Early Powder on Mt. Mansfield

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.

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.

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.

Looking back from the CCC road

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.

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.

Tucker Brook Trail

It's finally snowing in New England.  This past week brought several inches both in the Boston area and, thankfully, also up north.  After last year's dismal winter, I have been chomping at the bit to get into the mountains and make up for lost skiing.

Given the recent good fortune of a few inches of fresh snowfall, Huff and I made a plan to hike Tucker Brook Trail to the top of Mittersill.  You can actually access this trail from the peak of Cannon's ski area with a bit of a hike to the Mittersill peak.  Fortunately the Mittersill area was closed and that kept most of the lift riders away from Tucker Brook.

After a short drive past the base of Cannon and it's recently acquired Mittersill area, we located the trail head at the end of Tucker Brook Rd.  Despite the fact that we arrived around 9:00AM, it looked as though there was only one group ahead of us.  The trail begins in the middle of a cross country ski resort, so the first leg was on a well groomed trail.  The trail then opens up into a fairly confusing intersection.  There is a map of the cross country trails posted on a tree, which unfortunately does not note Tucker Brook.  Looking at our own map, we were able to establish that the trail ascended with the brook to its left, and we took off uphill.

Some easy riding in the early segments

The trail was pretty well covered - a few baby pines or exposed rocks, but mostly just fresh snow.  After a few uphill bits combined with some flats, the trail takes a sharp left to a thin trail along the ridgeline.  This then opens up in to the 13 Turns portion of Tucker Brook, which is a series of well graded switchbacks.  As a novice, these slopes presented a steep (pun intended) learning curve for my skinning abilities.  Finally, Tucker Brook kicks out into one of the new Mittersill trails, obvious from the "Out of Bounds" sign and multiple skiers with lift passes riding by.

Huff navigating one of the 13 Turns

We skinned the rest of the way to the summit of Mittersill, running into some fellow BCers who had managed to catch up to us despite a 30 minute start differential.  As we stripped our skins and layered up, loads of skiers were hiking from Cannon to enjoy some of Mittersill's ungroomed offerings.  We decided to get out of the cold wind and headed back down the way we came.

The upper portion of the descent reminded me what a year off can do to your turning ability.  The 13 Turns are reasonably technical skiing, and I seemed to be missing a jump in my step.  I was also struggling with the fact that my ski pants were constantly falling down and my lower back was exposed to the elements.  Suspenders are a must for next trip.  We reached the lower portion of the trail and cruised through the powder to our car.  By the time we made it back, I was cramping everywhere, a sure sign that I need to get in better shape.

Since this was my first ascent, I did my best to remember some things to keep in mind for next time:

1. I was way overdressed.  By the time we hit the first uphill I was drenched in perspiration.  Need to go lighter on the uphill clothing next time.

2. Skinning is an interesting beast.  It's important to keep your weight on your heel, I've decided.  Several times I tried to go up on my toes only to have the ski slip out from underneath me.  Along the same lines, using the heel supports made a world of difference for keeping my weight in the appropriate place.

3. A tip I learned from Huff - blow the water out of your bladder tube to help prevent it from freezing up.  A frozen mouthpiece is a useless mouthpiece.

Here are the details from Huff's MotionX GPS app:

Distance:		5.26 miles
Elapsed Time:		3:37:00
Avg Speed:		1.5 mph
Max Speed:		13.6 mph
Avg Pace:		41' 17" per mile
Min Altitude:		1,126 ft
Max Altitude:		3,635 ft

All in all, our trip was a success.  I'm hoping there's enough snow to get back out next week and try out another tour.  Keep your fingers crossed for another storm.  

Foray into the BC

This is the first post here. I created this blog with the hopes of commemorating my initial season venturing into the New England backcountry. Though I've spent the past two decades on skis, I've have yet to attempt anything involving a boot pack, skin, or climb. This year I've decided to change that.

My goal is to spend most of my season in the bc. Somehow, over the past year or so I've pieced together an AT getup that should serve as my training wheels for this adventure. Here on this blog, I'm going to keep track of the winter's travels. Hopefully I'll have some good stories, pictures and a fair amount of powder.

In order to guide my travels, I recently was given a copy of the AMC's Best Backcountry Skiing in the Northeast. While I have no vision of completing anywhere near all of the 50 tours David Goodman describes in this book, it will serve as a primer while I get my feet wet. Hopefully over the next few years, I can experience a majority of the tours in this guidebook and many more.

Stay tuned.