Oncoman
Active member
Started off on Hancock Notch trail with headlamp at 05h45 on Sat. 14th Oct. Somewhat chilly initially but with quick pace I rapidly warmed up. Curious how one has difficulty judging depth of water with headlamp when surface is perfectly still & water is very clear. Reminded me of my high school speleological trips when I once stepped into a 4’ water hole thinking it was only 4’’. With only 2°C temp. it was my coldest bath ever. Never repeated that mistake again. Encountered thin ice films on water holes higher up on trail.
Finding the base of Arrow slide was easy. Just go left off trail heading for North Hancock shortly after it forks off Hancock loop trail when you reach low point where brook crosses trail. You then follow sandy low lands on your left (west) for 2-3 min. until you encounter a big 3’ tall semi-circular rock fireplace. The slide starts 10’ away north of fireplace. Cannot miss.
Climbing Arrow slide proved difficult & treacherous. Took me a solid hour to reach top of slide. Too much ice on upper half of slide for safe travel. I’m afraid slide climbing season is now over, at least until sufficient ice & snow allow for crampons to dig in. Almost had a catastrophic fall half way up when sun, which by now was shining on upper 1/3 of slide, made ice chunks roll down slide giving me the feeling of suddenly having ball bearings under my boots. Way too freaky for me. At that point I decided to head for the scrubs on my left which luckily were only 20-30 ft away. Would have preferred to be on right since I knew bushwhack was easier from right branch of slide, but too far off to reach safely. Thereafter I stuck very closely to the scrubs pulling my way up by moment until I reached the huge cairn on top of left branch of slide. Impossible to cross top of slide to right. Would have been totally suicidal. So reluctantly went into brushes. As feared grummholz whack was furious, 40 min. of hell before reaching summit of North Hancock.
The ridge walk towards NW Hancock was not overly strenuous. But no open woods here. Took me 2 hrs to reach summit. Snowy frost on spruce branches. Made me whistle Christmas songs. Found 2 canisters on NW H. One was on ground, a peanut butter plastic jar ice-filled, with its register but a solid ice cube. The 2nd canister was most interesting. It was a small glass jar strung to tree. Its inside was perfectly dry but the paper register was so thinned out by the years that it now resembled a ball of grey toilet paper. I didn’t dare attempt to try to unfold it; but by very gentle manipulations I did make out Richard Crow’s name entered back in 1971! Also saw another entry dated 1973! Wow! Utterly amazing! Took a page of my Topozone maps and humbly signed in & delicately placed page in jar trying not to crumble precious register.
Was by now 12h00. BTW saw big roll of electrical wiring, few hundred ft of it, near summit. Wondered how it got there. Retraced my steps along ridge to col, then took a mag. south bearing, off-shooting by 10° west to make sure that I wouldn’t miss top of Cedar Brook slide. Minimal ice on this one making for an easy quick descent. Was on Cedar Brook trail in 90 min. & off for Mt Hitchcock (3600+’ pk) by 13h45. Took me 2 hrs to reach summit using mag. SW bearing from trail. Bushwhack wasn’t too bad, but again no open woods here. Searched for 45 min. to find canister, checking out all blowdown infested bumps, but to no avail. My watch altimeter read 3620-3630’ and there were no higher bumps on ridge; so I was fairly confident that I was on summit. Nevertheless I felt frustrated & not entirely convinced that I had found the true summit, especially that Jim Crawford had recently told me that if one didn’t find a canister than almost surely you were not on the true summit, at least for the Maine 3K pks. I assume that this premise also holds for N.H.
Initially I had planned to return to trail by following the ridge over the 3194’ pk, but it was by now 16h30 and I knew that I would never make it to the trail by daylight. As for bushwhacking by headlamp in these somewhat thick woods, no way. So I went down the same way I had came up. Was back on Cedar Brook trail at 18h00, barely 10-15 min. before darkness, thus cutting it a bit too close to my liking. My stomach acid level rose a notch or two during the last 10 min of the bwk I’m afraid. The trail walk back to my car was long. Went into sleeping mode most of the way, though by moment I had to snap into full alertness as it was easy to sway off trail in open sections with all those leaves on the ground. Could have sworn that I saw snow flakes crossing my yellow light beam now and then, but then I could have been day(night) dreaming. Was back to my car at 20h30, 14h45 after leaving the parking lot. Noticed that 3 other vehicles were now parked near mine.
