Long Trail: Nebraska Notch to Smugglers Notch

Saturday was a nice sunny day for a "wintry" trek to the summit of Mt Mansfield via the Long Trail. Conditions were fresh snow and a mix of snow and ice at & above treeline.
Parked at the Trout Club parking lot and ascended to Taylor Lodge / Nebraska Notch via the Lake Mansfield Trail, which was in good condition; two windfall trees; fresh black bear tracks followed the trail above Lake Mansfield, then fresh moose tracks along the LT from Taylor Lodge for about a mile.
As a side note, the LT is poorly blazed between Taylor & Butler Lodge... old faded blazes and large distances between blazes can lead to trail loss very easily in the snow!
Above Butler Lodge the LT gets very icy at the ladders to the summit of the Forehead. Beautiful rime ice across the ridgeline to the summit of the Chin. Caught a beautiful sunset here over the Daks to the west and rich alpenglow on the Whites to the east. The descent down to Taft Lodge was very icy.
Descent to Rt 108 / Smugglers Notch via icy LT (which i opted for the ski trail instead) then a fun headlamp cruise down the Chin Clip ski trail

Forester Jake said:

Above Butler Lodge the LT gets very icy at the ladders to the summit of the Forehead.

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Yikes. That was scary enough when it was just wet.

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Cumulus

NE111: 115/115 (67/67, 46/46, 2/2); Cat35: 23/39; WNH4K: 29/48; NEFF: 34/50
LT NB 2009

"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll

Cumulus said:

Yikes. That was scary enough when it was just wet.

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Totally have to agree with that, we did it in the wet, too, and very grateful it wasn't worse. Congrats to you for tackling it when it was icy!