Category: Jay Peak

2024-2025 Season, December, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Deliverance

Jay Trees

This week was the release from a short period of self-doubt, ambivalence, and frustration. Sometimes the best cure for a bad mental state is letting go and getting enough sleep. And powder. Lots of untracked powder.

If desire thuds to the ground like a dropped stone, then it is time to move on. But if desire returns like a boomerang, then it was meant to be. The desire certainly has returned.

I normally avoid Deliverance. Its steep, narrow chutes get tracked up after only a few skiers. It is a “first-chair-only” glade. But when the Bonnie isn’t running and there are no tracks, it is one of my favorite runs at Jay.

Boot deep gave way to knee deep, and then even deeper still. After exiting Deliverance onto Taxi, I knew that might become my best run of the season. This run will be hard to beat.

2024-2025 Season, December, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Deviate

“I think it is important to do hard things,” I said.

Concurrently, my inner dialog voiced a different narrative; suggesting that I deviate from the established plan. Mental gymnastics reasoned that changing goals is different than abandoning them.

This is part of the iterative process; eliminating the mental loopholes. You simply cannot reason with negative self talk. It is best to just go outside, be active, and sleep on it.

Boot deep untracked always helps, but it has its limits.

2023-2024 Season, April, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Jay: Early April is the New Early February

Yet again, this seems so familiar. The main-event uncrowded powder day at Mad River Glen the day before followed by over exuberant crowds and a slightly disappointing overnight snow total at Jay Peak. My ascent up route 242 was halted for 20-minutes while emergency vehicles tended to a spin out.

That is an usual thing to happen on Route 242 half-an-hour before opening. Part of the reason I arrive early is first tracks, but the other part is avoiding vehicle issues on Route 242. But the fun wasn’t over yet. When I got to the Stateside entrance, a truck going in the opposite direction spun out twenty feet in front of me.

Unlike the last storm, Jay Peak did not receive super massive crowds. But crowds were still way more than what the overnight snow totals justified. This was the day after the storm, not THE day. But today was still good and there was still a half foot plus of of super dense untracked.

It would all be mank by the afternoon, so I skied hard for the first few hours. While in the Orchard, myself and a few Quebecois’ers found the most sublime untracked snow on the mountain. Creamy and surfy, but only for about 100 feet. It was just the right aspect at just the right elevation. One of the other skiers bellowed “OH LA LA!”.

Indeed.

2023-2024 Season, Jay Peak, March

Jay: Outrageously Crowded

Off Map at Jay

The biggest multi-day snowstorm of the season wrapped up last night, but did not leave Jay the final foot that was expected. Overnight snow totals were a dusting to an inch, a total bust. But the word was out, the biggest storm of the season just hit Northern Vermont. And everyone too afraid to drive yesterday showed up today.

Lift lines quickly extended out past the queues and would soon form lines that I have only seen once before at Jay. For a meager inch on top of tracked up junk snow, it wasn’t worth it in the slightest. The crowds were over represented with decidedly lower level skiers. It was amateur hour. It was a shit-show.

When the lift line queues over flowed, I took off. But I had to push through hoards of folks still trying to get to the lifts hours after opening. The ticket line queue looked to be as long as the lift line queue. Leaving the Jet lot, cars were packed everywhere and still cars were trying to come in.

Employees were standing in the middle of Route 242 trying to direct traffic coming both ways. With all lots full, cars were being directed to the employee parking lot, busing guests back to the lodges. By the time I got home, JPR had long since posted an announcement online that there was no more parking, don’t come to the mountain.

All that for a dusting to an inch. Unbelievable.

2023-2024 Season, Earned Turns, Jay Peak, March, Powder Day

Jay: No Lifts, No Problem

Deliverance

I knew the wind would impact lift operations. So, I brought my touring gear and I fully expected to use it. Upon arrival, the wind was howling and it was bitterly cold. The lifts would never run.

Today was a rare resort touring day when I took the full measure of risks and consequences before I started skiing. Moving was required to keep the cold at bay. An injury would likely result in frostbite.

Due to the wind, conditions were variable from hard pack groomers to thigh deep bottomless untracked. It was challenging to figure out where to go, given so much of the mountain was bare ground and thin coverage before the storm. I started up Northway and decided to start with Can Am skier’s right.

Deliverance

Jackpot! Boot to knee deep untracked, and a bit of shelter from the wind. Very nice. I skinned back up via to Northway and headed to the top of the Jet. I opted to ski the Jet where I found thigh deep drifts in between groomed hard pack. It was worth dealing with the intermittent groom as the dense powder was insane when I hit a drift.

It was so nice, I decided to head back up and ski Haynes. It was very similar with a bit less drifting but more consistent powder and fewer groomer breaks. My legs were getting tired and I knew that I only had one more run left. I headed back up Northway to the top of the Bonnie and dropped into Deliverance.

As usual, the trees are the best on wind blown powder days. I rarely ski Deliverance as its narrow upper sections get skied off really quickly most days. But today, I had it all to myself and it was sensational. The last three months have been brutal, no doubt. But knee deep days don’t happen every season. This surely makes up for things, at least a little bit.

Deliverance