With two more days left in October and snow still falling at Jay, I ventured out for day number three of the season with plans for a fourth before October was in the books. Despite a decent snow storm the night before, Jay’s open trails were picked clean and wind blown. No worries though as it was still snowing around the summit and as per usual at Jay Peak, the goods were to be found in between the trees. Tree skiing in October? Heck yea!
Austin and I joined up for the drive up to Jay Peak from my house in St. Johnsbury. Occasional flurries near the high point of I-91 got us jonesing but we knew the best was yet to come. Climbing up Route 242, there was a very definitive line between the rain and the snow. Although Jay probably got all rain at one point, they had a sweet change over Sunday morning. Not much snow was to be found in the parking lot, but it was starting to come down when we arrived. By the time we reached the summit, it was puking!
We tracked up Jet then ducked into the Stateside Glade to skin in the trees due to high winds on the open slopes. The glade had decent coverage and base, though just a few inches short of being comfortable for skiing. Fine for skinning though. As we skinned up Hells Crossing to Vermonter and then onto the Summit, the snow got progressively deeper as we ascended. Base depths in the trees were significant. Vermonter base depths averaged between 4-20″ depending upon exposure and wind buffing. I was able to nearly half bury my 125cm length pole in some places within the trees. The snow on Vermonter was not powder, but rather very much like Stowe on Thursday… a fine dusting and a few inches of pow on an impressively deep and buffed base. Awesome turning conditions with no signs of thin cover.
In a bizarre turn of weather, the snow turned to stinging ice pellets as we neared the summit even though it was fine fluffy snow just a few short vertical feet below. We made haste to the summit through the storm of stinging precipitation and rested for a while at the Summit Haus before starting our first run. Turns down Vermonter were sweet! Occasional variable snow conditions such as wind buff and ice kept things interesting.
Earlier that morning, I had wondered if something off the ridge would be skiable. Say….. Valhalla? Yes!! Valhalla had an excellent base depth despite a few spruce and saplings still sticking up. I clicked out of my bindings to climb up for a jump and went down to my thigh in the white stuff (I am 6’1″ for some perspective!). The snow was easily three feet deep in many places, though variable conditions persisted and it was hard to tell whether to carve an edge or ease into the powder as we skied the glade. The snow got better the lower we got and I took a knee deep shot of pow while dancing in and out of some trees. Mighty impressive for any time of year, let alone October!
After finishing our run down Valhalla, we both agreed that we were too tired for another run. We tracked down the Northway and cut back to the Jet while sampling some sweet light pow and jumping over water bars. Even on the low angle aspects of Jay’s flat run outs, we found excellent snow and fun turns. Quality days such as this are rare during any given season, but are especially rare in the Fall, let alone October.
Right click and select “Save As” to Download a Video of skiing at Jay Peak on October 29, 2006. You may need to download the Xvid Codec if the video does not work with your media player.