Mountain Wandering: Ethan Pond

Ethan Pond, tucked under the steep brow of Mount Willey on the eastern edge of the Pemigewasset Wilderness, is most rewarding in winter, when dramatic views can be enjoyed from its frozen, desolate expanse. The hike into the pond is at moderate grades with only an occasional steeper pitch, and is ideal for a snowshoe journey.

After checking in at the Crawford Path trailhead, where there must have been 50 cars crammed into the parking area on this sunny holiday Sunday, I took a pass on Mount Pierce, drove past another 100+ cars along Rt. 302, and headed down into Crawford Notch to see if there might be a broken track heading in towards Ethan Pond. In winter, the trek to the pond starts at the Appalachian Trail crossing on Rt. 302 with a 0.3 mi. climb up the unplowed access road. As I got out of my car, a young backpacker came down after spending the night at Ethan Pond Shelter and told me there was a snowshoe track broken out to the pond by several hikers. Yay!

After snowshoeing up the road and crossing the (active) railroad tracks, I headed up the stiffest climb of the day, where the Ethan Pond Trail climbs a steep old logging road from its junction with the trail to Ripley Falls. Partway up this section I met a group of Harvard Outing Club members who had spent the night at Ethan Pond Shelter. This meant there would be a good track out to the pond, despite two barebooters who were chewing up the softly packed trail somewhere ahead of me.

Webster Cliffs glimpsed through the trees.

After that initial grind, the grade eases as the trail cuts across a broad hardwood slope.

Junction with Kedron Flume Trail, which provides a steeper route to this point from the Willey House site.

Above the junction, the woods darken and the trail takes on a rolling character.

The barebooters headed up towards Mount Willey, so I had a sweet, soft snowshoe track for the last mile to the pond.

A nice trench developing.

After climbing a few hundred feet, the trail crosses a broad, undulating height-of-land between Mount Willey on the north and trailless Ethan Ridge to the south.

Ethan Pond rests on a vast spruce-wooded plateau that tilts gently into the eastern Pemigewasset Wilderness.

One could wander for days in this expanse of wild country. It is quiet and it is remote.

The trail makes a long, gentle descent to the side path to Ethan Pond.

Emerging from the forest onto a dazzling sheet of white.

From the eastern end of the pond, where the side trail leads, there's a long view to part of the Bond-Twin Range on the horizon.

Mount Guyot is the most prominent peak in this vista.

Zealand Ridge and the rocky peak of South Twin are seen beyond a ledge-fronted SW spur of Mount Field.

The pond was, of course, named after Ethan Allen Crawford, the legendary pioneer of Crawford Notch who first came upon it in 1829, and returned in the ensuing years to fish and hunt. Its other name, Willey Pond, references the mountain at whose base it lies. On its north side the pond is enclosed by a long western arm of Mount Willey.

Part of that arm is fronted with a line of sheer cliffs. Back in the early 1990s a group of us that included my good friend Mike Dickerman made a winter bushwhack up this ridge to the summit of Mount Willey. We hoped to find views somewhere along the top of these cliffs, but they proved to be sheer and inaccessible.

After hanging out in the wonderful warm sun, with no wind, at the east end of the pond, I headed across its snowy, hard-frozen expanse - one of the sweetest snowshoeing traverses in the Whites.

The view of the scarred western face of Mount Willey is one of the great sights in the region.

Closer look. Hard to capture in a photo, its looming presence is overpowering.

The long swath in the center of this photo has the look of a freshly fallen slide in 1939 aerial photo. In summer its upper half is partly revegetated.

In the summer of 2024 I bushwhacked up to that strip of broken rock for a gorgeous view of the pond and the Pemi, with Carrigain and Hancock on the horizon.

Wide angle view of Willey from the pond.

The summit rising above ragged cliffs. On our winter bushwhack we broke out onto open talus slopes just below the summit for stunning Pemi vistas.

West end of the pond, where the North Fork of the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River takes its rise.

Heading back to the east end, passing over several "waves" that I assume were pressure ridges in the ice.

Looking back.

I paid a quick visit to the shelter, up in the woods above the pond - a popular way station for AT thru-hikers in summer and fall.

Nice and tidy inside.

Parting shot.

Back through those wild spruce woods. Along here I met a solo hiker paying a late afternoon visit to the pond. She and the Harvard group were the only hikers I saw on the trail.