Hiking North Hancock 3/23/13

On Saturday March 16, 2013 Kyle and I decided that a hike was in order. I checked my calendar and we settled as on a hike for March 23. We first intended to do a 17 mile in and out hike to Owl’s Head, a 4,000 foot peak in the Pemigewasset Wilderness. I decided against it later because the only reported views on Owl’s head were on the slide which was not utilized in the winter. So we decided to go with North Hancock (4,403') and South Hancock (4,278') and do Osceola (4,340') and East Osceola (4,156) as a backup. On Tuesday March 19 about 6-8” of snow got dumped in the Whites. That’s when I started feeling uneasy about the hike. I was nervous about the amount of the snow and if someone would head out there to break out the trail. I was also nervous that my snowshoes were designated for recreational trails and not climbing 4,000 foot mountains and I was nervous because this would be my first winter conditions hike. All week I was checking the hiking sites and blogs to see if someone went and broke the trail. There were no reports about the Hancock's.

Saturday morning before I left to meet Kyle in Hudson I checked the weather forecast. The forecast called for Highs in the upper 20s with westerly winds from 40 to 50 mph with gusts up to 70 mph. Chance of snow was 60 percent and the wind chill value could be as low as 19 below. Holy Shit! I called Kyle to tell him this at about 4:30 AM and we both decided to give it a go.
 

We met in Hudson, MA at 6:00 and arrived at the Hancock Notch viewing area before 8:30.There were two other hikers that left shortly after we pulled into the parking lot and made the first tracks of the week on the Hancock Notch trail. They must have been in their 60’s. We hit the trail at 8:49 and followed their path.We started off bare booting, but soon realized that because of the soft granular snow, snowshoes were the only way to go.The woods were a winter wonderland. It was quiet and peaceful and the branches on the pine trees were bending with the weight of the snow. We were warming up quickly and I went down to my base layer and Gore-Tex jacket.The cold and wind were a non issue and the snowshoes were working out better than I expected.

A Winter Wonderland

Broken Trail on the Hancock Notch Trail

At 9:47 we reached the Cedar Brook trail. There were some larger river crossings which were easily traversed.  We reached a point on the trail where the trail forked because the hikers ahead of us lost the trail.  Kyle and I stopped and checked the map, although we are both good map readers we really had no idea where we were.  The two hikers crossed a river and went about 100 feet, stopped and turned around.  Later in the day we realized they were actually on the trail at that point.  We followed their bushwhack and zig zagged through the woods on the edge of the brook.  Soon we caught the Cedar Brook trail again and reached the Hancock Loop trail at 10:22.  We stopped to take a break and eat some snacks before the big ascent.


Cedar Brook trail junction.  These signs are typically at eye level when there is no snow.

Me at the Hancock Loop Junction

Thick vegetation on the Hancock Loop trail

A seemingly endless spruce forest

Time to make a decision break trail to the South Peak or continue following the path to the North Peak

The snow was coming down pretty good and in some areas of the trail we started feeling the wind gusts.  Going up hill, I started seeing the mountain.  The arrow slide also came into view.   



First view of the arrow head slide through the trees

North Hancock through the trees

View of the arrow slide from the trail

The hikers ahead of us took the North Hancock trail and that's the way we were headed.  We stopped at the Hancock Loop trial junction to grab a drink and then started going decending as we got closer to the mountains.  We reached a point that resembled a gully and Kyle saw a yellow trail blaze to the left.  There were no tracks going in that direction and I thought it would be best to follow our hiking leaders.  The bushwhack they were starting was very steep and we must have climbed for about a half hour or more when we ran into the two of them.  They were turning around because they said they had lost the trail and hit a thick patch of vegetation.  We pulled out the map and figured we were to the right of the arrow slide and needed to be on the left to catch the actual North side trail.  They said they were calling it a day and headed back down.  Kyle and I tried cutting across the mountain and were hoping to cut right across the slide, but soon hit thick vegetation ourselves. 

The bushwack path up the middle of the Hancocks

We went back to where we saw that yellow blaze and discussed out next course of action.  I wanted to go back to the car and hit the Woodstock Inn for some warm food and a beer.  I could tell that Kyle was itching to break the trail and get to the top of North Hancock.  He went in the woods to take a look at the trail and never looked back.  This is where my hike turned to shit.  The trail was extremely steep and there was a thick ice covered with the granular snow powder.  I soon realized why my snowshoes which had been fine to this point were designated for “recreational use”.  I struggled to get out of the same spot for 10 to 15 minutes.  As soon as I took a step, I would slide back.  I tried using my hiking poles to pull myself up and as soon as I got up to the point above where I was sliding, I would slide right back.  Eventually I got out of that spot, but only to hit another and then another.  I decided instead of using the snowshoes I would try the micro spikes.  And this is when we ran into the two bushwhackers and another couple caught up with us.  They guys we were following asked how did you get ahead of us?  How did they get behind us I wondered? 

Kyle went off with the two hikers and I was by myself struggling up the mountain again.  For every two steps I took I would slide one back.  I had to use my hiking poles and upper body strength to pull myself forward.  At one point I hit a void in the trail where I sunk into the snow up to my hip.  My clothes were soaked, I was exhausted and was mentally breaking down.  Kyle was nowhere to be found and I almost turned around and gave up twice.  I knew if I turned around and took one step down the mountain that I would start to slide and never be able to let Kyle know that I had given up.  I reluctantly trudged forward and soon Kyle came and told me that I was close to the summit.  I had already given up on South Hancock at this point and was relieved that this miserable hike was almost halfway done!  When we got to the summit at 1:24 it was cloudy, windy, cold and snowing.  There were no views to speak of.  We were up for about 5 minutes and I knew I had to keep moving to keep warm. 

North Hancock summit

More endless views on North Hancock summit

It was steadily snowing as we started down the mountain and the trail was like an ice luge.  One of the old guys used a solar blanket to butt slide down the trail making it slicker than it already was.  We kept slipping and falling.  I decided to butt slide after falling a few times and actually was starting to have fun while doing it.  But then I got up, lost my footing and slid again crashing into a tree that knocked me over and somehow hit me in the head and cracked in half when it hit me.  When I got out of my daze and tried to get up, my leg and snowshoe were wrapped around the base of the tree like a pretzel and I had a hell of a time getting untangled.

The rest of the hike was a blurr, probably from the slight concussion from getting a tree snapped over my head.  My knees were achy, I was hungry, tired, cold and wet and it was still steadily snowing.  We stopped at the junction of the Hancock Loop trail and Cedar Brook Trail to layer up and my jacket started freezing.  At this point I was so cold and dehydrated that I could barely open my mouth to eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  When we started moving again I warmed up but couldn't stop thinking about how I wanted to get home to be with my wife and children. 

At 3:30 we got back to my car which had about 2" of snow and ice accumulated on it.  We changed up and headed home.  When we got to Massachusetts the temperature was 44 degrees and sunny.  We were in pretty good spirits on the way home recapping some of the folly's of our trip.  Although this trip was a horror show and as I finished up this trip report 5 days later with my still numb fingertips, I realized it was a good experience.  But not an experience I'm ready to repeat ever again!