A
Anonymous
Guest
While somewhat less than 100% terrain is available (they apparently closed Big Spruce for the season on Sunday), certainly every marked trail on Mansfield proper appears to be open save the top of Lookout and the Waterfall trail off the gondola (which they've never been serious about.) <BR> <BR>I declared this the first honest-to-goodness spring skiing day of the season. Warm, sunny, soft snow in abundance. Snow on lower 2/3 of mountain was sun softened. Above that, there was still a dry powdery nature to the surface. <BR> <BR>This was especially true way up high. Yes, this would have been a good day to head to the chin, but that seems like such a long thankless hike to this old man. So we hit that perennial April favorite, the Booger Snowfield just below the nose. <BR> <BR>The summit was as Alpine as ever, with deep snow and invisible trees. The Booger was Alpine-like, too: not unlike European off-piste variable snow conditions. Powdery styrosnow, windblown crust, deep powder pockets. It was so much fun, we did it twice. <BR> <BR>Ended the day with big mambo cruisers off the gondola. Olé!