At the base of Upper Hitchcock with Crawford Notch in the background
Left Hand Monkey Wrench (WI3)
Upper Hitchcock (WI3-)
Mount Willard
Crawford Notch, NH
Forecasts called for cloudy skies and some snow.
But all that gave way to blue skies and sunshine by the time Jeff S. and I
reached the base of the Hitchcock Gully. We pretty much broke trail up Lower
Hitchcock, traversing right to Left Hand Monkey Wrench, then onto the base of
Upper Hitchcock. It was slow going but we took our time anyways since there
were only two other teams in the area climbing.
At the base of Upper Hitchcock
It was my very first time on Upper Hitchcock and it was a
lot of fun, except when my calves cramped up. Attributed to, according to Jeff,
dehydration and probably due to my just getting over a cold. I have had my
calves ‘pumpy’ before but not so much that they cramped up. Had to have Jeff
‘take’ so I could rest.
Left: Looking down Upper Hitchcock from the Rap Station
I
wanted to climb this second pitch of Upper Hitchcock. It's a short section just above the rappel station but didn’t
want to take any chances with my calves cramping up again. So Jeff and I rapped
the entire Hitchcock Gully, right down to the tracks.
Two weeks ago we couldn’t get onto Upper Hitchcock, but
today was a different story. We had the climb all to ourselves and when we
rapped down, Laura and Chris came up to check it out. They decided not to climb
UH but took a couple of photos of Jeff and I before heading off towards The
Cleft.
East Face Slabs Left
I do cartwheels with Jeff's rope and he ends up untangling them. ;D
Jeff rapping down the Lower Hitchcock Gully.
It got warmer as the day went on and the sun stayed out
until we got back to the parking lot. Surely a mellow day of Spring ice
climbing up the side of Mount Willard!