Day 40 of the season was my 17th powder day with 18 to follow the next day. With work closed for the College Holiday, I started the long weekend at Jay Peak on the heels of a monster April surprise snow storm that would ultimately drop three feet of powder through the Holiday weekend. Amazing! What a way to start April off after March ended on such a downer.
Got started on The Jet at 9am despite Nhski running a little late (no friends on a powder day and all that…). But we played it like usual staying close to the lift for the first few runs of untracked and met up at the top of the Jet on the start of my third run. Sweet! Certainly has been a ton of fun finding a fellow skier to enjoy the great Jay powder with, always elevates my day to have a great skier to share it with.
During the week I had been leaning on MRG for Friday, but I felt Jay was the better bet for more powder (turns out they got about the same according to official reports). More importantly though, I find that knowing Jay better and having more available terrain to spread things around would allow for better open to close untracked possibilities. As the pictures taken at 3pm on untracked lines will attest, I think this was the best strategy for the day.
Got started under the liftline of the Jet with excellent boot to knee deep untracked after snagging the 9am starting chair. Next over to Kitzbeuhel which skied rather nicely with plenty of boot to knee deep untracked. I am detecting a theme here! Boot deep was the minimum with plenty of knee deep where it was untracked and occasional thigh deep when I really laid into it or hit a pocket of drift. Sah-weet!
From there it was into the trees as powder on the open slopes does not last long even during the mid-week. Crowds were certainly manageable! The 10am rush consisted of two dozen people and waits were never longer than a minute tops. We found untracked every run all day from open to close with some absolutely amazing shots… you know… those shots that when you come to a stop and look back, all you can think and say is “damn, I love skiing so much!” Had that warm and fuzzy feeling all day today despite colder temperatures and strong winds. Despite the strong winds, all lifts ran all day long.