With lift ticket prices on the rise at Wildcat and Sunday River ($49 and $39 respectively) but neither area offering more than a single unique top to bottom route, the value was not sufficient to justify the expense. As with past seasons, I have made a commitment to tour more and ride the lifts less this season. So with low lift serviced value and high turn earning motivation in mind, I decided to skin and ski at Jay again despite no guarantee of natural snow turns.
Jay Peak completely missed out on recent snowfall that Mansfield enjoyed. Natural snow cover was about the same as the previous week at Jay, which was not sufficient for skiing and marginally sufficient for junk boarding. Man made blow in on Derick Hot Shot provided enough snow for skinning but not enough for quality turns. Upon reaching the top, I decided frozen ungroomed man made on Haynes was a better option than skiing under the guns on the Jet.
It turned out to be a poor decision. The frozen man made on Haynes was super slick, highly irregular, and had occasional hard to see obstacles. One such obstacle caught my ski and the resulting fall twisted my boot out of the binding. Hilarity ensued as that caused my other binding to release (due to an extra 20lbs this season, perhaps it is time to boost the DINs).
Adding insult to injury, the ski break was twisted off the binding during the fall resulting in a run away ski. I had to laugh as I started butt sliding feet first down the slippery man made snow as I watched one of my skis shoot off like a rocket down the trail and eventually smack a tree, coming to a stop.
It was not my finest skiing moment to say the least. Rather than down climb Lower Haynes, I bailed onto Lower Jet at the cut over where I was surprised to find amazing man made snow on the right side of the whales. Skiing top to bottom on the Jet would have been a much better option despite the live snow making. I made some fine quality turns on Lower Jet and perhaps enjoyed some of the most fun non-powder skiing I’ve ever enjoyed on that stretch of the trail.