Contacts:
Mt. Mansfield State Forest
324 North Main Street
Barre, VT 05641
802-479-3241

Stowe Mountain Resort
5781 Mountain Road
Stowe, VT 05672
802-253-3500
info@stowe.com

Official Stowe Mountain Resort

Trip Reports
 

Mount Mansfield, Vermont, 4,393 feet

It was a foggy and rainy day in October on the summit...

Mark Adam 
                              Mark S Adam <adam@world.std.com> sent this photo showing the classic Mansfield profile with the chin being the high point.  This shot was taken right after Hurricane Floyd in September 1999.

I climbed Mount Mansfield on October 22, 1994. It is the most commercial highpoint. It is home of the Stowe Ski Resort, one of the country's biggest ski resorts and an area heavily represented on the net. 

The VonTrapps of "Sound of Music" fame opened a resort here after leaving Austria. You can take ski lifts to almost the summit. Or you can hike the Long Trail or you can take the toll road. The hike to the summit over the green schist (hence the state's "Green Mountain State" nickname) can be fun as you go over various features of Mansfield's face. 

I drove up on the 4.5 mile Mount Mansfield toll gravel road (which is normally open from June 15 to October 15 but was open because of unseasonable warm weather). I parked just below television tower at the Mount Mansfield Visitors Center. En route I passed a maze of ski trails, gondolas and facilities (such as a skiing chapel). 

The mountain top itself was clouded in a thick fog. I climbed up a long ridge (which is said to resemble the profile of a face and hence the name) gaining 550 feet as I hiked along the famous Vermont Long Trail (completed in 1930). 

Despite the foggy, viewless atmosphere, at least 15 other people were on the summit including several Canadian students.