Category: Jay Peak

2007-2008 Season, Earned Turns, Jay Peak, March, Powder Day

Major Earned Turn Powder Day During Jay Lift Hold

Headed up to Jay on Friday with moderately reasonable hopes that at least one of the Stateside lifts would turn (probably the Jet). Despite hopes of a late afternoon opening, it was not to be. Friday could have been my best day of the season had the lifts spun. It was still sensationally epic skiing none-the-less.

We skinned up Meadows to Wiggle where the game planning began and continued to evolve. Skiing would involve dropping down to the flats and yo-yo’ing whatever looked good. Several tree options provided sensational knee deep powder with more face shots than I could shake a skinny touring ski at. One particularly wind favored section saw me sinking below my croch for a few turns. We ascended to the top of the Jet twice and Kitz Woods was the best I had ever skied it. We made a poor selection on the next run off the Jet sliding into an area that was severely wind buffed and not protected. The wind directions seemed to change throughout the day so it was not easy predicting what areas would offer good skiing.

We got in four runs on some of the deepest snow of the season. Knowing I had two more days this weekend and probably a rather demanding Saturday, I decided to call it quits before my legs completely gave up. The snow was dense wind blown with some mammoth drifts in places. No regrets on the decision to ski and earn turns at Jay Peak which received two feet of snow compared to other Vermont resorts that had lifts turning with half as much or less powder.

2007-2008 Season, February, Jay Peak

A Groomer Day at Jay

Today was a dust on crust special at Jay Peak. All the three inch untracked powder you want with little competition if you did not mind bottoming out on a frozen hard packed base. My feelings predicted that things would be fairly nice this morning with a few inches of fresh. Instead of fluffy blower, we could have used heavy and dense snow. My first three tree runs each got progressively more low angle. Ultimately, I decided today would be a groomer day. While discussing the conditions with some folks, I said “this has been the most groomers I have skied in a day all season, perhaps the most groomers I HAVE skied all season.” That about sums up todays conditions at Jay.

Jet was skiing really nicely throughout the morning. I hammered Jet for several runs before deciding that I was not going to wait for a line longer than a minute or two to ski groomers. Shortly before noon time, I headed back to the Chalet and headed home.

You can tell it is vacation week by the conversations you overhear. I was dumb founded by the amount of times I heard something along the lines of “wow, the conditions are great today!” Which, they were, if you enjoy skiing groomers. But I could have been doing that (more enjoyably) at Cannon on $8 worth of gas instead of $21. This is a big difference in my new location. While living in Vermont, the half hour of additional driving to Jay was always a worth while gamble. Whereas the forty minutes door to door Cannon drive time versus over two hours to Jay is a different story if the woods are not there.

2007-2008 Season, February, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Some Cold Holiday Powder at Jay

Jay Peak Trees

Bitter cold and uncomfortable winds had many vacationers holed up inside their condos, townhouses, and rental units for the first day of the holiday week. The slopes were empty well into late morning when some brave vacationers finally decided to leave the comfort and warmth of their condos and townhouses and do what they supposedly drove up to Jay to do. Less crowded than your average Jay weekend with a ski on Flyer and never more than one or two deep in the singles line at the Jet and Bonnie. The tram had what looked to be about a three car wait as many folks opted to wait for the tram rather than brave the chairlifts. I debated doing the wait on my last run to get a run in off the ridge but didn’t have the stomach for the line.

The wind really loaded the powder up creating a tricky wind slab layer on the surface. Boot deep untracked powder was the norm for the morning and I hammered it without much care for competition. Aside from the lack of vacationer traffic, even the regular Jay powder hounds seemed to be AWOL. Pretty laid back morning and I left lots of typical early hits for later. Lots of options.

I made a rare visit to Tramside and poked around over there for three runs before the Freezer sent me shivering back to Stateside. While exploring, I found some new shots (to me) where I suspected there might be some and wished the wind hadn’t been as bad because I was really enjoying the turns on Tramside.

Today was my first full day on a new (used) pair of Fischer Atua skis. They surfed the powder well but were not as agile as my regular Dynastar Legend 8000 skis in tight trees featuring packed powder conditions. Certainly an exceptional ski on powder snow and will be an especially powerful tool on untracked knee to boot deep snow.

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2007-2008 Season, February, Jay Peak

Sunday Bust at Jay Peak

Sunday was the bust of this season. With the forecast calling for six to ten inches up and down the Green Mountains, Jay was slotted to receive a major snow storm Saturday night into Sunday morning. Rarely does Jay Peak miss on the big storm predictions. Quite the opposite, Jay almost always receives more snow than expected. But Sunday was a complete and total bust at Jay Peak.

Arriving at a packed Stateside lot shortly before the lifts began loading, I found one to two inches of fluff covering hard pack and scraped surfaces. That is what I get for notching a “powder day” onto my season cost and stat spreadsheet the night before heading up to the mountain. That is just bad Karma. Still hurting from Friday’s romp at Mad River, I set the early alarm and made the line up for opening at the Bonnie chair.

I checked all my favorite spots in short order and there was not much to be found except hard pack and scraped surfaces. There was the occasional nice shot of snow for two or three turns but conditions left something to be desired for the most part. I was tired, sore, and disappointed and decided to pack it up early despite new snow coming down during the late morning.

Jay posted five inches within twenty-four hours as of 4pm. I will chalk up two of those prior to opening and the remaining three falling throughout the day accompanied by increasingly harsh winds. I had hyped this weekend and it did not deliver. Will remember to keep the expectations down next time even when the snow forecasts start hitting double digits. Cannon would have skied better today, truth be told.

2007-2008 Season, January, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Massive Knee Deep Powder Day at Jay

Amazing Powder in the Trees at Jay

This was certainly unexpected. During the week, Jay picked up two feet of fresh powder over the course of five days. These small snow falls mostly isolated along the spine of the Northern Green mountains added up through the course of the week. Friday through Saturday morning brought another foot bring Jay’s seven day total up to three feet. Surely most of the snow prior to Friday night’s eight inches would be tracked out. Surely I could not hope to find boot to knee deep powder on Saturday morning?

With only a half day of skiing scheduled due to a late afternoon call into work, I spent the majority of the drive from Ashland to Jay deciding whether I should skin up Big Jay where I would find a guaranteed three feet of untracked or risk a morning of skiing Jay Peak where I figured I might find a foot of fresh in isolated pockets. The decision came as I entered the town of Jay and stopped to buy a sub, I was going to skin Big Jay. Or was I? Rounding the bend as I approached the Jay Peak Resort entrance, I saw moderately deep looking tracks on Jet and Haynes. I couldn’t risk a potentially big day lift serviced for only one big run of earned turns. It was on.

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