Gulf of Slides contained stellar late season snow and yielded many fine runs. Evidence of massive slides was evident crossing the run out paths on the Gulf of Slides trail en route to Main Gully. Austin and a friend were also skiing the gully and we shared some fine turns.
After many weeks of anxious anticipation, the Mount Washington Auto Road finally opened to the summit this weekend to the delight of many a New England Skier. With exception of Left Gully and Airplane, the East Snowfield currently has the longest continuous vertical drop in New England for skiing. This bright, sunny, and hazy afternoon brought well over a hundred people to the East Snowfields to partake in a final farewell to winter in New England.
Plans to carpool up the auto road were scrapped yesterday due to logistical issues. Since my Saturn does not have low gear, it would not be allowed on the Auto Road. Believing that the Auto Road folks would not look kindly on my sticking a thumb out near the gate, I opted for a one way ticket setting me back $26 big ones. Plans were to either Hitch a ride or hike back down. Fortunately, I was offered a ride by a kind person which saved me the hike down. Since I paid for the lift, I am unsure if this afternoon qualifies for my “One Run for the Price of None Tour.” Doesn’t much matter about the payment as all the turns had to be earned regardless.
Crowds were already filling up the Snowfields upon my arrival at approximately 9:30 A.M. It did not take me long to realize that I had over packed, but without a car to base operations from and a potential hike down, I took no chances on over packing gear. I booted up practically laughing with glee; this looked like it would be damn fun.
With threats of precipitation, I made the early morning hour drive to Jay Peak (if 9AM can be considered early morning!). Views from Route 100 South and Route 242 West were not impressive. Turns were definitely to be had but not in abundance. I pulled almost everything out of my pack at the parking lot as the temperature was quite warm.
The Jet featured several broken patches, the largest one was just above the mid-point of the trail. Above this large patch, the snow pinched to climbers left, then broke apart before pinching climbers right and then pinching again climbers left. Essentially, there were two really small patches up top, a decent middle patch, and a nice wide open bottom patch. With exception of the bottom patch, most of the Jet was too broken up to get a good rhythm going. I did manage to only click out of my skis once on the descent from the top of The Jet.
Next I headed over to Haynes, which did not have as much vertical but did have much better continuous snow allowing for much more interesting skiing. Climbing up Haynes and the Jet after my last few climbs over on Washington was humorously easy in comparison. It is amazing how much steeper the most mellow slopes of Gulf of Slides and Tuckerman Ravine are in comparison to a typical black diamond pitch at a ski area. Turns down Haynes were fun but I did not have the heart for a third run. After the snow ran out on Haynes, I clicked out for a short hike and then skied over snow and grass until the snow ran out near the bottom of the trail. Desperation perhaps or just plain laziness. Or both.
Saturday May 29th found me running all over New England for Memorial Day Weekend festivities and moving errands. At 10 P.M., I found myself in my old apartment in Salem, Massachusetts cleaning the place up and dropping off the keys to the landlord. I was looking at a late night three hour drive home to Vermont which was not very appealing. Also, I was planning a run at Killington’s Superstar the following day. Killington being two hours away from St. Johnsbury had me doing over 12 hours of driving in a 24 hour window which was very unappealing. Fortunately, I had planned for the dilemma by already packing my gear and sleeping bag in my car. I saved a four hour round trip from St. Johnsbury by driving straight up to Killington that night and doing some car camping at Hotel Mobil.
Says the cashier when I walk into the store the next morning looking for breakfast: “Was that you sleeping in the car?” Says I: “Yes it was!”
Killington claimed that this past Sunday marked the end of the ski season for New England. Perhaps for lift serviced it was, but for the dedicated turn earning enthusiast, there is still much more skiing to be had this season.
It was a toss up between skinning up Killington or hiking up The Jet at Jay. With Killington twice as far away as Jay, Jay Peak seemed like the better option since this would be the last week snow would be remaining on The Jet. Got a late start leaving work at 4:30 P.M. despite planning on leaving 3:30 P.M. No worries though due to the late afternoon day light allowing for late evening turns.
Recent reports indicated that Can Am was decent and had linkable turns down to the terrain park. Warm and damp weather washed much of Can Am’s snow away. Can Am was still doable with a few brakes in the cover but given my late start and desire for continuous vertical, I opted for longest continuous vertical under the Jet triple. The Jet patch also looked rather elegant and aesthetically pleasing.