In the past week, I have surpassed my 2009-2010 total days at Jay Peak. Three out of four days this past week were Powder Days. I know the answer already but I can’t help but ask myself “what was I thinking last year?”

Jay racked up an impressive two day total of 42″. And that is not a typo, those numbers are in the correct order. Today certainly didn’t ski like a “day after the wind hold powder day”. Winds laid down an extremely compacted wind buff. The powder was soft and surfy; decidedly not blower nor deep. Though softer shots on certain limited aspects allowed for some boot deep silky turns.

I lamented not having companions after becoming accustomed to the shared euphoria of a group. But I also keenly felt great freedom in being able to attack the mountain my way.

Every powder hound at Jay knew the lift situation on Monday. The frenzy began at the Jet where I found myself in the crowd… not thinking against the grain. This would not do. I found a lot of great powder but lines were going faster than they normally might despite the Jet being ski on. Sidecountry lines were getting chewed faster than many inbounds lines. It was all wrong.

Going against my typical Jay game plan, I headed Tramside instead and worked many steep and aesthetically pleasing untracked lines. I felt more distanced from the powder frenzy crowd. Or perhaps I just put my own frenzy out of mind and began enjoying Jay despite the powder rather than because of it.

I further mixed it up with three back to back Tram runs, two out of three being 1 Tram waits. It has been many years since I last skied the Ridge. And I have never skied the Tuckermans Chutes. So I dropped into Tuckermans and then the Face before finishing up with something a little more spicy. It wasn’t meant to be spicy. But I definitely ended up someplace that had me thinking “don’t fuck this up.”

One more run turned into two more turns which turned into three more runs. After a few attempts during the day, I finally found a line I had been searching for that I had skied many years ago. Epicness ensued. Soft buttery untracked powder on the last run of the day.

But my best find all day was discovering that the Pizzeria commandeered by Guest Services was moved to the International Room. Judging by the tumbleweed blowing through the IR (juxtaposed to the standing room only former Pizzeria location under the Tram Haus), I suspect the word about Pizza in the IR may be Jay’s most troublesome secret.