Distance from Middlebury- 20 minutes

Length of Ascent- 55 minutes

Difficulty of Ascent- 3

Difficulty of Descent- 3

Elevation Change-488 ft.

Comments

The two of us were so happy with our last trip to Ripton that we decided there were plenty more adventures for us in the mountains surrounding the Middlebury Snow Bowl. With a small parking lot of the base of the Oak Ridge Trail, there was easy access to an old logging trail that began ascending immediately.

Ascent

The trail runs for about .75 miles until we decided to split from the path and head straight up the face of the mountain. This decision made our ascent quicker than taking the windy path, but also substantially more difficult. This hike was fairly short, but it had significant elevation gain so it was definitely not one of our easier ones. Once we reached the top of the peak we were able to catch our breath and enjoy the beautiful view

Descent

We decided to descend the mountain down the face rather than take the trail which looped around. Since it was a fairly short hike with pretty strong elevation gain, we knew this would be one of our shorter descents. The woods were not overly dense which allowed for finding great open lines. The route that we took had no streams and enough snow cover to account for any rocky sections. There was a decent amount of undergrowth that was slightly troublesome but overall it was a great ride down. Once we reached the base of the mountain, there was a short walk out to the road.