Fat Tuesday
New member
Jan 1, 2009
- Cold, sunny, calm
- Stream crossings high
- Cold
- Trail well broken
The idea had been to bellow out a loud “HAPPY NEW YEAR” from a grand, above treeline peak such as Lafayette, and several folks were on board with the idea until the reality of the forecast set in. After some last minute back and forth on NYE afternoon, we decided on the Hancocks. …Well… the texts started coming in a steady stream between 10:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m.
Three of us stuck with the plan and met up at the hairpin turn lot at 8:45 on January 1, 2009- myself, my friend Alkes and Mad Townie (Peter, I promise to be on time the next time we hike!!)
It was -6 degrees. We were pleased to find a very well broken out trail for almost all of the way. One set of tracks visible in the dusting-1inch of new snow cover (and the presence of another car in the lot) indicated that we had a trailmate just ahead of us. The trail was cut so perfectly that it seemed like someone had been through with a pulk sled. Or a snowblower… the efforts of Earl, Rocket and group, I imagine? — Thank you!!
We barebooted with ease until the Cedar Brook junction. Just before reaching the junction we tentatively crossed a small frozen stream that we hoped was more solid than it looked.
Plodding along the Cedar Brook trail we met our aforementioned hiker (one of the three others that we saw all day) who had just turned back. He said that he dipped his foot in the water on a stream crossing and had two more crossings to anticipate. He thought it most prudent to turn around. We wondered if we’d shortly be singing the same song.
We approached the first Cedar Brook trail crossing, which looked dicey and so we took the standard mini-whack and stayed to the east side of the river. This brought us to the crossing just before the Hancock Loop trail junction. Which appeared to me to be a half-frozen, fast running, mangled Red Sea. Several boot tracks revealed that our friend had searched for a way across here, and (I think) made an attempt. Peter suggested that we bushwhack around the two remaining crossings, so we showshoed up (which took me about 20 minutes on account of the frigid temp- my fingers don’t have the circulatory prowess to fiddle with snaps and buckles in -6 degree weather) and headed northeast.
With Peter in the lead, the short whack was no problem, and in twenty or so minutes we arrived back at the trail, which took us to the loop junction below the two summits.
After a quick “lunch” break, we headed up the brutally—to quote the WMG, “unrelievedly”—steep trail to South Hancock. Near the top, I briefly took the lead to give Alkes a break from the light trail breaking that we ended up facing due to drifts. We didn’t opt for the outlook, which is a shame, because if my distant memory serves me, it’s the better of the two.
The sun came out as we traversed the 1.4 to North Hancock. We took turns breaking the drifty trail and made it up to the sunny, still peak by 2ish (?). The view from the outlook was beautiful in this mystical, late afternoon sun kind of way. I waved to a group of VFTTers that I’d heard would be on the tripyramids.
The trip down was sketchy-steep! I was feeling unwell and this led to some timidity and fear of tumbling. I decided to take off my snow shoes, at which point Peter and Alkes generously dug around for some ibuprofen for me. The guys left their snowshoes on and sidestepped and backstepped down the plunging slope. I did the butt slide for a while, until it became too dangerous to do so. I leaned against a tree and put on crampons. Peter was kind enough to wait behind me, and he probably froze as it took me a good while to pull it all off.
Crampons were a great call and though slow-going, the remainder of the descent was doable. Halfway down we met two backpacking brothers on their way to a cooolllddd night up on the Hancocks.
The trip out was pleasant. We put on our headlamps after the first bushwhack, at about 5:00 p.m. A few Cliff shot blocks had me bounding out of the woods for the last 2.5 miles.
Many thanks to Alkes for being a gracious hiking partner and not leaving my sick self in the dust, as he could have at the pace he is capable of! Many thanks to Peter for being a gracious hiking partner by accepting our tardiness and providing for me in my hour of illness/need (both yesterday and on Middle Sister)!
Happy New Year to All!! I have a really good feeling about '09!
