A decent course with more turns than normal on Twister. The team did well but we were missing one of our Ringers so the points were not as high as they could have been. But we maintained our position in the league despite the lack of a key racer.
Competition for untracked lines has never been higher in New England. The ever elusive top to bottom completely untracked run is a rare thing at most New England resorts and ski areas. Those skiers and riders that often enjoy lots of untracked lines show up early with detailed knowledge of the mountain and its secrets. Fat skis have made powder skiing more accessible to more skiers than ever before. Boundaries are being pushed and novelty comes at a premium. The result is even the tight trees of New England are mostly tracked out by noon time on a powder day.
The lack of adequate untracked powder skiing shows the disconnect between supply and demand. Conditions that are deemed fun are often in high demand as advanced and expert skiers and riders shun the frozen groomed hard pack surfaces available from most lifts. With quickly disappearing untracked on the slopes, expert skiers and riders have taken to the woods in droves. On map glades, thinned out off map glades, and natural skiable trees all hold powder snow much better than on piste slopes. While the off map glades and trees are also lesser known, any powder hound can snuff out all but the most hidden gems after having seen the patterns these glades and tree options follow.
As competition increases, untracked lines have increasingly begun to favor the early bird. One advantage of being a Jay Peak skier is most less dedicated souls from the flatlands can not get out of bed early enough to make first chair. But this is true at any mountain, though Jay’s distance makes the discrepancy between first chair and 10:30 Johnny Come Lately’s all the more prominent. Early birds track up the on piste, followed by the on map glades, and are just starting to move into the off map trees before most metro skiers even arrive at the lodge, much less arrive at the lifts. Early start times and knowledge of the mountains have never been more important for the dedicated powder hound.
Competition will continue to increase as ability, desire, knowledge, and equipment all develop and allow more people more access to great snow conditions. Ten years ago, relatively minor mountain snowfall up to a foot went largely under the radar. But today, internet forums, official web pages, and weather forecasters build up a few inches several days outside the actual event. Upslope snowfall never mentioned on metro television weather forecasts can be accurately predicted days in advanced making weekend powder days a crowded party rather than a solitary epic. The ultimate weapon of the powder hound still remains flexibility of schedule and ability to ski mid-week via what ever means necessary. The lifestyle, career, and family choices skiers and riders make will dictate their relative level of success in scoring big powder days and untracked lines if more proven options such as first chairs, knowledge of the mountain, and mid-week vacation days are not available.
This was certainly unexpected. During the week, Jay picked up two feet of fresh powder over the course of five days. These small snow falls mostly isolated along the spine of the Northern Green mountains added up through the course of the week. Friday through Saturday morning brought another foot bring Jay’s seven day total up to three feet. Surely most of the snow prior to Friday night’s eight inches would be tracked out. Surely I could not hope to find boot to knee deep powder on Saturday morning?
With only a half day of skiing scheduled due to a late afternoon call into work, I spent the majority of the drive from Ashland to Jay deciding whether I should skin up Big Jay where I would find a guaranteed three feet of untracked or risk a morning of skiing Jay Peak where I figured I might find a foot of fresh in isolated pockets. The decision came as I entered the town of Jay and stopped to buy a sub, I was going to skin Big Jay. Or was I? Rounding the bend as I approached the Jay Peak Resort entrance, I saw moderately deep looking tracks on Jet and Haynes. I couldn’t risk a potentially big day lift serviced for only one big run of earned turns. It was on.
Last night Jay Peak received its third six inch snow fall in less than one week. Blower powder does little to help build and refreshen base, but it is sensational to ski. So despite the powder, a scratchy base, icy in some places, still remains. Untracked lines abound due to sparse crowds and low levels of competition. Six inches was the minimum but sections of boot to knee deep untracked could be found in some tree slots that where not skied since the Monday storm.
After spending my first two hours skiing off The Jet, I began wondering where were the crowds? Yesterday was the first day of a Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend and lift lines for The Jet were a five to ten minute wait the day before. I soon realized what caused the lack of crowds. The completely unthinkable had occurred: so called skiers and riders had decided that staying warm and watching a football game were more important than skiing powder on a near bluebird day. As they say, it takes all types. And thank goodness because I skied onto every lift all day and usually rode solo as a single skier. I wish to extend a special “Thank You” to everyone that normally would have skied today but decided that a football game was more important.
Today and yesterday were a world apart. Saturday was good but the crowds were horrid and the untracked went fast. Certainly a fun day of skiing but nothing special. Today I was hitting boot to knee deep untracked at noon time and got a minimum of six inch untracked lines every run with no competition and no lines. With generally cloudless blue skies, 6-18″ untracked on every run (right up to my last run at 1:30), and no competition… the one word that kept coming to mind was “satisfying.”
The decision makers and the backcountry community would do well to reconsider the access restriction as the best policy to prevent skiers and riders from accessing the illegal cut on Big Jay. Both parties could learn a lot from the opposing point of view and perhaps conclude neither extreme is appropriate. Policy does need to be in place to protect the scar but a complete restriction of access does not accomplish the desires of either group. This sets up a situation in which moral and ethical backcountry skiers respecting the restriction are effectively punished through restricted access while rule breakers are effectively rewarded with nearly perfect untracked snow conditions and exciting descents.
One of the arguments made by the decision makers is the belief that the skiing and riding community can not self police. Essentially, renegades would ski the scar if access was not restricted. My initial reaction was that, without an attempt at education and alternative solutions, this policy is a self fulfilling prophecy . Especially noteworthy is the fact that restricting access to Big Jay via the Saddle has garnered attention and media coverage that has put a big fat bulls eye on Big Jay and the scar for less ethically inclined skiers and riders. It would be ironic if the decision makers, including the GMC, JPR, and VDFPR, brought about increased risk of skiers and riders sliding down the scar by restricting access.
On December 28th, TheSnowWay.com published Alternative Solutions to Big Jay Closure which listed alternative solutions to restricting access with the ultimate goal of protecting regrowth and regeneration of the scar in mind. Here is a quote from that article:
The community that attended the Big Jay meeting on December 15th was offered no opportunity for partnership, engagement, or participation in the process. The director of Jay Peak Ski Patrol noted that the decision makers were essentially “treating the community like babies.” Without a positive outlet for contribution to making the situation better through collaboration, it seems likely that many members of the community will reject the access restriction this season (proposed without an expected expiration date, essentially an indefinite restriction).
The likely result of the current situation is that the scar might likely be skied just to spite the powers that be. And while that may bode poorly for the long term community, the decision makers should not see individual short comings on values, principles, and morals as anything more than individuals without positive alternatives and partnerships deciding they have nothing to loose. A bad situation has been created by dictation rather than partnership, trust, and collaboration.