The Green Mountain Club has released a Press Release requesting that “The Scar” be avoided during the spring melt off. During this time, the cut on Big Jay will be extremely vulnerable to erosion damage. During a work day this past fall, a Green Mountain Club led work crew installed erosion control devices. The Club fears that these erosion control devices could be damaged and rendered useless if the area sees foot traffic.

The press release also refers to an initiative to engage backcountry skiers in land management discussions:

In related news, GMC recently met with a group of backcountry skiers to discuss the development of a Vermont Backcountry Skiers Code of Ethics (Leave No Trace). We discussed the need to develop or identify an organization that can coordinate backcountry skiers to engage in land management discussions relating to the use of public lands for backcountry skiing. Stay tuned for more information about this initiative.

This is a positive step forward that was absent from how the Green Mountain Club handled the Big Jay situation this past winter, especially in regards to the meeting announcing the restrictions at the Jay Peak Resort Stateside Lodge. Any discussions of backcountry skiing land management must include concessions to the backcountry skiing community about maintaining thinned out backcountry tree skiing lines and locations. The Green Mountain Club seemed hostile to this issue at the Big Jay meeting. Backcountry skiers will also be forced to agree to concessions for such a land management proposal to succeed. The backcountry skiing community awaits further details on this meeting.

• GMC Press Release: Illegal Scar on Big Jay Vulnerable to Further Damage During Spring Conditions

The decision makers and the backcountry community would do well to reconsider the access restriction as the best policy to prevent skiers and riders from accessing the illegal cut on Big Jay. Both parties could learn a lot from the opposing point of view and perhaps conclude neither extreme is appropriate. Policy does need to be in place to protect the scar but a complete restriction of access does not accomplish the desires of either group. This sets up a situation in which moral and ethical backcountry skiers respecting the restriction are effectively punished through restricted access while rule breakers are effectively rewarded with nearly perfect untracked snow conditions and exciting descents.

One of the arguments made by the decision makers is the belief that the skiing and riding community can not self police. Essentially, renegades would ski the scar if access was not restricted. My initial reaction was that, without an attempt at education and alternative solutions, this policy is a self fulfilling prophecy . Especially noteworthy is the fact that restricting access to Big Jay via the Saddle has garnered attention and media coverage that has put a big fat bulls eye on Big Jay and the scar for less ethically inclined skiers and riders. It would be ironic if the decision makers, including the GMC, JPR, and VDFPR, brought about increased risk of skiers and riders sliding down the scar by restricting access.

On December 28th, TheSnowWay.com published Alternative Solutions to Big Jay Closure which listed alternative solutions to restricting access with the ultimate goal of protecting regrowth and regeneration of the scar in mind. Here is a quote from that article:

The community that attended the Big Jay meeting on December 15th was offered no opportunity for partnership, engagement, or participation in the process. The director of Jay Peak Ski Patrol noted that the decision makers were essentially “treating the community like babies.” Without a positive outlet for contribution to making the situation better through collaboration, it seems likely that many members of the community will reject the access restriction this season (proposed without an expected expiration date, essentially an indefinite restriction).

The likely result of the current situation is that the scar might likely be skied just to spite the powers that be. And while that may bode poorly for the long term community, the decision makers should not see individual short comings on values, principles, and morals as anything more than individuals without positive alternatives and partnerships deciding they have nothing to loose. A bad situation has been created by dictation rather than partnership, trust, and collaboration.

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While debate develops in the backcountry skiing and riding community regarding long term solutions to tree skiing and organization, Big Jay access from Jay Peak is restricted indefinitely. The backcountry skiing and riding community has yet to seriously address the problem other than a local petition and the Big Jay Access Restriction meeting question and answer session . The State of Vermont, the Green Mountain Club, and Jay Peak Resort all agreed to utilize the easiest and quickest short term solution to address the problem of people sliding down the scar and exacerbating the damage. However, there are several alternatives to the closure that could be implemented to address reducing sliding on the scar to near zero.

My suggested alternative solutions should be placed in context of the current situation as dictated to the backcountry skiing and riding community by the decision makers. The fundamental issue is protecting the scar to best allow successful regeneration with the least amount of damage to the environment and the erosion control measures. All solutions should be proposed and thoroughly evaluated with this goal in mind. No single effort will ultimately prove successful including, ironically, a complete restriction of access from Jay Peak Resort.

The community that attended the Big Jay meeting on December 15th was offered no opportunity for partnership, engagement, or participation in the process. The director of Jay Peak Ski Patrol noted that the decision makers were essentially “treating the community like babies.” Without a positive outlet for contribution to making the situation better through collaboration, it seems likely that many members of the community will reject the access restriction this season (proposed without an expected expiration date, essentially an indefinite restriction).

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The Northern Frontier Section of the Green Mountain Club has two pages dedicated to Big Jay news on their web site. The first page is a collection of articles from various New England media about the cutting. The second link is a collection of articles from Long Trail News, an official publication of the Green Mountain Club. President Richard Windish has somewhat harsh words stating that “We will avenge Big Jay.” Whether this should be meant to suggest punishing the two individuals responsible for the cutting or something in a more broader scope is not clarified.

• Northern Frontier Section of GMC: News about Big Jay, Vermont
• Northern Frontier Section of GMC: Long Trail News, November 2007