Climbing Mt. Mansfield
When I decided in late 2016 to climb the highest point in each state, Mt. Mansfield was my first mountain. I had already done a few of the 50 state high points, but decided to start over with the exception of Denali since that is such a time consuming mountain (I’d rather backpack a through South America for a month rather than climb the same mountain again!). My first view of Mt. Mansfield was this photo above. The summit is known as the ‘Chin’ and was hiding below some low level clouds. Mt Mansfield stands at 4,393 feet (1,339 meters) making it Vermont’s tallest mountain. With such a low altitude you might think it’s at the bottom of the list of 50 state high points. Thanks to the flat southeastern part of the United States, Mt. Mansfield is actually right in the center of the list at number 26.
Of course at such a low altitude, it only takes about half a day to climb Mt. Mansfield. To add to the experience my friends and I ended up doing some ice climbing at the base of the mountain the day before. This area is known as Smuggler’s Notch, and is one of the most popular ice climbing routes in the state. There’s a lot of great ice to choose from, with challenges ranging from WI1 all the way to WI6.
To be honest I was a bit disappointed when I saw the waterfall we had selected to climb. The waterfall itself looks amazing, but I was hoping it to be on the side of a mountain or other location with a dramatic view. In reality this was probably a perfect start. This was the first time I ever did any serious ice climbing before, and I found low levels of ice climbing to be much demanding than moderate levels of rock climbing. Maintaining your balance by front pointing on rock solid ice while holding yourself up with nothing but ice axes is certainly a different sport than rock climbing.
The next day we began a morning ascent up Mt. Mansfield. On the way up to the trail head we had to hike along the CCC for almost a mile. The hike up the road wasn’t anything special, but the story about the road itself was a bit interesting. CCC stands for Civilian Conservation Corps, and was a program during the Great Depression under the New Deal to put people back to work. It was essentially a way for the government to give people jobs, even if they weren’t essential in order to restart the economy. This road was one of the projects they had completed. Across the nation they also planted over three billion trees, created lots of new trails, lodges and more for national and state parks./p>
After the short hike up the road, we arrived to a trail sign. We had decided to do a loop that was only about seven miles round trip, including the hike up the road. From the sign we took a left turn onto the Sunset Ridge trail. For about 10 minutes we did an easy hike northward with little elevation gain.
On the beginning of the trail we crossed a few small bridges over frozen creeks. Above are two of my friends who I did the hike with. I have to fly to experience things like this, but luckily for them they live only a few hours away in New York! We might get a blizzard here and there in Virginia but can easily hit a year without any snow. Even when we do get significant amounts it usually doesn’t last long! In Vermont there is always deep snow in the forest throughout the winter. Luckily for us most of it along the trail was already packed tight. In the photo below you can get an idea of how deep the snow was off trail.
After a very short walk along the Sunset Ridge trail we made a right for the Laura Cowles trail. From here it was only 2.2 miles to the summit. While that’s extremely short distance wise, the trail made up for this by being incredibly steep. It’s one of the steepest trails I’ve hiked before. Most other mountains would have created switchbacks here rather than a direct trail to the summit. The steepness was perfect for me since part of my goals for coming out here was for training purposes. Some of the scenery here was absolutely amazing.
The only drawback to the Laura Cowles trail was that it was densely covered in trees. The winter scenery was beautiful, and sometimes it added to the challenge when you had to duck under some of the branches. The dense forest gave limited views of the surrounding landscape. Of course that didn’t bother me, since that’s what the summit is for!
These two photos are actually from the Sunset Ridge trail on the way down, but I’m going to post them now in order to show the terrain changes on higher elevation gain. You can see the trees are much smaller towards the top. Pretty interesting difference that you can experience after just two hours of hiking! The rock below was one of many that I saw on both the Laura Cowles and Sunset Ridge trails.
Supposedly temperatures by now should have been close to 10 degrees below zero. It certainly didn’t feel that cold so I wonder if the forecast was off a bit. No matter what it was definitely subzero though, and it’s amazing what the plants up here can take and survive. I’ve seen trees covered in heavy snow, but don’t think I’ve ever see one embodied in ice like this! This photo below shows a tree completely covered in snow. It wasn’t too far from the summit, and is one of the highest trees on the mountain.
The incredibly steep terrain up the Laura Cowles trail never really let up. It wasn’t until we intersected with the Sunset Ridge trail just below the summit that we left the treeline and could see our surroundings. The photo above shows the summit from where the two trails meet. Below is a sign marking each trail and the mileage back off the mountain.
To get to the top of Vermont from where the trails meet, you follow a short trail that goes directly towards the summit. At that point you’ll meet a small but beautiful little plateau which I photographed above.
The visibility wasn’t perfect from the summit, but good enough to see pretty far out in the distance. As a matter of fact the forecast had said it would be snowing by the time we reached the top, so I was lucky they were off a bit. The summit itself didn’t have any sign or recognizable marking showing you’re at the top of Vermont. There clearly has to be one somewhere that’s buried under all the snow. Either way, the most interesting sight was Mr. Mansfield that someone took the time to create below!
So after just a couple hours of hiking on the 8th of January I reached the top of Vermont! Starting over with my 50 state high point challenge other than Denali, Mt. Mansfield marks #2! Only 48 more to go!