As I was stashing my pack on the rear seat, I suddenly heard my name being called out in the middle of nowhere – “Pierre” – “Pierre”. Had I seen Santa Claus popping in the parking lot that I wouldn’t have been more astonished. Auditory hallucinations is a serious thing, usually premonitory to a psychotic breakdown. Also not having met a soul all day, along with the physical & mental fatigue, didn’t help. As I nervously circled my car towards the drivers seat, again the spooky “Pierre” echoed in my ears. But Ha! Ha! I wasn’t going crazy and it was not my own image reflecting in my car’s mirror that was now talking to me. No! It was no other than my friend Réjean who had silently popped his sleepy head out of his minivan to greet me. Thank you Réjean for the fright. We chatted for a while (he was planning to do N&S Hancock the next AM and Waumbeck in the PM) and then I drove off to Montréal.
Relaxed the next day & on Mon. 16th Oct. decided to take a day off work to do the Worcester ridge in Vermont with my wife. Very nice trip. After spotting a bike in the woods at the Stowe Pinnacle trailhead, we drove to the Waterbury trailhead. We started off at 09h50 & were on the South Hunger bare 3539’ summit at 12h00. It’s a real gem of an open pk with spectacular 360° views of nearby mountain ranges (Mansfield, Killington, Presidential Range to east…). Gisèle was most impressed to see that almost all pks she pointed to I had climbed.
Despite the 2290’ ascension in 2,2 mi. the climb up is not very strenuous except for the last 0,1 mi. with somewhat steep rock climbing, where I had to help Gisèle up some of the steepest boulders by pulling her up with my walking poles. We took ½ hr break on summit to eat, recover & admire the landscape, hidden behind rocks to protect ourselves from the cold wind as well as to have privacy. Indeed to my surprise there were 4 other hikers on the summit that day not to mention the 8 or 9 hikers we had met going down as we were nearing the summit.
The 3 mi. Worcester ridge walk over North Hunger towards the 3642’ high point was easy. The high point is actually about 10 yards off trail to right as you’re heading north, with a spur path leading you to it. We then went down the ridge via the Hogback trail. Went down very slowly due to slippery rocks with steep descent in first ½ mi. Also Gisèle was by now getting tired. On Stowe Pinnacle we took a long rest, again enjoying the superb views but this time having the summit all to ourselves. Thereafter the descent was much more gradual & actually quite enjoyable. To our surprise we met 6-8 hikers going up on that late afternoon, with only 90 min. of daylight remaining. I presume they were only heading to the Pinnacle & back.
We were back to the Pinnacle parking lot at 17h00 and 30 min. later I was back with the car. The 23 min. bicycle ride was a blast of adrenaline on those hilly gravel back roads. Felt like a teenager again. We then drove to Stowe for a good, though pricy, dinner at Pickwick’s English pub. Were back to Montréal by 22h30. With NW Hancock done, I now have finished my formerly listed pks list & with Worcester behind me, I only have 7 more pks to go before completing the 50 finest NE peaks.
Cheers everyone.
Pierre
Finding the base of Arrow slide was easy. Just go left off trail heading for North Hancock shortly after it forks off Hancock loop trail when you reach low point where brook crosses trail. You then follow sandy low lands on your left (west) for 2-3 min. until you encounter a big 3’ tall semi-circular rock fireplace. The slide starts 10’ away north of fireplace. Cannot miss.
Climbing Arrow slide proved difficult & treacherous. Took me a solid hour to reach top of slide. Too much ice on upper half of slide for safe travel. I’m afraid slide climbing season is now over, at least until sufficient ice & snow allow for crampons to dig in. Almost had a catastrophic fall half way up when sun, which by now was shining on upper 1/3 of slide, made ice chunks roll down slide giving me the feeling of suddenly having ball bearings under my boots. Way too freaky for me. At that point I decided to head for the scrubs on my left which luckily were only 20-30 ft away. Would have preferred to be on right since I knew bushwhack was easier from right branch of slide, but too far off to reach safely. Thereafter I stuck very closely to the scrubs pulling my way up by moment until I reached the huge cairn on top of left branch of slide. Impossible to cross top of slide to right. Would have been totally suicidal. So reluctantly went into brushes. As feared grummholz whack was furious, 40 min. of hell before reaching summit of North Hancock.
The ridge walk towards NW Hancock was not overly strenuous. But no open woods here. Took me 2 hrs to reach summit. Snowy frost on spruce branches. Made me whistle Christmas songs. Found 2 canisters on NW H. One was on ground, a peanut butter plastic jar ice-filled, with its register but a solid ice cube. The 2nd canister was most interesting. It was a small glass jar strung to tree. Its inside was perfectly dry but the paper register was so thinned out by the years that it now resembled a ball of grey toilet paper. I didn’t dare attempt to try to unfold it; but by very gentle manipulations I did make out Richard Crow’s name entered back in 1971! Also saw another entry dated 1973! Wow! Utterly amazing! Took a page of my Topozone maps and humbly signed in & delicately placed page in jar trying not to crumble precious register.
