Somewhat surprisingly, as soon as we descended below the Chin and onto Sunset Ridge itself, the wind lessened considerably. Then, after descending a few vertical hundreds of feet along the ridge, it nearly died entirely, becoming a slight breeze that - compared to the strong winds above - chilled the skin only slightly. It was clear that we'd passed the worst of it, and relaxed to enjoy the intermittently snowy, intermittently rocky descent along the ridge.
Sunny, Snowy Sunset Ridge
Sunset ridge is fairly remarkable for remaining open alpine terrain, even down to elevations that on most other peaks in the northeast would be heavily-wooded. Even as low as 3000 feet the ridgecrest is nearly entirely bare.
By the time the Sunset Ridge trail made a snaking descent down into the trees off of the ridge, we were starting to get well and truly hot in all of our multi-layered winter clothing. Soon after entering the trees, we stopped for a delayering break. After all - it was now probably up to a balmy -17C (0F), and with no wind, it felt stiflingly hot.
Descending into the trees
A further thirty minutes of downhill hiking along a perfect snowshoe path brought us to the completion of the loop at the junction with the CCC road. Happily, Ewart's skis were not present, meaning that he had already been by and continued down toward the car. Probably bored out of his skull waiting for us.
Guillaume and I quickly changed back into skis and headed off downhill. My skis glided better than I had expected, and I had a few control problems on some of the steeper bits and crashed a few times - one of which thoroughly filled my partially opened camera bag (and camera) with snow. After cleaning myself and the camera off, I proceeded more carefully, staying on the park road and avoiding any of the steep little switchback cutoff trails. I arrived back at the car a little more than twenty minutes after starting the ski. Not super fast, but still a lot faster than walking - Guillaume, a much better skier than I, arrived back in just under ten minutes.
Ewart had been waiting for over an hour by the time we returned, but seemed in decent enough spirits. We thanked him for waiting, greeted some other folks at the trailhead, and then packed up and headed off. It had all gone off rather well, despite the challenging weather. The snow conditions had been perfect (well, other than for being so deep in places that it covered trail signs). A highly-recommended loop, especially in winter, when the crowds are kept down and the deep snow adds to the alpine appeal.
And, Guillaume: your first - but hopefully not last - hike with us, no?
Interactive trackmap with photo points - Mansfield Loop from Underhill - click map to view
Mansfield Ridge Loop from West
Start Time:
8:31a.m.
End Time:
4:13p.m.
Duration:
7h42m
Distance:
15.67 km
(9.74 mi)
Average Speed:
2.0 km/hr
(1.3 mph)
Start Elevation:
1350ft
(412m)
*
Max Elevation:
4459ft
(1359m)
*
Min Elevation:
1245ft
(379m)
*
End Elevation:
1245ft
(379m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
3748ft
(1142m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
3855ft
(1175m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
