NH 48 4000 footers: Hancock & South Hancock

Sunday, November 26, 2017
NH 4000 footers climbed: Mt. Hancock and Mt. South Hancock
Miles: 9.3  (total, out and back hike)
Elevation gained: 2547'
MapMyRun recording

I was up and out of the motel room by 7am, and started hiking by 7:45am. It was snowing quite fiercely and continued on for most of my hike, until around 12pm. I wore my microspikes after the first few miles of gentle walking through the forest alongside a brook.

After another mile or so, I came to the loop trail split. I went to the left and did the loop in a clockwise direction. I don't know that going in the anti clockwise direction  up to the peaks would have been better; they were both very steep. I made it to the peak of Hancock first, and the lookout had no visibility due to the snow storm.

I then hiked up to the peak of South Hancock. Once I got there, I put on my shell, dry gloves, and started hiking back down.

Along the way back down, I did get a few momentary glances of Hancock through the swirling snow.

I descended back to the original trail separation, took off my microspikes, and hoofed it back to my car, arriving by 12:45pm!

NH 48 4000 footers: Isolation

Saturday, November 11, 2017
4000 footers climbed: Mt. Isolation
Miles: 12.0 (total, out and back hike) (went beyond the summit and added ~1 mi to the hike)
Elevation gained: 4967'
MapMyRun recording

I was up at 6am and out of Rattle River hostel by 6:30am. I headed towards the trailhead, stopping off at Pinkham Notch AMC/Joe Dodge Lodge to pick up a few things. They let me know the trail I'd selected for my hike involved many stream crossings, none of which are frozen fully yet. I decided to change my trailhead destination and went with the Glen Ellis parking area, arriving by 7:30am and heading up the Glen Boulder Trail.

It was bitterly cold. With wind chill, it was -3 degrees with gusts of up to 30 MPH. I managed to forget my traction devices, but I made it work. The one place I really wished I'd had them was for the spot below. The route I took was steep and relentless, climbing from below 1000' to well over 5000' at Boott Spur before dropping down to hike over to Mt Isolation.

It was beautiful while also being brutally cold and steep. On the rocks, there was some snow and ice accumulated but the wind was the worst.

This is the boulder of Glen Boulder. It's kinda huge. It offered me a good wind break to put on more layers, since the wind was whipping above treeline.

Snow accumulated between the patches of trees on the way up the ridge. It was maybe 3-4 inches, but I was so glad for the wind break I didn't care one bit.

I finally made it to the intersection of Glend Boulder Trail and Davis Path and then headed down Davis Path.

View from Boott Spur; lots of blue sky (and ice)

At the intersection of Isolation Trail and Davis Path, I took a short break, ate a snack, and then kept moving. It was cold enough that if I stopped moving, I quickly became chilled and couldn't feel my toes or fingers.

From here, I hiked onward, dealing with a lot of blowdowns. With the snow, wind, cold, and blowdowns, I managed to miss the unmarked spur trail for the summit. In my defense, the spur trail went upward on a rock face, so it just looked like more trees and snowy rock, rather than a trail. I overshot by a mile and it wasn't until the trail descended for a bit that I realized it wasn't a dip before the summit but I was actually descending the mountain. After going back up and then over some of the blow downs, I finally found the spur trail and got a spectacular view to pay me for my trouble.

I then turned around and hiked back. It took me until 4pm to return to my car, maybe half an hour before sunset. As it was, the mountains were limiting the light and it was starting to get towards dusk.

NH 48 4000 footers: Whiteface & Passaconway

Saturday, November 25, 2017
NH 4000 footers climbed: Mt. Whiteface and Mt. Passaconway
New England Hundred Highest climbed: East Sleeper Peak
Miles: 14.0  (total, out and back hike)
Elevation gained: 4358'
MapMyRun recording

I was awake at 6 a.m. and on the road before 6:30. It took me about an hour to drive to the trailhead and I was the third car in the parking lot. 

With fresh sunlight on my back, I headed up Dicey's Mill Trail until it intersected with the Tom Wiggin Trail.  

I follow that trail for its entirety until it met up with the Blueberry Legends Trail and took that to just before the summit of Mt Whiteface. 

I then took the Kate Sleeper Trail down and over to East Sleeper Peak.

There were a lot of blowdowns and the trail was poorly marked. I was not able to locate East Sleeper with any high level of confidence. I was able to ascertain I was in the right area, though I couldn't find the spur that went the few hundred feet to the true summit. After a lot of combined with climbing over a lot of trees, I decided it was close enough. I returned the way I'd come, and then went to the wooded peak of Whiteface. 

I then followed the Rollins trail over to the intersection of Dicey's Mill Trail, then stayed left at the new two trail intersections to get to the wooded peak of Passaconway. Along the way, there were breaks in the trees where some good views could be found.

None of today's summits had signs.

I then returned to my car by way of Dicey's Mill Trail. While it was sunny with clear skies and relatively warm, there was as much as 4 inches of snow accumulated on the trail, with sections where the trail was just one big sheet of ice. 

I had my microspikes, which were very necessary for much of the hike. The snow, blowdowns, and poorly marked trails made the day take that much longer. Originally, I'd planned to do a second hike the same day but didn't return to my car until 2:45pm, which would put my next hike almost exclusively after sundown. I decided to save it for the next day and bump the next day's hike to a different time.