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Jay has retained impressive coverage considering the past month’s weather. As many lifts were running as there were available routes (read routes, not trails) which is in sharp contrast to typical late season operations at most other areas. But Jay’s setup neccesitates the number of lifts due to its horizontal spread out nature.

Available routes included Northway off the Tram, Goat and Green Mountain Boys off the Bonnie, and Jet, Haynes, and Motrealer/Wiggle off the Jet. Snow ran out at the end of Wiggle about 50 feet shy of the Bonnie (which was required to get to Tramside). There was no snow between Stateside and the Jet which required a walk  (but that is to be expected this time of year). Other than those two hiking aspects, all open trails were wall to wall coverage with no bare spots excepting parts of the bump line under the Jet.

Jay got some snow this weekend and it was snowing/sleeting when arrived at the mountain. Snow conditions were loose wet granular. Fairly decent skiing though the fog made for low visibility. Goat was promoted to a black run per signs as it was rather slick. Other than the small bump line under the Jet, there are no moguls which was a little disappointing. But given the weather, I will take good snow conditions on groomers over a barely skiable bump run.

Jay has plenty of snow for the next weekend and I am sure they can do two more weekends. Three though, might be a stretch but they are planning on staying open until the first weekend in May.

Sometimes even the best laid plans are not completely fool proof. It seemed like a no brainer at the time. Twenty inches in three days with seven of those inches falling the evening before an upper mountain lift hold at Jay. Temperatures plummeted into the single digit mark and most metro area skiers and riders had no idea that almost two feet of new snow had fallen in Northern Vermont immediately following the massive wash out last weekend. I was not expecting a jackpot and I was expecting some wind buff. My expectations were not high but they were definitely in the “powder day” realm of thinking for sure.

Only a dozen skiers were lined up for first tram which was eerie to say the least. I chalked it up to the cold and afore mentioned metro rain bias. But I soon learned that it was not those who missed first tram that were the fools. Rarely do I ride the tram and only started at Tramside due to my ticket requiring a visit to the Customer Service desk. I decided to start my morning with a rarity of sorts for me and that is the normally sure shot first tracks in the Beaver Pond area.

En route to Beaver Pond, I spied some wind buffed powder on the edge of the fast hard pack and I pounced. And I tip dove and ejected. “Nothing more than cold legs on a cold day,” I told myself. But three turns into Beaver Pond, I had difficulty on a turn, caught some foliage sticking up through the snow, and lost a ski. Hum. The snow was beyond simply being wind buffed. It was slab wind buffed with one to two inches of firm breakable slab on top of the wind buff. Breaking through the slab was variable from turn to turn creating a dire need for anticipating inconsistency. I quickly checked my speed and my ego and decided to take things in the trees very slowly. By the time I exited Beaver Pond, I was not deterred but rather determined to find the wind protected aspect the escaped the wind.

Alas, it was not to be found any where today at Jay Peak. (more…)

One route at Sunday River for $39, three routes at Killington for $49, or two routes earned for free at Jay. Gee wiz, I think I will see what is behind door number three, please!

Unfortunately, not much. This is a tough weekend for the desperate unless you want to buy over priced lift tickets for extremely limited products at Sunday River or Killington.

The price at Sunday River increased by over 50% without any increase in product. Needless to say, the law of supply and demand is in full effect. And who can blame them for doing so? When lift lines are backing up into double digit wait times and beyond, they obviously have enough demand to justify increasing the prices to increase profitability and put out a better product.

As for Killington, suffice to say I would not pay $50 for half of their trails open let alone two runs off the North Ridge Triple and Bunny Buster. Bretton Woods also opened one bunny trail for a $10 donation to charity. The options were not looking very promising for lift serviced.

So I turned my attention towards Jay.

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Original plan was a trip to Tuckerman. Almost a foot of snow on Wednesday into Thursday with high avalanche conditions throughout much of the ravine put that plan aside straight out. Earning turns at Cannon was a backup option. Ultimately, Sled and I decided to hit Jay for some lift service instead. I have not really given Jay high marks on spring skiing. I will eat my words as I obviously have never hit Jay on a good spring day. Today was simply stellar.

