Not tagging today as a powder day was a difficult but honest decision. This is a testament to both how poor the season has been and how great the skiing was today. Jay received one inch, which seems to have become the new foot. But drifts were much deeper, blown in snow was abundant, and untracked snow could be found all day long. I have never had more fun skiing a supposed one inch of new snow.
I will never understand skiers that dive straight into the woods on first chair. There are few things I long for more than blasting powder turns down a flat, steep, and wide open pitch. Don’t get me wrong, I love trees. And I enjoy bumps when I can’t ski powder. But there is nothing like a steep groomer blanketed with untracked powder. It is far more rare than untracked powder through the trees.
On my first run, I found almost half a foot of untracked blower on top of scraped hardpack. A delightful surprise that affirmed my destination decision. I shamelessly made wide arcs across the entirety of JFK. A farmer harvesting the carefully planted crop I was not. The feeling of my skis planing up and surfing the fresh was sublime. The feeling of my edges engaging the hardpack at the apex of my turn was not.
Stick Season in New England continues with more cautious exuberance at Mad River Glen. Perhaps a little too much exuberance and not enough caution but can you blame a guy that is snuffing out half a foot of untracked days after the storm? I was hoping for a reasonable amount of relatively safe tree skiing. Despite the untracked heroics, even I had to question how to define reasonable.
Cross blocking skills were not optional in the trees at Jay this weekend. All of Jay’s Stateside glades are open excepting Deliverance and Canyonland. But I was more excited about having so much off map tree skiing available. Cautious exuberance, with poles held high, yielded an exceptional amount of tree skiing. There is no doubt about it: stick season is officially open at Jay.
Mad River Glen’s quality control department looked the other way as the lifts finally came alive today for the first day of lift operations. The untracked was sacked yesterday by copious turn earners and mountain operations (first chair looked more like noon chair). But plenty of untracked pockets were available for early risers with an understanding to seek out lesser skied options.
But untracked was besides the point. I was just happy to be skiing top to bottom on natural snow again. Base depths were variable ranging from grass to a foot of fresh depending on where the wind blew. The bottom of the base was wet and pasty creating an excellent protective layer with light and fluffy powder on the surface. Perfect early season (wait, early season?) powder that covers up most of the crap while still being fun to ski.