I did not keep a journal of this trip, unfortunately, but I'll do my best with my frazzled brain to describe the hike up, and down Mt Mansfield.
Mansfield is a long ridge above tree line with several false summits. In the above image, Mansfield is the mountain from left to center furthest away. The idea is that the mountain resembles the face of a man lying down. From left to right there is the forehead, the nose, the upper and lower lips, the chin (the actual summit) and the Adam's apple.
Mount Mansfield is Vermont's highest peak at 4,393 feet. Mrs had planned out our route and it sounded wonderful and challenging. We had planned on a slightly earlier start, but as often happens we started a bit late. We decided to park at one of the ski resorts off of Rt 108 and take the Haselton Trail up. This trail is mostly in the woods between ski trails. It's quite nice. We also got to watch many people and staff using the new zip lines. The noise from these things is surprisingly loud.
Haselton Trail leaves the woods and some of the steepest hiking is ahead on the Nosedive Ski Trail. We had blazing sun as well, so we struggled a bit. After the ski trail our route took us up the auto road to a large building below the nose which I believe is sort of a visitor's center. We stopped here for lunch where I heated water on the Jetboil for soups.
After eating and resting up a bit, we headed over the face towards the Chin via The Long Trail. Our plan was to cross the ridge, summit and descend on the Long Trail back to Rt 108 where we would road walk back to the car at the ski resort parking lot.
We had a perfect day to be on Mansfield. Really great views all around, though a bit hazy. We were a bit tired going across the ridge and the many false summits were somewhat exhausting. There were a good number of people on the mountain given the great weather and the relative ease of summiting from the auto road. Plenty of hikers as well coming up the several trails of varying degrees of difficulty.
The signs going out to the ridge and summit from the visitor building.
Smuggler's Notch Resort from near the summit.
Looking back to the south. The radio towers are on "The Nose" of Mansfield.
Ok, so here's where it got a little bit dicey. After summiting The Chin, we continued north on the Long Trail to head off the mountain and back to Rt 108 until we came to this. Holy CRAP! If you can see them, the white blazes on the rock represent the Long Trail and if it looks steep and cliff like in the image, it's 10 times more frightening in person. Never mind the precipitous drop off, we could not see where the trail went under the rock face. We could not see where we were supposed to be going and if it would get even worse from here. We both tried our best to overcome the fear of falling off the side of the mountain, but it just didn't happen.
Deflated, we had to turn back and go back the way we came up. It was awful, but I just could not chance getting part of the way below the rock face and risk being stuck in between trying to get back up and not being able to go any further. It was a HUGE kick to the confidence, but we had to get moving one way or another as I was concerned about getting back to the car before dark. Were we over thinking this?
We made it back to the auto road, then took the Nosedive ski trail all the way down to the base and to the car. This was wonderful on the knees, but provided a direct route even if we didn't make it before sunset. Of course, I was carrying headlamps but I'm not well versed in hiking at night.
Smuggler's Notch as seen from the auto road on Mansfield.
The entire hike took about nine hours. We were totally exhausted by the time we got back to the car, though I did run back up onto the Haselton Trail to sign out of the trail register. I don't think I've ever been so glad to see the car in all of the hikes we've done.
Mansfield is a beast, but quite doable, especially from Haselton. Other trails going up, so I've read, are intense and extremely challenging, so I'm glad Mrs chose the route we took. I'm SO happy we did it, even if we were beaten down by the Long Trail north of the peak.
What does this mean for the future? It's true that I want to attempt to section hike the Long Trail in the coming years. This did kick my confidence in the teeth a little bit, and we had near perfect weather conditions up there. I'm hopeful that when (if?) the time comes, I can pull it off.
I cherish my time with Mrs there and am so glad we summited Vermont's highest peak together.
1 comment:
I have to agree with your decision to turn back from that ledge. Better to be safe. Even with that change of plan it sounds like an incredible adventure. Thanks for sharing it.
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