Cragster
New member
Trails: Mountain Rd., Eagle Cut Trail, CCC Rd., Sunset Ridge, Long trail (out and back).
Summit(s): Mt. Mansfield ("The Chin")
Hiker(s): solo
Someone had skied DOWN Eagle Cut Trail, but nobody had gone up since this past week's storms. Once I got to the CCC Rd/Sunset junction, I was disappointed to discover my biggest fear--that nobody had ventured up Sunset Ridge. I broke that all the way to the LT--so much snow that I was post-holing with my snowshoes on. My goal was to cross the ridge and pick up Teardrop, but I realized that was not going to happen when I didn't summit until 2:30pm. It was difficult to find blazes (many covered), and I wiped off any ones I found partially obscured. Although the ridge has plenty of bare rock to walk on, keep the snowshoes on for when the trail turns sharp right below the "West Chin" area. The snow was at least waist deep with drifting! 9 miles (R/T) in 9 hours is a horrific pace, but it was slow going with fresh powder.
I will post pics and more details later. In summary, I skied the lower few miles, then snowshoe'd, then crampon'd the upper ridge to the summit. Despite the poor marking on the upper half, I only made 1 wrong turn for 30 feet or so.
Only saw 1 guy the entire day. Didn't get his name but was heading up Sunset ridge at around 4:45pm.
Summit(s): Mt. Mansfield ("The Chin")
Hiker(s): solo
Someone had skied DOWN Eagle Cut Trail, but nobody had gone up since this past week's storms. Once I got to the CCC Rd/Sunset junction, I was disappointed to discover my biggest fear--that nobody had ventured up Sunset Ridge. I broke that all the way to the LT--so much snow that I was post-holing with my snowshoes on. My goal was to cross the ridge and pick up Teardrop, but I realized that was not going to happen when I didn't summit until 2:30pm. It was difficult to find blazes (many covered), and I wiped off any ones I found partially obscured. Although the ridge has plenty of bare rock to walk on, keep the snowshoes on for when the trail turns sharp right below the "West Chin" area. The snow was at least waist deep with drifting! 9 miles (R/T) in 9 hours is a horrific pace, but it was slow going with fresh powder.
I will post pics and more details later. In summary, I skied the lower few miles, then snowshoe'd, then crampon'd the upper ridge to the summit. Despite the poor marking on the upper half, I only made 1 wrong turn for 30 feet or so.
Only saw 1 guy the entire day. Didn't get his name but was heading up Sunset ridge at around 4:45pm.
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