Dejection at Jay

Jay Trees

Working three long and difficult work days while an epic storm impacted the entire northeast would have been miserable if I even had the time or presence of mind to dwell on the fact. But all of my energy was explicitly devoted to meeting an end of week deadline. I was so drained from three days of intensity that I took Saturday off from skiing to recuperate. The redemption for my toil would be a (supposed) powder day on Sunday. Maybe not as epic as the storms from this past week but a bone that would surely satisfy nonetheless.

Foolishly, I opted for Jay over Mad River Glen knowing full well that Jay would get less snow but also knowing that Jay would have more tolerable lines and better overall coverage. Sadly, I was mistaken on those counts.

The wind was honking and knocked the Freezer and Tram offline. Hoards of holiday skiers made cycling Tramside trails via the Metro Quad untenable despite the best snow being Tramside. The Bonnie and Jet were both besieged by Freezer-esque winds despite their fixed grip natures. And all for what? A dusting to two inches which did more harm than good as it fell on early season undulating terrain features, obscuring the reality of what lies beneath the surface.

And what did lie beneath the surface? It surely didn’t feel nor look like the most snow in New England. Many trails were blown and scraped down to their grassy bases in places, clearly displaying a lack of base depth. I hit rock and stump alike in open glades when not being thrown around like on a wooden roller coaster by the undulating terrain features. It may look like mid-winter but Jay is decidedly still skiing like early season despite the trail count.

Some might say that is a bit harsh. Jay is almost fully open during Christmas. “Remember last year?” But days within a season can not be properly juxtaposed against other seasons. I judge days against their peers. Perhaps my expectation of more snow set myself up for a disappointment. But once I got past that, the fact is that I just wasn’t having a good time. I hit the road after only a few runs.

And thank goodness I did

11 thoughts on “Dejection at Jay

  1. Why the big disparity in your report vs. their claim of 49 – 55″ past 6 days?

    With so many closed lifts, is everyone beating down the same few trails? If that’s the case, if I arrive mid week, welll…… use your imagination. Or am I just dreaming?

    Sorry to hear about the meeting. I am jailed down in a Mid Atlantic state myself. Expect liberation on 1/1 and I’ll soon be up thereafter. Happy new year!

  2. No doubt they got four feet in the past week. But it fell on trails and glades that lacked a base. And then they got pounced on by hoards of holiday week skiers and powder hounds. And then the wind picked up and dispensed of what remains.

    The picture I paint is colored by my less than rose colored glasses. There was ample packed powder abound across the mountain. The lack of base depth and coverage was only an intermittent and occasional problem, mostly confined to the steeper and harsher trails.

    Perhaps my desire to express conditions less than what the hype might suggest led me to post too harshly in the opposite direction…

  3. The report I got was that today was a “Jay day.” I think you’ll know what that means. My brother was really cheesed when he did the tuck and skate over to the Jet, only to find it closed. On a positive note, he did report that the hike to Andre’s was well worth the effort. I’ll be there Thursday and Friday, hope things settle down by then!

  4. hey guess what. Jay lies (along with pretty much all the rest, except maybe Burke and Cannon). cut everything they say they get in half, because half of the mountain is usually blue ice, so what ends up in the woods and lee trails may measure 40″, but is really 20 plus the 20 from where it got wind scoured.

    1. @BigWaveDave: Yup! Jay lies! No reason to go there, ever. I got skunked this time (by the weather, not by Jay itself) but I’ll remember this next time I think about going there and everyone else should as well! I’ve never scored boot to knee deep a few dozen times there, all lies. Thigh deep a half dozen times or so? My blog lies too.

      🙂

  5. A fair assessment. Derricks and Kitz are skiing quite well. Upper and Lower Powerline is in tough shape but still fun. JFK is a disaster – don’t they have snowmaking on a part of it? Lots of obstacles still in the woods…Canyonland has a lot of spruce wells lurking. The resorts a bit farther south have been skiing about the same.

    1. @skier: The issue with the snow making is they still haven’t made snow on most of their snowmaking trails. They opened most of their snowmaking trails without making any snow. And that is okay… but a lot of crap is sticking through. Skied MRG today (report coming soon) and found untracked and chopped up powder in the unmarked woods a day after the powder day. Signs said the woods were thin but overall, I found that they were very well covered and only one more storm from being fully chargeable. I’d give the MRV the edge for off map trees over Jay hands down.

  6. I think snow reporting has become more truthful over the last decade. Our place is at a similar elevation as our home mountain (Gore) and find the snow reporting to be very accurate. My only experience with Jay reporting was 3/2/11 when we skied what I thought was 8″ of new snow that Jay called 5. I spoke to Steve W about it and he said that he agreed the reported total was low.

  7. yeah they do lie. when 20% of your mountain is wind scoured to blue ice, you did not get 18-28. You got 0 to 28. not sure there is any gray area there. And why so hostile? Jay still gets the most snow in the east, no doubt. I have skied there on days when it snowed 18″ out of nowhere. Calm down bro, are you Bill Stenger?

    1. Sorry if my response came off as overly hostile. I meant it to be good natured ribbing. I am hardly Stenger… my report was down right mean about the conditions I experienced at Jay, to the extent that I admitting I might have gone a little over board. I fire back pretty hard when I read folks saying that Jay lies. Just because it all blows into the woods doesn’t mean they don’t get the snow they reported. But this happens at all ski areas so unless all ski areas report a minimum of 0″ when the wind blows, then I am not going to hold Jay to that standard. I’ve skied Jay several times when they unreported as well. I just don’t feel criticism of Jay’s reporting is valid. Just like with all reports, you need to read between the lines and understand the mountain.

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