(NY-) Vermont: Mt Mansfield

Vermont was showings its uglier side when arriving at Stowe. We decided to take the gondola up rather than the auto toll road. Views were not too impressive once you entered the clouds, but some nice views of the valley could be found. 

Up at the top of the Gondola there is a 'DDD' rated trail (class 2-3) called the liff trail leading up to the chin of the man that is the outline of Mt Mansfield.

The trail which was soaked by mild rain and the humidity of being in the clouds offered some challenging sections over cliffs and sometimes between and also under boulders obstructing the way such as seen below, and trust me when I say that going on top of them was not an option due to the size of the boulders.

Eventually though the trial leads to the ridge and it's a decently easy trial on exposed slab the last part, only made harder by the wetness which made it somewhat slippery.

Views on the top was quite nonexistent, which can also be seen in my very wet and disappointed face below.

Going back down to the Gondola was the real challenge though, although a multitude of trails lead to the top, only the Cliff trail leads back to the gondola. And the rock moves that proved easy on the ascent were now extremely wet and slippery on the way down, resulting in some shaky legs and slip-ups.
Below is an example of exposed slab with a 30% inclination looking down from above which proved to be a formidable challenge to get a secure footing on.

It got much worse on the parts where there was 15 ft (5 m) drops between the cliffs/boulders which you were supposed to taverse on the top off. The somewhat hidden bushes in the pictures below are actually surprisingly tall sticking up from some of the cracks and holes between rocks.

I made it down with only some minor bruises and was glad to take the gondola down to some warmer weather and dry clothes.
I was so focused on putting on some dry clothes that I completely forgot my sunglasses on the roof of the Prius, which Tricia heard something moving when we dove off, amazingly there were still on the root 100 yards later when we stopped after I realized my mistake.
18 high points left of which 8 are above 10000 feet (6 in continental US) and some of them will prove to be quite formidable and rewarding challenges hopefully.


Stats:
State: Vermont
High point: Mount Mansfield
Elevation: 4 393 ft (1 339 m)
Date: August 7th, 2011
Total elevation to date: 159 405 ft (48 587 m)
Access: hike, class 2 about 1.5h round trip Difficulty rating (of 10): 7
Potential Difficulties: weather! (slippery rock trail)