bpope’s blog

I decided to make the most of my first weekend of winter school and the long weekend, so I headed back up to New Hampshire on Monday (1/19).  Not far from Lincoln, NH on the Kancamangous Highway, right at the hairpin turn, is a trailhead that leads to two 4000′ peaks: North and South Hancock.  With a crew of 8 (including three guys named Jon, of John), we headed out of the parking lot and up the trail through a foot or so of fresh powder.

Of course, off of the trail, there was considerably more than just of a foot of powder!  About 3 miles into our journey, we headed off of the beaten path and up South Hancock.  The final half mile to the peak was the longest half mile of my life.  Breaking trail up steep powder slopes is tougher than I expected!  The hike along the ridgeline was fully worth all of the effort, though.  We hiked through miles of untouched snow and hemlock boughs brimming with snow.  Here and there, fox tracks crossed out path, but that was the only disturbance in feet of beautiful powder.  The steep trip down was even better: taking tight turns down the steep trail through untouched snow.  (I think I finally have something to compare with backcountry skiing.)

We reached the parking lot, after almost 10 miles of strenuous hiking, having walked through the waning light and into the night clicking on our headlamps along the way.  After a late and leisurely supper at the Common Man in Lincoln, it was back into the cars and onto I93 South back to Boston.  I’m excited to go back in the summer to see how the forest compares then.

For more pictures, check out the galleries page or my flickr photostream.

I headed out early, leaving the apartment at about 4:00 this morning. That got us to the 19 Mile Brook trailhead at about 8:30, and onto the trail at about 8:45. At the start, temperatures were hovering at about -15F, but rose as high as 5 or 10F during the day.

We hiked to the summit via Carter Notch, for a round trip of about 10 miles with almost 3500 feet of total elevation gain from trailhead to peak. For me, it was my first time needing/using crampons, and my first winter ascent in the White Mountains. Definitely something I’m looking forward to repeating! Another highlight of the trip is that it was led by Mike Kokko, an old friend of mine. Overall, it was a great day, a great hike, and in good company. The only blemish was that the sky was, for the most part, overcast, though the sun poked its head out briefly while we were on the way down.

Check out the galleries section for more pictures, or check out my or Kokko’s flickr pages.