Outdoor Diversion: Deep Snow on the Hancocks

Summit: Hancock (4,420'), South Hancock (4,319')
Trail route: Hancock Notch Trail, Cedar Brook Trail, Hancock Loop
Trail conditions: Solid trail with some loose unconsolidated snow and don't step off the trail
Weather: Cool, comfortable temps, cloudy to partly sunny
Total miles: 10
Total time: 5:45

Spring hiking conditions can be fickle even changing during the course of a hike. It's difficult to anticipate exactly what the trail conditions will be and of course the weather can change dramatically from the forecast. Today I would be hiking the Hancocks with Jill and Robin. Jill hiked these summits ten days ago and the snowpack was very deep. I was prepared for just about anything we might hike into.

Temps were hovering right around the freezing mark when I departed the house. It was a nice ride down to the trailhead and the sun is now rising early enough that I'm not driving in the dark. That helps with watching for moose. I arrived at the Hancock Overlook parking lot that was almost full and got the last available parking space. Jill and Robin were already there.

We bare booted down to the trailhead and put on microspikes after we crossed the Kancamagus Highway. The trail was solid but had some loose surface snow and the microspikes worked well. We went over and across the many water crossings without any problems. Some had solid snow bridges, one not so solid that I went through, and others we rock hopped.

We reached the junction on the Hancock Loop Trail where we had to make a decision on which way to go. It was unanimous that we go up to the North Peak and down the South Peak. As we dropped down before going up the steep section there was a good view of the Arrow Slide. I zoomed in with my camera and saw two hikers high up on the slide making a careful ascent. We would see them at the summit. Just before starting the steep climb we swapped to snowshoes, especially for the televators. It's a relentless steep ascent. As we got closer to the top I could hear the hikers that were coming up the slide.

We arrived at the summit and there were two hikers there that had passed us earlier. The other two hikers that had come up the slide arrived shortly after us. The amount of snow at the summit was absolutely incredible. The path to the outlook was completely buried and was not needed as the views were better on top of the deep snow. I had never seen this much snow up here. We were walking over and among the treetops. There was an especially aggressive gray jay on the summit that twice grabbed a sandwich in my hand that I was eating. After a brief break for eating and photos it was on to the South Peak.

There was lots of snow across the ridge and again we had views that are not normally seen because we were so high on the trail from the snow depth. We arrived at South Peak and swapped back to microspikes for the descent. I dropped down to the outlook but it was buried in snow and I hung onto a tree just above it to take some photos. It was a very precarious perch with a long steep drop, I didn't stay long.

We began our steep descent from the summit of South Hancock and it was not long before we started to buttslide down the trail. It was a very fast buttslide and I found it necessary to walk down some of the steeper areas. It didn't take long to get back down to the junction where we started the loop. We stopped for a layer change and then continued the hike back out.

It was a quick hike but on a softer trail than when we were hiking in. Any step off to the side of the trail was met with an instant posthole, sometimes thigh deep! There was no problem as long as we stayed in the middle of the packed trail. We arrived back at the Kancamagus Highway and removed our microspikes for the walk back up to the parking lot.

The sun stayed behind the clouds for most of the hike keeping the temp cool and keeping the snow from getting too sticky and balling up on our traction. Spring hiking this year is going to become very tough as the snow softens and melts creating deep postholing conditions, a challenging monorail and some tricky high water crossings. But conditions were better than expected today and it was a fun hike with Jill and Robin!

Enjoy the photos and videos!