Highs are higher because of the lows. My father never appreciated that part of my personal philosophy, perhaps fearing I would probe for lower depths instead of reaching for new heights. I not only ride the emotional roller coaster, I relish the experience. The roller coaster is an essential part of northeastern skiing. You can enjoy the ride, attempt to cope, or grab a barf bag.
My destination decision on Saturday was based on open terrain versus powder potential. With only two to four inches in the forecast for most of Vermont, I opted for open terrain. I assumed Jay would add something onto their reported 3-6″ from the day before. And perhaps I could locate a few lesser known stashes with two days worth of accumulation. As reports from Sugarbush can attest, I had chosen poorly.
Jay over reported the higher end of their range from Thursday. I was able to find many pockets of untracked snow but none of those pockets yielded anything close to half a foot. Adding insult to injury was that Jay got nothing from the storm. So whereas I expected 3-6″ + 2-4″ for potential pockets of 5-10″, I actually got a few pockets of 3-4″.
Which isn’t to say that the skiing wasn’t really good. Conditions were packed powder with lots of loose snow and the rare hit of powder. All trails were open except for the ridge. And base depths were significantly improved since my last visit before the massive Leap Day storm. But I still wasn’t feeling it.
Worse, I was completely out of it. Lack of sleep and tough times at work had me blurry eyed with lackadaisical legs. I wasn’t making my turns and my eyes were drooping in the trees. After a little more than an hour’s worth of skiing, I decided it was dangerous to continue forcing it, I was done.
But not before failing to rotate a jump turn, releasing from my ski, and post holing down to my sternum in a spruce trap. Extraction was a bitch to say the least. But at least I know first hand that Jay has a deep base and should weather the warmth better than most.
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.
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.