chas
New member
Despite questionable forecasts, Clown (my son Tom) and I headed up to try Hancock and South Hancock on Monday. His schedule varies while I have regular days off (Sun, Mon and Tues) so it's been hard to hook up recently for trips to the Whites. Even though it looked wet out we figured a wet trip would be better than none at all.
We arrived at the trailhead for the Hancock Notch trail at the hairpin turn at about 8:45 and were hiking by 9:00am. It wasn't raining but there was a mist in the air that seemed to cling to our clothes. Temps were somewhat warm so we weren't really worried about getting wet as long as we kept moving. We made good time to the junction of the Hancock loop trail and stopped there for a quick bite and some water then headed off towards the peaks.
Up until this point the trails had been mostly free of snow and ice but we noticed more snow as we approched the spot where the trail splits to the two peaks. When we reached the split we decided to climb South Hancock first. At this point we stopped and put our crampons on. There was snow with patches of ice from there up to the summit and plenty of snow still up between the peaks. As we climbed we also noticed alot of ice in the trees from the wet weahter the night before and earlier that morning. The warming temps caused much of this to fall as we hiked on. Some chunks were big enough to cause the occasional "ouch" when landing on heads
A helmet would have been welcome!
Unfortunately, the mist blocked any views from above approx 3500 feet so we didn't see much from either summit. Coming down the trail from Hancock seemed to be less snow and ice and more bare rock than there was on the trail to South peak. There were also alot more blowdowns there though most had been either cleared or had branches removed to make passage easy. We made our way down without problems. By that time most of the ice had fallen from the trees on the lower sections of the trail.
Stream crossings were not really a problem but there seemed to be more water in the streams in the afternoon on the way back than there was in the morning. By that time we were a bit tired and wet(and also a little punchy) so we had a few laughs as we crossed the streams for the final time and put a boot or two into the water We made it back to the car by about 3:00pm.
All in all it was a pretty fun trip despite the wet. We got our two peaks and had a few laughs while doing it.
A few pictures of the trip can be seen here.
regards,
Chas.
We arrived at the trailhead for the Hancock Notch trail at the hairpin turn at about 8:45 and were hiking by 9:00am. It wasn't raining but there was a mist in the air that seemed to cling to our clothes. Temps were somewhat warm so we weren't really worried about getting wet as long as we kept moving. We made good time to the junction of the Hancock loop trail and stopped there for a quick bite and some water then headed off towards the peaks.
Up until this point the trails had been mostly free of snow and ice but we noticed more snow as we approched the spot where the trail splits to the two peaks. When we reached the split we decided to climb South Hancock first. At this point we stopped and put our crampons on. There was snow with patches of ice from there up to the summit and plenty of snow still up between the peaks. As we climbed we also noticed alot of ice in the trees from the wet weahter the night before and earlier that morning. The warming temps caused much of this to fall as we hiked on. Some chunks were big enough to cause the occasional "ouch" when landing on heads
A helmet would have been welcome!Unfortunately, the mist blocked any views from above approx 3500 feet so we didn't see much from either summit. Coming down the trail from Hancock seemed to be less snow and ice and more bare rock than there was on the trail to South peak. There were also alot more blowdowns there though most had been either cleared or had branches removed to make passage easy. We made our way down without problems. By that time most of the ice had fallen from the trees on the lower sections of the trail.
Stream crossings were not really a problem but there seemed to be more water in the streams in the afternoon on the way back than there was in the morning. By that time we were a bit tired and wet(and also a little punchy) so we had a few laughs as we crossed the streams for the final time and put a boot or two into the water
We made it back to the car by about 3:00pm.All in all it was a pretty fun trip despite the wet. We got our two peaks and had a few laughs while doing it.
A few pictures of the trip can be seen here.
regards,
Chas.
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