Saturday March 5, 2005

North & South Hancocks

Today we headed to the summits of North & South Hancocks. It has snowed during the week and we expect we may be the first to be on the trail.

This is the route we took today. We did the loop clockwise ascending North Hancock first.

Directions to the trailhead: Rte 93 north to exit 32, the Kancamagus Highway. Head East through the town of Lincoln and past the Loon Ski area. Continue past Lincoln Woods until the hairpin turn (marked by a road sign). Park in the lot just after the turn. The trailhead is across the street reached by a path at the far end of the parking lot.

Time to summit: @ 3:30

This is the profile of the hike.

A 3-D view of our hike to the summit.

We were glad to see another hiker getting ready when we pulled into the parking lot. At this point it wasn't clear if the trail had been packed out yet. We started out on the Hancock Noth trail and found it was somewhat/fairly packed and proceeded on with bare boots.

A little of an hour later we reached the junction of the Cedarbrook and Hancock loop trails. Here we saw a group camping off to the left side, the second we have seen today.

A quick break and we are ready to start out. Unfortuantly we soon find that the trail has not been broken much past this juction. ALthough there were several groups camping, none had done the loop to the summits. We soon find ourselves following the single hiker in front of us who is breaking through a foot of fresh snow.

Time to put on our snowshoes which would stay on the rest of the day.

Soon we started seeing views of North Hancock through the trees.

Just before we reached the junction where the trail heads to either summit, we caught and passed the hiker in front of us who we later learned was Jeff. We would not see him again until just before the North summit.

Off we headed--hoping we could follow the trail which was completely covered by enough snow to erase all signs of previous travel.

It was very slow going as we reached the steep section. We traded off being in the front; Geri taking 50 steps, and Bob 100 before swapping.

This was more than tough! Every 25 steps we would have to stop and rest. Looking up the trail all we could see is snow. Due to the snow depth, the trail markers were right at ground level, not always visable.

Geri making her way up with South peak behind her.

Just before the summit we heard voices - reinforcements finally arrived! We are caught by Dr Wu, Jeff and Donna.

A few minutes later we arrive at the summit. The snow depth provides enough height to give us great views in almost all directions. Frank (aka Dr Wu) and Geri.

Mt Carrigan with its tower is our destination next week.

It was windy here, but we took time to enjoy the views and snap photos.

Frank and John on the ledges.

John said he enjoys reading all the posts on VFTT but hasn't posted yet himself - hopefully that will change.

With most of the elevation gain behind us, we headed over to the South summit. We enjoyed some great views along the way,including one of Mt Washington. Here is a shot of the Arrowhead slide on North Hancock.

The Franconia Ridge.

Frank (Dr. Wu) enjoying the views and taking photos with his new camera.

Donna suprised us with homemade brownies! They were delicous!!!! What a great reward haven gotten the hardest part of the hike over.

The descent down the south peak is extremely steep. We all had a differant method of descending. Donna had great luck skiing it in her snowwhoes. Geri was doing a butt slide. I used a combination of both. Here Frank Was trying to use his sled.

No matter how we did it, we all ended up in piles of snow from time to time. Our poles were sinking out of sight when we used them to get back up on our feet.

Back to the junction of the trails we enjoyed some treats. Frank brought along some hot soup.

Just to be polite, Geri forced herself to another of Donna's brownies.

A little over 7 hours we are back at the cars, very tired, but happy to have been able to summit both peaks. We saw several other groups making their way up the trail, so the loop is now well packed - at least until the next storm.

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