Arrow Slide (partway)

This impromptu trek was inspired by a post on newenglandtrailconditions.com that I read over breakfast. A hiker had done the loop over the Hancocks the day before and noted that three skiers had broken off into the drainage at the foot of North Hancock, presumably to ski the Arrow Slide. This presented a potential opportunity to ascend partway up the slide on a broken track. I let Forrest Chess, new owner of the Mountain Wanderer, know of my plan. He said he might try to catch up after some morning business.  I headed off from the empty, windswept Hancock Overlook lot a little after 11:00 am.

Thanks to the snowshoer and the skiers, the track of Hancock Notch Trail was in mint condition for snowshoeing.

I always stop at the 1.3 mile mark to catch this view over the North Fork of Hancock Branch to the ridge of South Hitchcock.

A wintry scene heading to the Cedar Brook Trail junction.

Familiar signs.

Plenty o' snow out here in the Hancock backcountry.

Beautiful open spruce woods along Cedar Brook Trail.

Flat, boggy country approaching the junction with Hancock Loop Trail.

In we go.

Nice snow bridge for the North Fork crossing.

One of my favorite glades on Hancock Loop Trail.

Quite the trench.

Would be some tough bushwhacking out here right now.

Loop junction.

Nice view of the Arrow Slide on the short descent to the base of North Hancock.

Following the skiers' tracks off trail over to the base of Arrow Slide.

Beautiful little approach.

Bottom of the slide runout. The skiers had created a pretty nice track, though I took care to step softly with my snowshoes. Only punched through a handful of times.

The slide opens up.

The upper slide in sight ahead.

From the early 1900s until the Hancock Loop Trail was opened in 1966, the Arrow Slide was a principal route for ascending then-trailless Mount Hancock. Overall the slide is 1,800 ft. long. The lower 1,150 ft. is a long, narrow gully-like swath that is choked with boulders. This winter it is completely filled in with snow. It has a relatively mild slope of 25 to 29 degrees. That's still fairly steep.

As I was slowly snowshoeing up the swath, I heard someone coming up behind me. It was not Forrest - it was a backcountry skier named Ryan with whom I had chatted a few weeks ago by Gem Pool on Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail. In the morning he had gone partway up the slide on East Osceola above Upper Greeley Pond and had found poor conditions. So he decided to give Arrow Slide a try, as it is just up the road.

I let him pass by as he was ascending at a far better pace than I was.

I continued my leisurely ascent and paused every so often to look back at looming South Hancock.

At ~3,550 ft. I found a sunny spot on the edge of the slide with a view back towards East Osceola and hung out for a while for a late lunch.

Closer look at East Osceola and partly-screened Mount Osceola.

After a while I continued up, with the upper slide coming back into sight.

 

Ryan was making his way around an ice bulge up there.

Just then I was hailed from below - it was Forrest, who had started in an hour and a half after me. It was great to see him!

We rendezvoused at a spot along the edge with ample room for Ryan to ski down and studied the wide and ledgy upper part of the slide, which has a much steeper pitch at 33-35 degrees. The Arrow Slide was used as the ascent route by two AMC groups - the first led by noted winter trip leader Robert L. Collin and the second including the renowned mountaineers Robert and Miriam Underhill - for the first known winter circuit of the Hancock peaks on March 6, 1960. “There were ice cliffs in the middle of the slide,” wrote Nancy L. Collin in Appalachia. “In places the snow-cover over base rock and ice was thin and the footing tricky. A few ice steps had to be cut and many steps were whacked through the crusty snow.”

We watched as Ryan made his way down. 

Here he comes! When he got down to us he told us that the snow up on the ledges was quite crusty.

Off he goes!

There was better skiing on the softer snow down here.

 

 

Almost out of sight.

Forrest and I continued up a bit farther, though not quite to the base of the ledges. The slide was getting steeper and the snow crustier, and it was after 3:30 pm, so at ~3,650 ft. we headed back down.

Forrest taking in the view of South Hancock. Our MSRs proved their worth on a rather steep and slippery descent.

Another angle.

I spotted a small white pine on one of the gravel slopes gouged out by the slide. On a previous visit I had found a diminutive white pine near the top, at 4,100 ft. The date of this slide is uncertain, but it is at least 120 years old.

Parting shot looking back up the slide.

 

A zoomed look at Mount Osceola and the Dogleg Slide.

A peek at the Arrow Slide from Hancock Loop Trail just below the loop junction, and also a smaller slide just to the west that I call Little Arrow Slide.

Closer look at Little Arrow Slide, which is quite gravelly in summer.

Golden hour on lower Hancock Loop Trail. We only needed headlamps for the last mile or so on Hancock Notch Trail.

 

Mount Cabot

After climbing Mount Waumbek and obtaining a couple of glimpses northward into the fabled Kilkenny region, I had a hankering to make the long drive for the pleasure of a snowshoe hike there. I love bushwhacking in that area, but at present the snow is so deep and soft that any significant off-trail travel would be feasible for me only if the trail breaking was shared with several other folks. I knew that the usual winter route to Mount Cabot had at least been broken out since the big snowstorm, so I figured that would be worth a try. By the time I got organized and made the one hour forty minute drive to the trailhead (proceeding slowly down the snow-packed, winding seven-mile York Pond Road), it was 10:20 am when I arrived at my preferred winter parking at the plowed Unknown Pond Trail lot (shown here) and 10:30 when I strapped my snowshoes on at the start of York Pond Trail. 

 

There were several inches of new snow in the parking lot, so I was happy to see two strong hikers heading out just ahead of me: Grid finisher Kurt Wojtanek and near-finisher Emily Thompson, who I had seen on my Waumbek hike three days ago. There were also two other snowshoers who had headed out earlier. This resulted in a nice softly-packed but still loose snowshoe track. The continued cold has kept the powder very dry so that it does not pack down easily. Snowshoes were absolutely essential on this route.