We started at the Jet lot which had ticket service and bathroom service only. Walking was required to get to the Jet which provided the only Stateside lift service (as was to be expected this late in the season). Stateside trails that have snowmaking were all wall to wall top to bottom coverage with only a few bare spots on non-snowmaking trails. Essentially, unbelievably good coverage for this late in the season.

We warmed up on Jet and Haynes which were already starting to cook and get chewed up by late morning but still provided great turns. Followed that up with Derick with much the same, ducking into Timbuk which still had ample coverage but not what we were looking for. Next up was bumps on Kitzbehuel. UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLY GOOD. Awesome lines with just a little weirdness where the trail pinches below the split. These bumps were better than anything at Stowe last week or Bush four weeks ago. Sweet. U.N. was also bumped up as was the liftline under Jet and Can Am for your Stateside bumps.

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Saturday was the culmination of a week featuring frequent snow and brutally bitter cold. Jay received a few characteristic inches overnight but not enough to call it a powder day. Stateside only received about two inches and riding the Jet Triple was an exercise in self discipline. After a few runs on the Jet, I gave the Bonnie a try and found the ride fairly wind free (even coming over the ridge above Liftline). Dropping into Liftline from the top and dropping the cliff, I found a few more inches of tracked up fresh, perhaps up to four inches, on top of previously hammered in bumps. Despite the fresh and having found a wind free lift, my energy was non-existent and the cold had seriously gotten into my bones. So I decided to call it an early day just as the hordes began massing at the lift.

Not bad, not bad at all. What a difference a week makes. Last week at Jay just sucked. That day last week will probably be my worst ski day of the season. But today… it was all good! Not good as in a two foot powder day (which was two days ago) but good as in “damn, three days after the storm and I am still finding some untracked” good.

Some tree shots still need more snow to cover up the sticks. But we are back to where we were before the Christmas melt down. Perhaps even a little better. On map glades were packed and tracked and bumped per expectations. Off map trees ranged from breakable wind slab foot plus deep (meh) to buckle/boot deep occasional untracked (lots of bush thwacking required). The cut up and tracked up powder in the woods skied very well and had some fluff factor.

Nothing to rave about… just another typical day at Jay that I have come to expect when there is no pow left to be had at most other areas. I brought my skins but was tired and sore and wanted to save some juice for tomorrow’s romp at Magic, so I opted to cut out at lunch time and save my legs for Sunday. No crowds to speak of. Last run I went out to the D and hoofed it back. It was surprisingly tracked out already but still some quality snow. Low angle BC is probably sensational right now.

Ugh. UGH. UUUUUUUGH. UUUUUUUGLY.

This is a complete and total repeat of early January 2007. Thankfully, we have a much deeper base than early January 2007 so a recovery should happen fairly quickly after two big storms. It is going to take at least two feet to get conditions we experienced at Jay in mid-December.

A few inches (three on average, sometimes more sometimes less) covered up all the crap nastiness on the natural snow trails. Instead of helping non-groomed trails, the fresh snow made things worse because you couldn’t tell where the crap was located. I did two quick low angle glade options and decided to stick to the groomers for the rest of the day.

Not that things were much better on the groomers. Frozen groomer tracks and real legitimate ice all over the map. Tramside skied significantly better than Stateside, though Goat had some pretty nasty looking sections.

I met up with some friends and we banged out three down Ullr’s Dream before I left at 11:30am. Ullr’s had the best conditions of the day. If I hadn’t met up with some friends, I would have been out of there an hour and a half sooner after only three runs. Definitely worst conditions of the season so far.

Difficult decisions were made last night regarding plans for today. But ultimately, I think the best decision was made despite wanting for the most powder. Southern locations scored more snow than northern locations during the Friday storm, which had me leaving a foot of fresh in central New Hampshire to ski in only a half foot of fresh in Northern Vermont. However, the snow that fell was the lightest form of blower possible and fell on minimal base which essentially made the powder worthless except for one or two runs in central New Hampshire areas such as Ragged and Gunstock (Tenney remains closed this weekend). Desiring to retain my Ski Vermont tickets for later in the season, I also by passed Sugarbush and Killington so I could return to them later in the season when their terrain is fully open.

