This past weekend I had quite an "adventure" skiing at Stowe. My friends and I at the end of the day on Sunday decided to go to Kitchen wall (reading this post is only relevent if you know this part of the mountain). We have done this trail last year and loved it, but this year it was not the same. The trail is not as clean and skied through and it was a very difficult traverse.
At one point skiing along that thin wall, I bumped into one of my friends, lost balance and tumble over the steep wall down into the woods below. I was fine getting up, skis still on, and with no way to get back up to the trail above, I attempted skiing out but got stuck at a nice 15 foot drop below with nowhere to go ahead (was unsure of landing spot - surrounded by boulders/crevasses). I tried turning directions but kept getting my skis stuck, and so I unclipped them and had to leave them behind in order to walk/crawl back up to the "trail" in order to get back down. (I left out a ton of irrelevent details about the panic and the fact that it was already 4 pm at this point).
So my skis are still up there. I know the exact spot but this part of the mountain is extremely steep and tricky. You have no idea where you are stepping at any given time and there are tons of tree wells and big boulders. This area is near the hiking cliff trail and Ive seen pictures and read reports of hiking this trail in the summer being brutal.
To people that are very familiar with the mountain and this area of it, do you think its possible for me to try to hike up there with snowshoes/crampons/ice axe etc and try to retrieve my skis, or is it not worth it? Should I wait till mid-april before the resort is closing and some snow has lessened up? Or do I wait till June and hike up there then, but Im afraid that the trees/grass cover will be SO dense that it'll be impossible to see through?
Thoughts/advice from locals/frequents of Stowe/Mansfield?
At one point skiing along that thin wall, I bumped into one of my friends, lost balance and tumble over the steep wall down into the woods below. I was fine getting up, skis still on, and with no way to get back up to the trail above, I attempted skiing out but got stuck at a nice 15 foot drop below with nowhere to go ahead (was unsure of landing spot - surrounded by boulders/crevasses). I tried turning directions but kept getting my skis stuck, and so I unclipped them and had to leave them behind in order to walk/crawl back up to the "trail" in order to get back down. (I left out a ton of irrelevent details about the panic and the fact that it was already 4 pm at this point).
So my skis are still up there. I know the exact spot but this part of the mountain is extremely steep and tricky. You have no idea where you are stepping at any given time and there are tons of tree wells and big boulders. This area is near the hiking cliff trail and Ive seen pictures and read reports of hiking this trail in the summer being brutal.
To people that are very familiar with the mountain and this area of it, do you think its possible for me to try to hike up there with snowshoes/crampons/ice axe etc and try to retrieve my skis, or is it not worth it? Should I wait till mid-april before the resort is closing and some snow has lessened up? Or do I wait till June and hike up there then, but Im afraid that the trees/grass cover will be SO dense that it'll be impossible to see through?
Thoughts/advice from locals/frequents of Stowe/Mansfield?
