Without a cloud in sight, the warm sun shone brightly on Vermont’s highest peak as I approached Mount Mansfield. Blue bird skies were the rule with a slight breeze blowing keeping things cool. At the office, everyone looked longingly out the windows all day long. I had enough looking at 3 P.M. and headed over to Mansfield for some turns. The One Run For the Price of None Tour marches on to the beat of a different drummer.
Pulling up to the Gondola Base Lodge, I noticed several skiers sliding down Gondelier. The skiers took Rimrock for their last run and for their adventurous spirit, they earned a walk back to the Forerunner side from the Gondola Lodge. I doubt it was worth the effort for them but hiking would be more than worth the effort for me!
I skinned up Gondelier in its entirety before bending around the Waterfall up Perry Merrill. Gondelier was covered mostly well except the halfway point sporting a big stretch of grass down the center and 5-10 foot patches on either side. Everything else was wall to wall with enough snow depth to last another week at least. One switchback was excessively dug out by a Snow Cat as seen in one of the pictures.
This was my second time hiking up Mansfield under the Gondola and it continued to amaze me that this short and quick hike accesses 2000 vertical feet. The hike goes by very quickly and is probably the easiest 2000 vertical feet that I have ever hiked.
Turns felt extremely nice at the top of Perry Merrill and around the bend. Making small and slow turns, I took it easy milking every mellow turn for all it was worth. It felt great to be skiing, after work no less, on Vermont’s highest mountain with perfect weather and not a cloud in sight. Pinch me. Someone left half eights for me to close after rounding the bend on Perry Merrill and I gladly closed the eights.
Then I hit the top of Gondolier and pure unadulterated euphoria set in. The snow was PERFECT CORN, unlike any other corn I have skied. It felt better than six inches of fresh, no joke. Folks that end their season before April have NO IDEA what they are missing. When you nail perfect corn like that, there is no tool available to measure the size of the shit eating grin that crosses your face while carving those sweet arcs.
I wish I had more time to skin up again. If I had known conditions on lower sections of Gondolier were not as good, I certainly would have lapped upper Gondolier two or three times. But I had the sun setting behind Mansfield and I had provided my girl friend with a reasonable ETA to expect me at home. So downward I went, crossing over back onto Perry Merrill where Gondolier got pinched down at the sides. Conditions were still nice corn, but not primed for harvest like above. Eventually, the snow ran out for a few feet at the switchback onto Gondolier where the groomers had bulldozed a path through the snow. A short walk had me clicked into my skis again and zipping down lower Gondolier.
No pictures of the fantastic sunset over Mount Mansfield as my camera was in the trunk when the color starting going crazy. No clouds though, so it was not an epic sunset, but rather a pleasing end to a great day. I gave a drunk a hitch down the access road to another bar, karma goes full circle for the guy that gave me a lift after skiing the Bruce Trail with no Toll House Lift in operation during December. All smiles after a late afternoon quickie. Jay Peak is a quicker drive, so the remainder of my post work turns will likely be at Jay from here on out.