Jay Peak is one of those New England mountains that has a dedicated and rabid following. They preach to any who will listen about how much snow and powder Jay receives and how great the glades are. If you are looking for big powder in the East and lots of Glades, then Jay Peak is definitely worth the trip! If glades and powder are not your thing, then Jay Peak doesn’t offer enough to justify the drive.
For this trip, I did not yet ski well in powder or glades. Skiers that love powder and glades must have been unhappy on the Monday I journeyed to distant Jay Peak. Jay Peak was groomed everywhere it seemed. Only a couple of choice bump trails were left alone by the groomers, much to my disappointment.
In the morning, I skied lookers right side of the mountain via the Tram and High Speed Quad. The snow was extremely fast, and the groomed snow had occasional thin cover/scrapped sections. Most trails on the right side drop into an extremely flat run out. A great place to practice a tuck for five minutes. Marked on the trail map as a blue square (perhaps because of the occasional patch of trees in the middle of the trail), this run out wore me out rather quickly. The entire bottom half of the mountain is very flat, which unfortunately makes for long flat run outs.
Before lunch, I got my fill of bumps under the Bonaventure Quad. These bumps were huge! A legitimately tough top to bottom bump run, the bumps were piled up high with deep trenches in between. Occasional scraped and thin cover to boot. This trail wore my out, and made for an early lunch.
After lunch, a ride up the tram and a run down the east face brought me to the Jet Triple area. Here I encountered my favorite terrain in nicely pitched black diamonds off the Triple. By now, with the sun at full force, trails were starting to soften up. Temperatures probably reached high 40s to 50 that afternoon, and the snow showed it. It started to become legit Spring Skiing mashed potato snow.
All in all, Jay Peak has weathered this abysmal winter just as good, if not better than most resorts due to its location. However, Jay could sure use some more snow! In all honesty, it probably would really help them if they turned their snow guns on again. Cause if we do not get more snow soon, not even Jay will be skiing far into April (if skiing into April at all!).
Overall, Jay Peak was not my type of mountain when I originally went on this day. Jay truly has the best Glade skiing in the East… tree patches open up literally everywhere you look. But for someone who is not a Powder or Glade buff, Jay Peak will be a severe disappointment as it was during my first visit. Since that first visit, I have spent four years developing my powder and tree skiing technique and now these are the conditions I live for. So much so that Jay Peak was my Season Pass pick for the 2006-2007 Season. Truly a love it or hate it mountain, but opinions can change over time.