In my
last NE trip report
, we wrapped up the NH48 in winter on Mt Eisenhower. What I didn't include in that report, was that Eisenhower was number 114 of the NE115 in winter. We had somehow managed to not climb Mansfield in winter over the years, and when we got serious about climbing the ME and NH peaks, we set Mansfield aside for the finishing peak. After that Southern Presidentials hike last winter, we had two weeks left to get to Mansfield before winter ended. Gracepoints said she wasn't going to Mansfield unless the forecast was for a warm, bluebird day. Neither of the remaining weekends had that forecast. For winter peakbagging, March 19th and December 21st are pretty much consecutive days though, right? So I wrote on the calendar that we'd hike Mansfield on December 21st.
The nine non-winter months go by, and then we had company the first weekend of winter. Then a string of not ideal summit forecasts on weekends.
In mid January, CoryD contacted us and said that he wanted to get Mansfield in January and that he'd go with us if we were planning to get this hike done. The forecast for January 18th and 19th both looked decent about a week out, but got worse as we got closer, so we opted not to go that weekend. The following week, the forecast for the 25th looked promising. It was going to be cold and windy at the summit, but we would have sun. We tentatively began planning, and the forecast held throughout the week.
We gathered with some old-time forum members (Fiddlehead, AplineLamb, BogHollow, and CoryD) at the Underhill State park winter gate Saturday morning. There were a ton of cars there, but it seemed like most people were skiing. We made our way up the road to the summer parking area, and picked up the trail that crisscrosses the CCC road, and dumps you onto the road for a bit until it ends. From there, we took the Sunset Ridge trail to Mansfield's ridge. We knew that we'd be subjected to the wind on the exposed portion of that trail, but we would also be able to enjoy the views.
Towards the beginning of the Sunset Ridge trail
We were not disappointed with the views when we broke treeline, and the wind wasn't too bad. As we looked at the ridge while we climbed, it seemed so close, but we could also see the dots that were other hikers further along the trail in front of us.
Some of the first views near treeline
Getting close to the ridge, in the "marshmallow trees"
From where the Sunset Ridge trail meets the ridge, the summit is not far. There were tracks going in different directions, but there are a good number of skiers and snowboarders make their way up from the Stowe ski resort on the other side of the mountain, to ski/ride down.
Approaching the summit
On the summit, we had nice views, although the Adirondacks were covered in a layer of clouds. A few of us had a sip of moonshine, and then we started our way down.
A view from the summit with some of the ski area visible, and some ski tracks leading off of the east side of the mountain
We took the Sunset Ridge trail on the way down as well. The wind picked up as we made our way down, but was still manageable. Once we were back in the trees, the sun made everything balmy. We made our way back to the winter parking area and talked with everyone for a bit, since the summit temp didn't allow much of that.
With the NE115W done, I guess we need to find a new list, or maybe just do random hikes for fun!