2006-2007 Season, December, Jay Peak

Horrible Conditions at Jay Peak

After an absolutely sensational day of hiking for powder at Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire, I returned to Jay Peak on my Season Pass for some truly aweful conditions. If I had more energy for another day of lift assisted turn earning, I would surely have returned to Cannon on Sunday. But my turn earning legs are still in early season form and my Season Pass to Jay provided free skiing despite the conditions.

While I was expecting conditions to be much worse than Cannon Mountain, I had not expected conditions at Jay to be horrible. Unfortunately, I was incorrect in my assessment. Jay Peak was charging $45 for a weekend lift ticket despite only having The Jet and Haynes open along with a pair of connecting trails back to the Tram Base and Condos. U.N. was reported open on the web site; however the Lower section of the trail was roped and looked terrible.

Crowds were slightly more manageable than the past two weekends due to the addition of Haynes, but conditions remain terrible overall, probably the worst since jay opened. The steep upper sections of both The Jet and Haynes were skating rinks. Many skiers and riders were throwing the planks sideways and holding on for dear life, occasionally taking some rather long slides. I took one run down Haynes which was in rough shape sporting extremely scraped conditions on the upper section. Next I decided to make use of the bumps under The Jet Triple Chair. The bumps were variable with inconsistent lines and occasional scraping and icy sections near the towers. It was enough to get my legs and blood pumping but not enough to be enjoyable or keep my interest level. After four runs, I decided to call it a day. Easy enough for me to take four runs on a season pass on only a two hour round trip drive. However, I would have hated to have driven any further and paid the full priced $45 weekend lift ticket. I suspect most folks at Jay had the two for one deal lift tickets or were part of the telefest and had discounts. Suffice to say, Jay needs more trails and more snow bad.

2006-2007 Season, Cannon Mountain, December, Powder Day

Powder Day Cannon Style: Earned Turns With Lift Assistance

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Damn, I love this mountain. Season Pass to Jay Peak be damned; when Cannon Mountain gets hammered with snow, I am there and paying for a lift ticket. Especially when said lift ticket is only $25.00! Granted the price of admission provides access to only one chair and one route down, but it cuts back substantially on time skinning up and allows for multiple summit trips. Cannon reported in with just over a foot of fresh snow, but my adventures to the summit of the mountain brought boot to knee deep powder snow on multiple runs suggesting either the wind deposited all the snow in all the right places or Cannon under reported what accumulated at the Summit. Given my runs from the summit were down untracked trails, I suspect no one bothered to measure snow depths on the upper mountain.

Despite having a Season Pass to Jay Peak and both ski areas reporting in a similar foot of fresh snowfall, my suspicion was that Cannon was going to have better terrain accessible by skinning. Also, lift serviced on the Peabody Quad servicing Ravine sounded much more fun and relaxing than Haynes and The Jet at Jay Peak on Telefest Weekend, not to mention the two for one email campaign that Jay Peak launched for this weekend. At Cannon Mountain, I found modestly crowded slopes but not over crowded like at Jay Peak the past two weekends. Additionally, snow quality was substantially better and never deteriorated and the Peabody Quad was ski on almost the entire day. If I choose Cannon over Jay Peak just to enjoy a single groomed run, I would have made a sound decision. But there would be much more skiing to be had at Cannon besides the Ravines.

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Articles, Ski Movies

A Review of Snow Gods by The Meatheads

Snow Gods
The Meatheads are a small and independent Ski Film production out fit from Burlington, Vermont. Snow Gods is the fifth DVD released by the Meatheads and continues the unique exclusive Northeast skiing focus. Despite a lack luster season, the Meatheads managed to put together a solid production including a variety of powder shots. But the film fails to offer substantial improvement from the previous year’s offering, Born From Ice. Regardless of comparison to past productions, Snow Gods is an excellent addition to any East Coaster’s ski video collection.

