Stratton, VT

In preparation for our upcoming 29029 event in October, we went to Stratton ,VT for a few days. The plan was to spend two days hiking up the mountain a few times and riding the gondola down. Unfortunately the gondola wasn’t running, but we were here to train so up we went.

From the bottom it really doesn’t look so bad. It appears to gently slope uphill becoming steeper as it approaches the top. Well, looks can be deceiving.

We started up the slope on a gravel path that followed the gondola line. You’d be surprised when you start walking how much steeper a hill is than it looks. The gravel/rocks aren’t easy to hike on, but slowly you get into a groove. Eventually the trail becomes more of a path through the tall grass with some places being dirt and some cut grass. There had been lots of rain before we arrived, and several places running water cut across the path. The tall grass makes using the hiking poles a challenge at times when they get caught on grass against the trail. The mountain was beautiful this time of year, as most of the grassy area was covered in wildflowers. We saw lots of butterflies and bees.

The climb gets steeper as you go, following the 26 poles of the gondola up the mountainside. The steepest most challenging part occurs around tower 19 to 23. Once past 23 you can start to see evidence of the gondola station at the top. Hike past a few more gondola towers and you are there. It feels so great to finally reach the top.

Being there in July it was fairly hot and sunny. There is no shade on the trail except for an occasional small square cast by one of the gondola cars hanging above. Hopefully it will be a little cooler in October. Thankfully there was a pretty good breeze at the top and that felt really good after the sweaty climb.

Each trip up the mountain was approximately 1.7 miles with about 1670 ft elevation gain. We did the climb three times on Thursday and once on Friday.

With the gondola not running, it meant we had to hike down the mountain too. We opted to take a slightly longer path around the backside with the hopes it wouldn’t be quite as steep. It was surprising to hike down for what seemed a long time only to emerge from the trees and discover we were only halfway.

We’re really glad we made the trip as part of our training. Now we know we can hike up the mountain repeatedly. Whether we can do it 17 times remains to be seen, but we still have three months to train.

29029 Stratton here we come.