A December to remember keeps on cranking out the powder days. Several small storms kept Jay full of powder this past week with yet another six inches falling heading into the weekend. My expectations of a small amount of additional snow were blown away by half a foot on the open trails and much more in the trees. Today was a phenomenal day at Jay.

Normally, I never ski Can Am. But after boarding one of the first chairs on the Bonaventure Quad and seeing a steep powder field begging for tracks, I could not help myself. The lack of wind kept the normally blown off slopes full of powder. I followed that up with a completely untracked run down Vertigo. Since the Tram and Freezer were not running when Jay opened, I headed Tramside on my next run for Northwest Passage to the Expo Glade area and returned for Upper River Quai to more Expo Glade area powder. Trees offered boot to knee deep untracked. When the Flyer and Tram started turning, I went back to Stateside and hit a whole bunch of stuff as the party was up Tramside.

Where were the crowds, I had to wonder? The Stateside parking lot was barely half full by noon time. Even on non-powder days, I would expect more people at Jay on a Saturday. Let alone a Saturday preceding a major snow storm that followed several small storms. Perhaps everyone was holiday shopping? More likely the low turn out was due to abundant options. It is not unusual for Jay Peak to offer natural snow, glades, and powder in December. However, it is very unusual for most mountains in New England to be nearly fully open with great skiing and open glades the weekend before December. So accessibility of good terrain and conditions else where made people rely less on Jay than normal.

Today was so atypical of my normal days at Jay. My usual plan of attack was thrown right out the window from the get go. I was just tracking up everything and anything without competition. All lifts were ski on from open to close as I never waited a second for any lift except the Tram which I actually rode twice today at only a one tram car wait, which is highly unusual. I normally avoid the Tram like the plague, especially on weekends and definitely on powder weekends.

Six inch minimum on every run I took with much more in the trees. Boot to knee deep was easily scored on almost half of my runs, though the deep stuff was generally only for short stretches. Every run featured at least a few hundred feet of completely untracked turns. Not bad at all for a powder weekend, especially one that has been hyped.

Photo Gallery