Was by now 12h00. BTW saw big roll of electrical wiring, few hundred ft of it, near summit. Wondered how it got there. Retraced my steps along ridge to col, then took a mag. south bearing, off-shooting by 10° west to make sure that I wouldn’t miss top of Cedar Brook slide. Minimal ice on this one making for an easy quick descent. Was on Cedar Brook trail in 90 min. & off for Mt Hitchcock (3600+’ pk) by 13h45. Took me 2 hrs to reach summit using mag. SW bearing from trail. Bushwhack wasn’t too bad, but again no open woods here. Searched for 45 min. to find canister, checking out all blowdown infested bumps, but to no avail. My watch altimeter read 3620-3630’ and there were no higher bumps on ridge; so I was fairly confident that I was on summit. Nevertheless I felt frustrated & not entirely convinced that I had found the true summit, especially that Jim Crawford had recently told me that if one didn’t find a canister than almost surely you were not on the true summit, at least for the Maine 3K pks. I assume that this premise also holds for N.H.
Initially I had planned to return to trail by following the ridge over the 3194’ pk, but it was by now 16h30 and I knew that I would never make it to the trail by daylight. As for bushwhacking by headlamp in these somewhat thick woods, no way. So I went down the same way I had came up. Was back on Cedar Brook trail at 18h00, barely 10-15 min. before darkness, thus cutting it a bit too close to my liking. My stomach acid level rose a notch or two during the last 10 min of the bwk I’m afraid. The trail walk back to my car was long. Went into sleeping mode most of the way, though by moment I had to snap into full alertness as it was easy to sway off trail in open sections with all those leaves on the ground. Could have sworn that I saw snow flakes crossing my yellow light beam now and then, but then I could have been day(night) dreaming. Was back to my car at 20h30, 14h45 after leaving the parking lot. Noticed that 3 other vehicles were now parked near mine.
As I was stashing my pack on the rear seat, I suddenly heard my name being called out in the middle of nowhere – “Pierre” – “Pierre”. Had I seen Santa Claus popping in the parking lot that I wouldn’t have been more astonished. Auditory hallucinations is a serious thing, usually premonitory to a psychotic breakdown. Also not having met a soul all day, along with the physical & mental fatigue, didn’t help. As I nervously circled my car towards the drivers seat, again the spooky “Pierre” echoed in my ears. But Ha! Ha! I wasn’t going crazy and it was not my own image reflecting in my car’s mirror that was now talking to me. No! It was no other than my friend Réjean who had silently popped his sleepy head out of his minivan to greet me. Thank you Réjean for the fright. We chatted for a while (he was planning to do N&S Hancock the next AM and Waumbeck in the PM) and then I drove off to Montréal.
Relaxed the next day & on Mon. 16th Oct. decided to take a day off work to do the Worcester ridge in Vermont with my wife. Very nice trip. After spotting a bike in the woods at the Stowe Pinnacle trailhead, we drove to the Waterbury trailhead. We started off at 09h50 & were on the South Hunger bare 3539’ summit at 12h00. It’s a real gem of an open pk with spectacular 360° views of nearby mountain ranges (Mansfield, Killington, Presidential Range to east…). Gisèle was most impressed to see that almost all pks she pointed to I had climbed.
Despite the 2290’ ascension in 2,2 mi. the climb up is not very strenuous except for the last 0,1 mi. with somewhat steep rock climbing, where I had to help Gisèle up some of the steepest boulders by pulling her up with my walking poles. We took ½ hr break on summit to eat, recover & admire the landscape, hidden behind rocks to protect ourselves from the cold wind as well as to have privacy. Indeed to my surprise there were 4 other hikers on the summit that day not to mention the 8 or 9 hikers we had met going down as we were nearing the summit.
The 3 mi. Worcester ridge walk over North Hunger towards the 3642’ high point was easy. The high point is actually about 10 yards off trail to right as you’re heading north, with a spur path leading you to it. We then went down the ridge via the Hogback trail. Went down very slowly due to slippery rocks with steep descent in first ½ mi. Also Gisèle was by now getting tired. On Stowe Pinnacle we took a long rest, again enjoying the superb views but this time having the summit all to ourselves. Thereafter the descent was much more gradual & actually quite enjoyable. To our surprise we met 6-8 hikers going up on that late afternoon, with only 90 min. of daylight remaining. I presume they were only heading to the Pinnacle & back.
We were back to the Pinnacle parking lot at 17h00 and 30 min. later I was back with the car. The 23 min. bicycle ride was a blast of adrenaline on those hilly gravel back roads. Felt like a teenager again. We then drove to Stowe for a good, though pricy, dinner at Pickwick’s English pub. Were back to Montréal by 22h30. With NW Hancock done, I now have finished my formerly listed pks list & with Worcester behind me, I only have 7 more pks to go before completing the 50 finest NE peaks.
Cheers everyone.
Pierre
Last edited:
.What list is NW Hancock on? Definitely sounds obscure.
