Category: Jay Peak

2005-2006 Season, Jay Peak, March

Jay Peak, VT

Friday presented the excellent opportunity to do some great skiing with some great people. NHpowderhound, Sledhaulingmedic, and I converged on Jay Peak on Friday for an exciting afternoon of skiing. We essentially witnessed the official start to the Spring Skiing season as the snow consistency was mainly wet consolidated snow. Temperatures are not yet warm enough for the upcoming slush fest, but loose powder was no where to be found as the thermometer was definitely way above the freezing mark.

After introductions at the Stateside lodge, we boarded the Bonaventure Quad and took a warm up run down to the Jet Triple. We probably could have used another warm up run to get the legs pumping, but adventure awaited and we would not be deterred by slowly moving limbs. We entered the trees and ate up some delicious open lines with very nice but soft snow. With legs burning and hearts pumping, we fired off a quick groomer run down The Jet before hitting Kitzbeuhel and woods en route to the lodge to strip off some layers.

Back on the Bonaventure Quad, we skied Goat down to Buck Woods which skied delightfully though was thin in places. A quick trip up the Flyer (with low winds!) yielded impressive and delightful soft snow and ample coverage in Beaver Pond Glade. Another trip up the Freezer had us heading back to the lodge for a quick refuel and clothing adjustment via a few hairy woods trails.

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2005-2006 Season, Jay Peak, March, Powder Day

Lots of Untracked at Jay

Austin Skis Kitz

SICK SICK SICK! If anyone thinks that this season has sucked, they have not been paying attention! Reports of this season’s premature ending have been greatly exaggerated. Thanks to orographic lift and a great location, The Jay Cloud continues to churn out massive amounts of snow on an almost daily basis refreshing lines with six inches of snow throughout the weekend. Though snow fall totals from the night before were only six inches, up to twelve inches of untracked could easily be found in addition to the occasional shot of knee deep. Despite only having a moderate amount of new snow in that magical 6-12″ range, Monday was my best lift serviced day of skiing this year. With exception of skiing a few groomed trails in between the trees, I essentially skied nearly untracked powder all day long.

Forgetting that powder hounds would still be out en mass even though it was a Monday, I took my time getting ready at home. As a result, despite getting into line for the Tram at 8:45 A.M., I still waited for the third Tram Car to ascend to the Summit of Jay Peak. My delay could not have been more fortunate! Despite not being able to make first tracks down Valhalla, my delay resulted in an even better occurrence. As I departed the Sky Haus, I heard my name being called out. When I turned around, I saw none other than Austin who posts on AlpineZone and FirstTracks!! Online. Austin said he would be running late and hopefully we could meet up later in the day. Turns out I was the one running late and Austin arrived earlier than planned. The unexpected run in provided great company and a skiing partner for the afternoon romp through Jay Peak’s extensive glade network.

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2005-2006 Season, Jay Peak, March, Powder Day

Powder Left Overs at Jay Peak

With the Jay Cloud in full effect thanks to Orographic Lift, Jay Peak along with most of the Northern Green Mountains picked up over two feet of snow in three days. Most of that snow fell mid-week from Wednesday through Friday, so knee deep untracked was impossible to find by the weekend. However, the new powder falling overnight was more than enough to refreshen the glades and make skiing primo for Saturday. Jay Peak may exaggerate their snow totals occasionally, but no one can exaggerate the fact that Jay Peak gets a ton of snow when most other New England Ski Areas come up empty.

Arriving at the Stateside Lodge at 8 A.M., I noticed that the parking lot attendants were already packing the cars in like sardines. Despite the parking situation, due to Jay Peak’s far northern location, the majority of skiers did not arrive until late morning leaving fresh lines for the early birds. However, by 10 A.M. all the lots were full and the Jet Chair was averaging more than a ten minute wait.

Jay Peak had reported in on Thursday morning with two feet of fresh snow. By Saturday the best I could find on the mountain was the occasional one foot of untracked which was a rare find indeed. The rest of the snow was either tracked up, packed down, or blown away by the high winds. Due to those high winds, the Groomer Trails were a pathetic mix of wind blown hard pack, frozen granular, and the occasional legit icy patch. Not that any one skiing Jay Peak would want to ski the Groomers… they only reason to ski at Jay Peak is heading into the trees.

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2005-2006 Season, December, Jay Peak, Powder Day, Video

Powder Day and Broken Elbow at Jay Peak

Steve in Kitz Woods

Wow, what a day. A two-fer $49 coupon had me skiing for only $24 as yet another early season snow storm slammed into Northern Vermont. Jay Peak was reporting a foot and a half of fresh over the last few days with a 40″ total for the week. I quickly found out that most of the snow had been blown off the trails and deposited into the woods.

The Green Mountain Freezer was pretty darn cold! I took one run from T Freezer on the only open trail from the lift on crappy frozen granular which totally sucked. Over to The Jet I went, where the open runs were okay featuring lots of chewed up pow left over from the recent 6″. The glades were phenomenal though!!! Wow! Very hard to understand why the gladed trails were roped. A foot and a half of light pow and plenty of fresh lines! Timbuktu and Kitzw Wods were simply sensational. I met up two guys from the FTO Forums in Timbuktu and we paired up for the rest of the afternoon.

We headed up The Freezer after lunch and started wondering what Beaver Pond Glades were looking like on such a fine powder day. Only one way to find out I quipped! We hiked up above the Freezer so as not to duck any ropes and proceed to lay waste to untracked foot and a half boot deep freshies. Spectacular. We jumped into Beaver Pond and had an awesome time trying to find fresh lines in the exceptional powder.

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2005-2006 Season, Earned Turns, Jay Peak, November

Earned Early Season Turns at Jay Peak

Veterans’ Day Weekend typically signifies the start of the season for many Northeastern Ski Areas. The big players in the game including Killington, Bretton Woods, Okemo, and Sunday River usually aspire to appease the early season masses with Holiday Weekend skiing heading into mid-November. The freaky start to the 2005-2006 Ski Season continues as an abnormally warm weather pattern settled into New England for the first half of November. A brief cold spell allowed many ski areas, including Jay Peak, to begin snow making operations for the season.

Saturday morning I awoke with many doubts that the skiing possibilities being worth the required effort. After the big October storm roared through New England, many blow downs had occurred throughout the mountains which had me considering a hike into the local Backcountry to clean up some lines. I declined the nobler pursuit in deference to pure hedonism at Jay Peak based on their snow report and snow making operations. Jay was reporting 22 inches of new snow in the past four days. Despite the natural snow having melted, the man made base was indeed about 22 inches deep, and more!

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