riverc0il
New member
Day 6 
Never thought I would be saying this, but "damn, I wish it was still October!" That said, it was actually still great skiing, especially considering the time of year. Mansfield has retained base depths and snow much much better than Jay Peak has. Not only that, the availability of nearly top to bottom skiing on 2000 vertical feet with good sustained pitch trumps what is left at Jay easily.
Met up with awf170 and marc at the Gondi lot and decided to skin up Nose Dive. We had a short walk before we could put the skis onto the snow, no more than 100 vertical feet, probably less. Unfortunately, Stowe was blowing the top part of Nose Dive from the narrow turns, so we only were able to access that steep headwall above the Rimrock cut back before being forced into downhill mode by the snow guns. We ducked into the woods and found decent coverage though lines were tight in places due to lack of base depth. But hey, third day skiing the trees this season by November 5th, sweet. We got back on trail and skied down to Cliff Trail on quite nice edgable but firm snow which was wall to wall and at least a foot deep, probably more. Solid. Skinned up to Cliff House and opted for Chin Clip which was frozen and could have used some sun. Turns were choppy but doable. We managed to link turns down Chin Clip almost to the Gondolier intersection by the Lodge. Some grass skiing ensuded to finish out the day on the last few dozen verts.
Pictures later.
Never thought I would be saying this, but "damn, I wish it was still October!" That said, it was actually still great skiing, especially considering the time of year. Mansfield has retained base depths and snow much much better than Jay Peak has. Not only that, the availability of nearly top to bottom skiing on 2000 vertical feet with good sustained pitch trumps what is left at Jay easily.
Met up with awf170 and marc at the Gondi lot and decided to skin up Nose Dive. We had a short walk before we could put the skis onto the snow, no more than 100 vertical feet, probably less. Unfortunately, Stowe was blowing the top part of Nose Dive from the narrow turns, so we only were able to access that steep headwall above the Rimrock cut back before being forced into downhill mode by the snow guns. We ducked into the woods and found decent coverage though lines were tight in places due to lack of base depth. But hey, third day skiing the trees this season by November 5th, sweet. We got back on trail and skied down to Cliff Trail on quite nice edgable but firm snow which was wall to wall and at least a foot deep, probably more. Solid. Skinned up to Cliff House and opted for Chin Clip which was frozen and could have used some sun. Turns were choppy but doable. We managed to link turns down Chin Clip almost to the Gondolier intersection by the Lodge. Some grass skiing ensuded to finish out the day on the last few dozen verts.
Pictures later.
