Big Jay Coverage

Big Jay News & Info from Northern Frontier Section of GMC

The Northern Frontier Section of the Green Mountain Club has two pages dedicated to Big Jay news on their web site. The first page is a collection of articles from various New England media about the cutting. The second link is a collection of articles from Long Trail News, an official publication of the Green Mountain Club. President Richard Windish has somewhat harsh words stating that “We will avenge Big Jay.” Whether this should be meant to suggest punishing the two individuals responsible for the cutting or something in a more broader scope is not clarified.

Big Jay Coverage

CTA Newsletter Weighs in on Big Jay Issue

Vermont’s Catamont Trail Association’s latest newsletter contains an article by Peter Wadsworth, a Green Mountain Club Volunteer, about the cutting on Big Jay. The article on page 9 of the winter 2007-2008 Catamount Trail News considers the negative impact of public perception on the backcountry skiing community. This topic is of great concern to downhill backcountry and slackcountry skiers that were dismayed and appalled by the Big Jay cutting. It should come as no surprise that nordic and touring skiers also want to distance themselves from the cut on Big Jay. The article is welcoming of downhill backcountry skiers into organizations like the CTA and suggests that partnership and education are needed tools to ensure this type of destruction does not occur again.

Big Jay Coverage

Atkinson Calls Out the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy

Author and Sugarbush local John Atkinson weighs in on the Big Jay incident and the need for organization and legal tree line creation and maintenance in the October edition Vermont Sports Online. Atkinson specifically addresses the current unspoken code of “don’t ask, don’t tell” that specificies not using chain saws or other intrusive cutting methods and relying on discovery or being shown secret tree shots. Atkinson suggests that this current unspoken code is tacit approval of illegal operations and draws a direct relationship between such tacit approval and the Big Jay cut.

It is highly unlikely that the backcountry and slackcountry tree skiing and riding population will stop skiing illegally maintained lines to make a point of solidarity for organized and legal efforts and in objection to the Big Jay cut which most have vehemently denounced. The article suggests opting for legal and legitimate tree line maintenance options until the community can organize and follow in the paths of other recreational pursuits such as mountain biking and snowmobiling which work closely with both state and national forest services.

Big Jay Coverage

Online Chatter About Big Jay and BC Organization

Internet forums have been buzzing with chatter regarding the recent closure of Big Jay and the need for organization within the eastern backcountry community. The Big Jay cut and subsequent closure has been a catalyst for discussion on an issue that most skiers and riders would have dismissed out of hand previously. Organization could lead to public knowledge of hidden stashes and a reduction of cutting illegal lines. But it could also pave the way for legitimizing eastern backcountry/sidecountry tree skiing and allow for legal maintenance of official trees and perhaps some new lines to be cut legally.

Here are links to online forums that have sprouted discussion of the Big Jay issue along with discussion about the legality of tree lines and backcountry organization in general. Interestingly enough, almost without exception the entire skiing community (both backcountry and lift serviced) have come out strongly against the illegal cut (even those backcountry skiers that partake in skiing glades thinned out illegally). Green Mountain Club and the State of Vermont should take note that extremely few skiers and riders think this scar is a good thing. The threads from Time For Tuckerman and Telemark Talk entitled “BC Access…. Is this the time to organize in the Northeast?” are especially insightful.

AlpineZone.com Forums

First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine

NELSAP Discussion on Snow Journal

SkiVT-L

Telemark Talk

Teton Gravity Research

Time for Tuckerman

2007-2008 Season, Ashland Back Side, December, Powder Day

Crazy Boot to Knee Deep Back Side Skiing

Sensational boot to knee deep untracked powder was found today in Ashland, NH of all places. Two runs were made, each consisting of approximately four to five sensational powder turns. When life gives you snow and you have some time to kill and an fifty foot drop off your back porch, ski off the back side and rack up some powder vertical while the neighbors look on in disbelief!