With last weeks success on our minds, Huff and I decided to head up to the Mt. Mansfield area for another tour. The Stowe area has a lot of cross country / backcountry trails, some of which are accessible by lift, others which require a bit of leg work. After some discussion, we decided on a plan to head up Friday night and skin up Stowe Mountain Resort in the early AM Saturday. Unfortunately, Stowe has a new policy in place that forbids uphill skiing during operational hours, meaning we had to reach the summit by the 7:30AM, which also meant an early start to the morning.
We hit the trail with Huff's brother Matt around 6:15, Huff and I working on ~4 hours of sleep due to our late arrival the night before. We took solace in the fact that the storm which delayed our Friday night travels had also dropped a few inches of fresh snow on Mansfield. The trip up was slow going from the outset. The lack of sleep and conditioning kept Huff and I well behind Matt as he headed up the trail. By the time we reached the top of the double, ski patrol was making their first rounds. Several of them stopped to remind us of the new policy. Matt reached the top of the resort about 10 minutes before the first chair, and I was stuck boot packing the final 30 or so feet due to the resort opening. Unfortunately Huff was a bit behind us and had to bushwhack his way to the top lest he be turned around by patrol.
The group rendezvoused at Stowe's Ocatagon hut and we discussed our plan for the day - head out for Teardrop Trail on the backside of the mountain, then climb back up and ski back down to the town. After our brief stoppage, we resumed our trip up the Toll Road to the Nose. The road had a nice covering of new snow, promising a nice descent down Teardrop. As we neared the peak of the nose, the wind picked up a bit, giving us a good chill on the skintrack.
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| The Brothers Huffman ascending Toll Road |
Teardrop trail is accessible from the west side of Mt. Mansfield after a brief segment of the Long Trail. I had read that Long Trail in other sections of Vermont is not well maintained from a ski perspective, and it seems this is true throughout the trail. The upper section was littered with low lying branches and other obstacles to avoid. The good news was, it appeared we were the first to hit the trail.
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| Snow-covered entrance to Long Trail |
Reaching the opening of Teardrop, we ran into several people skinning up from the Underhill side. Fortunately we had a few minutes lead on them and were able to enjoy some of the untouched powder. Teardrop is a great bc trail - it's just wide enough to string turns together and has reasonably consistent pitch making the trip down worth the hike. We took turns enjoying the fresh down to the CCC road, a reasonable stopping point at the bottom of the initial vertical. Unfortunately I didn't catch any action shots, but we got a few of the trail from the bottom and on the way back up.
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| Looking back from the CCC road |
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| Midway on Teardrop |
The weather cooperated for the trip back up, and we made our way back up the hill. A fellow bc'er who had passed on the way down returned to do the same on the way up, reminding me that I still have a ways to go with my uphill pace. The view from Teardrop is worth stopping for, with a good view of Vermont to the west of Mt. Mansfield.
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| View to the west from Teardrop |
As before, the top of the trail was cold and windy. Needless to say we didn't spend any extra time to get our skins off and head back down the Toll Road. Once back at the resort, we took a lunch break in the Octagon and warmed up with some hot chocolate - bc skiing at a resort offering the best of both worlds. Shaking off the post-lunch chills, we opted to hit Bruce Trail for the way down. Bruce takes off from Toll Road trail just downhill from where the quad drops off. It's a winding trail through the woods, with areas of decent pitch intermixed with a few flat portions. The beginning looked a bit ominous, but we were happily rewarded with reasonably good coverage and some fun bump skiing to finish out the day. By the end of it our (or maybe just my) legs were feeling it. The trail kicks out into the Stowe Cross Country Center, requiring a decent amount of skating to get to the road. We hopped on the shuttle and got a ride back to our car at the now full Stowe parking lot.
| Distance: | 9.65 miles |
| Elapsed Time: | 7:01:35 |
| Avg Speed: | 1.4 mph |
| Max Speed: | 22.1 mph |
| Avg Pace: | 43' 40" per mile |
| Min Altitude: | 947 ft |
| Max Altitude: | 3,899 ft |
| Start Time: | 2013-01-05T11:20:29Z |
| Elevation (ft): | |
| Total Ascent: | 4,233 |
| Total Descent: | 4,831 |
| Gradient: | |
| Max Pos.: | 36.6% |
| Max Neg.: | 34.6% |
A great early season trip with some unexpected powder. Special thanks to Matt and Robin for letting us crash at their house in Stowe. Hopefully we'll be lucky enough to visit with them again.