After 0.2 mile on York Pond Trail, the route turns onto the Bunnell Notch Trail. I hope to get into Willard Notch for a bushwhack sometime this winter, but a couple of test steps into the deep soft snow on the unbroken York Pond Trail beyond this junction suggested it won't be happening soon.

The next 0.9 mile is rather a slog along an old logging road, with nine (I counted) drainage dips to step or jump across.

A solid snow bridge over the brook that drains eastward from Bunnell Notch, the pass between Mount Cabot and Terrace Mountain.

After the trail climbs away from the logging road and meanders across a plateau, it drops down to the Bunnell Notch brook and follows alongside it, with a few more of those pesky drainage dips and divots, which become annoying when the snow is deep.

And the snow is indeed deep, as evidenced by this trench.

Shadows deep in the valley.

Heading up the slope through sunny hardwoods.

Tunneling into Bunnell Notch.

Softwoods taking over.

Junction with Kilkenny Ridge Trail in the notch.

A snow-laden duck-under.

Some old tracks coming up the Mount Cabot Trail, which has been closed since 2000 due to a landowner dispute with the Forest Service. This was the route usually used to climb Cabot before the closure as it was a shorter drive and shorter hike than the  Bunnell Notch route.

Here the Kilkenny Ridge Trail joins the route of the old horse trail serving the fire tower that stood up on the Cabot summit ridge starting in 1911. (The fire tower was dynamited in 1965 as a training operation for U.S. Army Special Forces.) This section of trail climbs by long, steady grades with several sharp turns.

As I was approaching the viewpoint at Bunnell Rock, I stopped for a chat with Emily and Kurt, who were on their way down (having covered six miles to my not quite four miles). They told me that Peter Crane, a longtime friend, was up behind them and on his way down. 

 

I soon took the short side path out to Bunnell Rock, a wonderful sun-drenched, south-facing perch.

I was quickly joined by a local resident.

 

 

 

The North Peak of Terrace Mountain rises directly across Bunnell Notch. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mounts Waumbek and Starr King rise beyond North Terrace. 

 

 

 

 

The Moriah peaks are seen off to the east. 

 

 

 

 

 

In a few minutes Peter emerged from the trees, and we had a good visit. Having completed the Grid back in 2009, and finishing his 48 Over 70 last year (I ran into him on Waumbek two winters ago when he was starting on that project), he is now working on his Winter 48 over 70. Cabot was #27. Peter has been a quiet steward of the mountains and contributor to the hiking community for many years. After working for the Forest Service and AMC, he has been with the Mount Washington Observatory since 1988 and presently serves as Curator of the MWO's Gladys Brooks Memorial Library. He was also a longtime volunteer with Androscoggin Valley Search & Rescue and was for many years on the board of the NH Outdoor Council. He continues to maintain the Raymond Path on Mount Washington. Peter is also a noted White Mountain historian and wrote his doctoral thesis on the logging village of Livermore (which can be viewed on the website of the Bartlett Historical Society: https://www.bartletthistory.net/livermore-peter-crane).

 

Peter headed down and I resumed the climb, a mile in distance and 800 feet of vertical to go.

There is an abundance of snow up here!

Per usual in a deep snow winter, there's a lot of ducking under overhanging branches on the upper ridges. I was thankful that the hikers who preceded me had knocked much of the snow off.

One of the reasons we hike in winter - sculptured firs against an electric blue sky.

Emerging on the plateau of Cabot's south summit.

The fire warden's cabin, still available for public use. 

Trees are obscuring the former westerly view from the porch of the cabin.

Many years ago some friends and I spent a 15 below zero December night in here. We were expecting to use a wood stove, but it hadn't yet been set up for the winter. Twas a long and miserable night. Our boots were frozen ice chunks in the morning. It was the only time I've used a potholder to pull them on. That experience cured me of any further desire to camp in winter. The stove was removed for good a few years after our stay for safety reasons.

 

The views from the fire tower site just above the cabin have become more and more restricted over the years. Deep snow improves them markedly. This vista looks out to vast western horizons.

East to the long chain of the Mahoosucs.

Snow-capped Old Speck (center) and Baldpate (left).

A peek at The Horn, close by to the NE.

 

Drift.

The hikers before me had done a great job of following the meandering trail through the deep snow and heavily laden trees.

Time to duck.

An early winter ascent of Cabot was made by an AMC group of four in 1906. At the top they found the “mountain-top forest, all deep-muffled in untrodden snow” and savored “the absolute stillness of perfect winter.” An account by Raymond M. Dow Adams, “Pilot Dome in Winter,” was published in the May 1906 issue of Appalachia.

The blazes are sinking.

The near-summit sign where the Kilkenny Ridge Trail turns right for The Bulge and The Horn.

The actual high point is 30 yards farther ahead, to the NW.

 

Wonder when this section of trail will get broken out.

Peek-a-boo view on the way back to the fire tower site.

A preview of sunset color to the west.

The Killington Range on the horizon.

High peaks in the Rangeley area: Bigelow Range on the left, Crockers in the center, and snowy Saddleback and The Horn on the right.

Beautiful open fir glade on the south peak.

Sunset coming on at Bunnell Rock.

Slightly zoomed.

Cold light on Waumbek and Starr King behind North Terrace. The Twins peek over the col to the right of Starr King.

Lafayette and Lincoln rising behind Garfield.

Cannon/Kinsmans/Moosilauke with Mount Clough to the R.

Sunset through the trees.

In the Kilkenny by headlamp. It was a late exit but a great day.