- Cold, sunny, calm
- Stream crossings high
- Cold
- Trail well broken
The idea had been to bellow out a loud “HAPPY NEW YEAR” from a grand, above treeline peak such as Lafayette, and several folks were on board with the idea until the reality of the forecast set in. After some last minute back and forth on NYE afternoon, we decided on the Hancocks. …Well… the texts started coming in a steady stream between 10:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m.
Three of us stuck with the plan and met up at the hairpin turn lot at 8:45 on January 1, 2009- myself, my friend Alkes and Mad Townie (Peter, I promise to be on time the next time we hike!!)
It was -6 degrees. We were pleased to find a very well broken out trail for almost all of the way. One set of tracks visible in the dusting-1inch of new snow cover (and the presence of another car in the lot) indicated that we had a trailmate just ahead of us. The trail was cut so perfectly that it seemed like someone had been through with a pulk sled. Or a snowblower… the efforts of Earl, Rocket and group, I imagine? — Thank you!!
We barebooted with ease until the Cedar Brook junction. Just before reaching the junction we tentatively crossed a small frozen stream that we hoped was more solid than it looked.
Plodding along the Cedar Brook trail we met our aforementioned hiker (one of the three others that we saw all day) who had just turned back. He said that he dipped his foot in the water on a stream crossing and had two more crossings to anticipate. He thought it most prudent to turn around. We wondered if we’d shortly be singing the same song.
We approached the first Cedar Brook trail crossing, which looked dicey and so we took the standard mini-whack and stayed to the east side of the river. This brought us to the crossing just before the Hancock Loop trail junction. Which appeared to me to be a half-frozen, fast running, mangled Red Sea. Several boot tracks revealed that our friend had searched for a way across here, and (I think) made an attempt. Peter suggested that we bushwhack around the two remaining crossings, so we showshoed up (which took me about 20 minutes on account of the frigid temp- my fingers don’t have the circulatory prowess to fiddle with snaps and buckles in -6 degree weather) and headed northeast.
With Peter in the lead, the short whack was no problem, and in twenty or so minutes we arrived back at the trail, which took us to the loop junction below the two summits.
After a quick “lunch” break, we headed up the brutally—to quote the WMG, “unrelievedly”—steep trail to South Hancock. Near the top, I briefly took the lead to give Alkes a break from the light trail breaking that we ended up facing due to drifts. We didn’t opt for the outlook, which is a shame, because if my distant memory serves me, it’s the better of the two.
The sun came out as we traversed the 1.4 to North Hancock. We took turns breaking the drifty trail and made it up to the sunny, still peak by 2ish (?). The view from the outlook was beautiful in this mystical, late afternoon sun kind of way. I waved to a group of VFTTers that I’d heard would be on the tripyramids.
The trip down was sketchy-steep! I was feeling unwell and this led to some timidity and fear of tumbling. I decided to take off my snow shoes, at which point Peter and Alkes generously dug around for some ibuprofen for me. The guys left their snowshoes on and sidestepped and backstepped down the plunging slope. I did the butt slide for a while, until it became too dangerous to do so. I leaned against a tree and put on crampons. Peter was kind enough to wait behind me, and he probably froze as it took me a good while to pull it all off.
Crampons were a great call and though slow-going, the remainder of the descent was doable. Halfway down we met two backpacking brothers on their way to a cooolllddd night up on the Hancocks.
The trip out was pleasant. We put on our headlamps after the first bushwhack, at about 5:00 p.m. A few Cliff shot blocks had me bounding out of the woods for the last 2.5 miles.
Many thanks to Alkes for being a gracious hiking partner and not leaving my sick self in the dust, as he could have at the pace he is capable of! Many thanks to Peter for being a gracious hiking partner by accepting our tardiness and providing for me in my hour of illness/need (both yesterday and on Middle Sister)!
Happy New Year to All!! I have a really good feeling about '09!
