having two cars to cut out that extra mile walk.

In people's experiences, does Lend a Lend hang on to snow for a long time? Looking at the topography, and its orientation, I would imagine it does. That col looks suspect. Thanks!

grouseking

I did this same hike last year at this time (5/16/2009), only I continued up to the summit of Zealand via the Twinway.

As I recall, I didn't have any big issues with snow until the Twinway. There were some patches of deep (1-2ft) snow that slowed progress, although we barebooted the whole way.

Between Hale and the junction with the Twinway there was nothing to speak of.

On the other hand, BIGEarl had a fair amount of snow early last May:

http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29789&highlight=hale+zealand

-Steve

Here, I'll lend a hand!! (hardee har har! )

Today I hiked Hale's neighbors from across the street, Tom and Field. Significant snow/monorail started around 3100 to 3200 feet on the A-Z and Avalon trails (northeastern exposure.) Snow was stable due to temps in the high 40s/low 50s with cloud-cover, I did fine with only Microspikes. Tomorrow looks to be a bit chillier so you might have similar luck with a stable snowpack. Hope this helps.

And the mile road walk isn't all that bad from Zealand to Hale THs.

i'd expect some snow. the upper part of the trail has some pretty thick spruce fir and is probably holding. it's been years since i've hiked that trail, but i would expect some pretty wet walking in the lower sections. don't remember if bog bridging has been improved since then, but in 2005 it was pretty ragged.

bryan

LRiz and I did the Zealand\Bonds traverse two weeks ago and at that time we needed snowshoes shortly after the hut. Someone reported breaking out Lend a Hand that same day. I would expect that you will need snowshoes ape about four miles of the ten mile loop, or less.
Lend a Hand is well blazed and easy to follow.

We will wave from Owlie.

Ape! = for