Welcome back to winter! Just in time for the Christmas Holiday and two days after the Winter Solstice, Ullr was kind enough to bless Jay Peak with two inches of fresh snow. For some excited skiers and riders, it was all fun and games until trying to drive up an unplowed Route 242 without snow tires! Snow began promptly on Route 242 just past the village of Jay and several cars with out of state plates and no snow tires dotted the side of the road. Trails were surprisingly sparse during the morning hours due to the slick conditions on an unplowed Route 242. Even once road conditions allowed safe passage for all cars regardless of treed, crowds were manageable through the morning and afternoon.

This afternoon featured the best weekend skiing at Jay Peak in almost two months since the earned turn October storms. The base was still generally wet from the rain on Saturday. However, a nice layer of fresh wet snow blanketed the trails with occasional spots of lighter powder making for excellent sliding conditions.

Beginning the morning with a ride up the Bonnie Quad, I found delightful cruising on Northway with exceptionally good high speed carving on the lower half of Angel’s Wiggle. I opened up my skis and carved huge edge to edge arcs back to the base area. While tempted for a repeat, I decided to take a rain check and opted for the Jet Triple.

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Yet another day in paradise. The mid-December mark has passed and Jay Peak has struggled to open new terrain due to abnormally mild temperatures and a complete dirth of natural snow. The Green Mountain Flyer (a.k.a. The Freezer) debuts this weekend with one route down to the Tram Base Lodge. Jay offers up ten trails this weekend with five lifts turning for a two trail per lift average. Thankfully, the addition of the Freezer and Metro Quad servicing Intermediate and Beginner terrain has taken much stress off The Jet area by the Stateside Lodge. However, despite having five lifts turning and ten trails open, Jay was not able to offer a connecting route to allow skiers access to the Stateside area from the Tramside area. Despite more elbow room and slightly better overall conditions, I found the afternoon of skiing uninspiring and elected to stay home on Sunday despite having a Season Pass.

I rolled out of bed around 9:30 A.M. and spent the better part of the next hour deciding if skiing was worth it or not. I decided it beat spending an afternoon doing Kakuro puzzles and went for it. I opted for the Tramside lot not knowing there was no connect to the Stateside area and thinking I would stay for the Season Pass holder party. After a few hours of skiing, I decided I couldn’t be bothered with the celebrations. The amount of non-New license plates in the parking lot was amazing. Jay is not worth driving up from Boston right now, let alone New York or New Jersey or Virginia.

I took three or four runs off the freezer which all blended together. Goat (one of my least favorite trails in all of New England) was blah with frozen granular surfaces on the upper section and a thin cover messy disaster under The Freezer. Conditions improved on Lower River Quai with softening snow conditions and okay soft moguls forming on skiers’ left. Interstate felt like one with additional skiers funneling off the Metro Quad and race training set up on skiers’ left. I opened up the skis and let run some nice big arcs on the soft snow with occasional thin spots. Middle and lower sections of the mountain were in Spring Skiing form with soft mushy snow and thin spots to avoid.

After a car shuttle to the Stateside Auxiliary lot, I discovered that things were a little bit more exciting over on The Jet. Upper sections of Haynes were very scraped and generally sucked with race training on Lower Haynes on skiers’ left. The Jet was moderately better featuring relatively decent snow conditions due to less traffic and warmer temps that softened the snow. The Jet had occasional loose snow on the edges of the trail, frozen granular up top, and snow softening up to spring like conditions down low. Moguls under the lift line were uninspiring.

After an absolutely sensational day of hiking for powder at Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire, I returned to Jay Peak on my Season Pass for some truly aweful conditions. If I had more energy for another day of lift assisted turn earning, I would surely have returned to Cannon on Sunday. But my turn earning legs are still in early season form and my Season Pass to Jay provided free skiing despite the conditions.

While I was expecting conditions to be much worse than Cannon Mountain, I had not expected conditions at Jay to be horrible. Unfortunately, I was incorrect in my assessment. Jay Peak was charging $45 for a weekend lift ticket despite only having The Jet and Haynes open along with a pair of connecting trails back to the Tram Base and Condos. U.N. was reported open on the web site; however the Lower section of the trail was roped and looked terrible.

Crowds were slightly more manageable than the past two weekends due to the addition of Haynes, but conditions remain terrible overall, probably the worst since jay opened. The steep upper sections of both The Jet and Haynes were skating rinks. Many skiers and riders were throwing the planks sideways and holding on for dear life, occasionally taking some rather long slides. I took one run down Haynes which was in rough shape sporting extremely scraped conditions on the upper section. Next I decided to make use of the bumps under The Jet Triple Chair. The bumps were variable with inconsistent lines and occasional scraping and icy sections near the towers. It was enough to get my legs and blood pumping but not enough to be enjoyable or keep my interest level. After four runs, I decided to call it a day. Easy enough for me to take four runs on a season pass on only a two hour round trip drive. However, I would have hated to have driven any further and paid the full priced $45 weekend lift ticket. I suspect most folks at Jay had the two for one deal lift tickets or were part of the telefest and had discounts. Suffice to say, Jay needs more trails and more snow bad.

Day number nine for the season and my first December ski day was rather depressing yet filled with optimism. For every negative aspect of the afternoon, I was able to come away with a juxtaposed positive. The same lift and same trail as the previous week was open today with slightly less coverage but better snow conditions and less quality deterioration. The previous week saw The Jet open edge to edge for the most part with moguls and natural features under the Jet Triple Chair featuring soft loose snow. However, today there was no snow under the lift forcing a higher volume of sliders onto a smaller patch of snow.

Despite marginal and variable conditions ranging from scraped to soft piles to soft bumps to good cruising packed powder, conditions deteriorated much slower than the previous week. The Jet Triple was ski on all morning which would suggest low crowds, but even with ski on lifts, with only trail to choose from, The Jet quickly was over run with too many skiers. I was not happy with the lack of elbow room. Many skiers and riders were borderline out of control and the occasional slider crossed well passed the control line. One humerus incident involved a snow blader that slid face first down two hundred feet of The Jet.

Seeing snow guns firing on Lower Haynes and the connector trails towards Tramside was a welcome sight. Additionally, Jay Peak was caked with two inches of white stuff from the snow Saturday night. With cold air finally taking hold in New England and snow in the forecast, things are finally looking up in New England. After one of the worst early seasons in modern New England ski history, it is safe to say that the season has finally begun in earnest.

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