Category: Powder Day

2016-2017 Season, Earned Turns, Jay Peak, November, Powder Day

Jay: Racer Ready

Steve on Racer

It was still snowing when I left Jay Peak yesterday and temperatures were forecasted to remain below freezing. So I had no reason to suspect conditions would deteriorate overnight. But I quickly discovered during my skin up Goat that the snow had been wind blasted into a crust. The snow was oreo cookie like: crust on dust on crust.

My plan was to ascend Goat and evaluate options including some combination of Poma Line, Upper Ullr’s, or JFK using Weddlemaster as a skin track back to Alligator Alley with a final descent down Green Mountain Boys (which had treated me well the day before). But the crusty snow only got worse the higher I went.

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2016-2017 Season, Earned Turns, Jay Peak, November, Powder Day

Jay: Milk to GMB

Green Mountain Boys

A decent sized crowd of skinners (for Jay) fanned out from Stateside Lodge. I opted for Wiggle to Hell’s Crossing to Northway for the ascent. Snow depths varied from bare ground to deep drifts. The wind clearly had its way with Jay as it usually does. Conditions appeared to favor wind sheltered areas. I was thinking about skinning to Can Am but assumed it wouldn’t ski well due to being massively exposed. I started my first descent down Upper Milk Run. If Milk Run skied well, I would skin back up and around to Can Am. If not, I’d head to “greener” pastures.

Turns were very nice on Milk Run but the snow didn’t feel like the foot and a half four day total. Following the flow of the trail, I skied the best that Milk Run had to offer. It was a solid untracked powder run but produced less excitement than anticipated. At the bottom of Upper Milk, I looked up Wiggle and down Taxi and ultimately decided on skiing down Taxi and catching the skin track up Goat.

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2015-2016 Season, February, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Jay Peak Powder Day: Pics Or It Didn’t Happen

Today was the tenth day and first powder day of my season. During an average season, I would have had at least that many powder days and more than double that many total days by the end of February. But this is not an average season. And today was not an average powder day.

I was only expecting a few inches, just enough to soften things up. But instead, Jay got coated in eight amazing inches. The dense snow felt bottomless even though I knew it wasn’t. I thought I might go an entire season without a powder day. But I finally got one. Perhaps my only one of the entire season.

Powder days have been so exceedingly rare this season that you might ask for pics or not believe that it happened. It did happen but I can’t prove it. After booting up, I looked at the zipped top pocket of my bag where I store my camera. And then I looked away and started walking towards the door.

I was sitting on the Jet having singled up with a father and his son. They were talking most of the ride about skiing. But then the father pulled out his phone and started typing. His son desperately tried to get his attention but the father continually asked for, no, insisted on silence so he could futz around with his device. He was out of the moment, momentarily oblivious to his surroundings, intentionally unaware of what deserved his full attention.

Today wasn’t about documenting and reporting. It wasn’t about trying to capture the conditions or available lines in ones and zeros. Today was about skiing hard, being in the moment, and treasuring each untracked turn. Every fucking one of them. I didn’t need a picture to remember today. How could I ever forget?

2014-2015 Season, February, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Jay: Regarding Expectations, Consistency, & Surprises

Jay Woods

Jay has taught me to always keep my expectations in check. High expectations can lead to disappointment even when conditions are better than average. And some of my fondest days are those that I expected less than stellar conditions.

But today I got exactly what I was expecting, yet another six inch powder day. A base that never seems to fully consolidate off piste. Never ending packed powder with frequent but never substantial reloads. Without the highs and the lows, we just experience a dull constant. A few inches here, a few inches there. It is nice but never epic.

This is the season of the ho-hum powder day.

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