Snow Gods opens with scenes of rain and running water melting away sheets of ice. A fitting visual montage for the early months of the 2005-2006 ski season. Joe Morabito, who carries the movie with excellent powder and tree skiing, introduces the movie with a ski sacrifice to the Ski Gods during the latter days of a snowless January. While the Snow Gods did not respond immediately to the sacrifice, The Meatheads would find more than enough snow and powder eventually.

Since the rain and warm weather continued into February throughout New England, a small troupe of The Meatheads plotted a course to the Chic Chocs of Quebec on the Gaspe Peninsula. A variety of backcountry scenes ensue including some big mountain open bowl skiing, knee deep powder chutes, road side debauchery, and a side of hucks and jumps. Plenty of behind the scenes footage is included demonstrating that a trip to the Chic Chocs is just as much about the adventure and trip itself than the skiing. A few minutes of various natural and man made jib, rail, and park skiing end cap the Chic Choc segment before the movie switches gears to the highlight of the film at Jay Peak.

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2006-2007 Season, December, Jay Peak

Too Many People, Too Little Snow at Jay

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Day number nine for the season and my first December ski day was rather depressing yet filled with optimism. For every negative aspect of the afternoon, I was able to come away with a juxtaposed positive. The same lift and same trail as the previous week was open today with slightly less coverage but better snow conditions and less quality deterioration. The previous week saw The Jet open edge to edge for the most part with moguls and natural features under the Jet Triple Chair featuring soft loose snow. However, today there was no snow under the lift forcing a higher volume of sliders onto a smaller patch of snow.

Despite marginal and variable conditions ranging from scraped to soft piles to soft bumps to good cruising packed powder, conditions deteriorated much slower than the previous week. The Jet Triple was ski on all morning which would suggest low crowds, but even with ski on lifts, with only trail to choose from, The Jet quickly was over run with too many skiers. I was not happy with the lack of elbow room. Many skiers and riders were borderline out of control and the occasional slider crossed well passed the control line. One humerus incident involved a snow blader that slid face first down two hundred feet of The Jet.

Seeing snow guns firing on Lower Haynes and the connector trails towards Tramside was a welcome sight. Additionally, Jay Peak was caked with two inches of white stuff from the snow Saturday night. With cold air finally taking hold in New England and snow in the forecast, things are finally looking up in New England. After one of the worst early seasons in modern New England ski history, it is safe to say that the season has finally begun in earnest.

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2006-2007 Season, Jay Peak, November

Opening Weekend of the Season at Jay Peak

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Jay Peak opened for the season on Friday November 24th turning The Jet Triple Chair with The Jet as the only open trail. Due to family functions related to Thanksgiving, I could not make Jay’s opening day but was sure to get in on the action Saturday afternoon. After sleeping in and whacking off around the house in the morning, I got a late start and caught my first lift of the season around 10:30a. By then the top of The Jet had been scrapped down to a sheet of frozen snow that only the racers could cut an edge through. Lower Jet was in the sun light and offered decent fast carved turns. But the real action was under the lift on The Jet where I found loose snow, moguls, thin cover, and frozen balls and boulders of snow making sludge. An interesting mix to say the least. I took this option on all of my eight runs much to the dismay of my back and legs. First moguls of the year are always a bitter sweet experience. Even after seven days of earning turns, the first day working a mogul field uses completely different muscles and the earlier turn earning was no assistance in developing those muscle groups. Conditions under the lift were quickly deterorating after noon as most skiers of a proficient level realized that was were the nice soft snow was. By run number eight, the conditions had gone from suck to blow and my body was too sore for further punishment, so I called it a day. Day number eight marks the worst snow conditions I have skied to date this season and hopefully the worst snow conditions for the entire season, with any luck. The last four days have progressively gotten worse and it is no surprised that my first day of lift serviced skiing sucked so bad given the limited terrain and marginal snow making temperatures resulting in low quality faux sneaux. Despite having a pass to Jay Peak and living only one hour away from the mountain, I opted to take a hike in the White Mountains on Sunday. My first day of lift serviced skiing was just that bad.

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