Uncrowded slopes was the other aspect I banked on in deciding to ski Jay today and I hit the jackpot with ski on chairs all morning. Between the lingering effects of last week’s ice storm and central/southern Vermont receiving more snow than northern Vermont, most Stateside skiers did not have Jay Peak on the map. Which translates into untracked snow on every run.

Trees are continuing to fill in with many of my favorite lines available but with caution. I took two spills today courtesy of hidden stumps and snow snakes. So full on tree skiing is still out of the question. But most trees are skiable though some bush whacking may be involved as not all obstacles are buried yet.

I worked the Jet Triple for the entire morning making tracks exclusively in the trees and on the run outs. One particular area came into play very nicely this weekend which I lapped numerous times. On a few occasions, I nailed untracked snow from both Friday and Saturday which was about eight to ten inches total. One sensational boot deep and perhaps deeper drift really made my day. Should be fully tracked out for Sunday skiers but another storm arrives Sunday night for a foot and a half of fresh with more on the way later this week. Look for Jay to be at or nearly 100% open for Christmas depending upon if the Face, Tux, Staircase, and Everglade have enough base depth or not.

Jay Peak not only survived the ice storm and mixed precipitation earlier this week that plagued most of New England’s ski areas, but rather thrived in receiving a really good heaping of wrap around snow on top of a bomber base. While Jay did receive a little mixed precipitation that formed some minor breakable crust, a solid eight inches in favorable areas without crust was retained for a fantastic powder day.

My plan of attack was all wrong due to forgetting that only the Jet Triple ran on Friday leaving much of the mountain serviced by the Bonnie untracked. I got going stateside by ducking into a half dozen off map tree shots that yielded respectable cover but only two inches of untracked. After three rides on the Jet, I hopped on the Bonnie to explore the other side of the drainage.

Much to my surprise, a lone skier made his way down Liftline in nearly boot deep untracked! What the hell was going on? From the chair, I noticed a few tracks down Can Am as well. Sure enough, those trails had been “reserved”. And with good reason. A non-breakable crust had developed on the upper section of Can Am. But bellow that was a breakable crust yielding more than half a foot. I made second tracks down Liftline which was a delightful romp featuring around eight inches of untracked alternating between fluffy powder and a slight crust layer depending on angle and aspect.

Sure as a powder hound knows he’s missing a party, Liftline was completely tracked up on my next trip up the Bonnie. Upper River Quai to Buckaroo yielded nice cut up pow with some untracked along the edges. That was followed by a generally tracked up Vertigo to Buckaroo. Next I dropped into Deliverance via the second of the four chutes to generally good snow conditions with a few stumps and rocks still hiding. Not a bad go, but not ready for prime time. The mellower section bellow the chutes yielded alternating slots of sloppy seconds and some untracked. Sah-weet!

I finished up my last lap on the Bonnie by checking into some of my favored woods stashes and found they were not quite ready yet. And I finished the day on a Jet run that yielded more woods not quite ready yet but almost.

Currently, I would estimate almost a full half of Jay’s trees are cautiously ready for most tree skiers. Speed and full out attack mode are not recommended even for the filled in lines which occasionally sport stumps and dead fall not yet covered. Lots of sticks still covering up all but the most well cleared out lines but so much is doable right now. However, there is still quite a bit not yet ready for prime time. Beggars can’t be choosers two weeks prior to Christmas weekend… this season is just getting started!

After only two weeks of operation, Jay has all of its lifts online with exception of the Bonaventure Quad. This weekend marked the first day of operations for the Freezer and the Tram. And it showed! Operations for the Freezer were suspended mid-day due to mechanical problems and unloading from the tram required a monstrous hurdle of nearly two feet to reach the unload platform from the tram car. Operations for all lifts were delayed by 45 minutes while two groomers worked out the handle tow area in front of the lodge. To say full operations got off to a shaky start would be an understatement.

Once things were under way, it did not take me long to identify the best snow. The Kokamo/Ull’rs run out was horrendous and not worth the effort to ski any trails that dumped down into that run out. The best snow fell under and to skier’s right of the Freezer. Most notably Expo Glade which had received significantly more snow than any where else on the mountain. Occasional boot deep with deeper drifts were found though the entire mountain averaged closer to two to three inches. My run of the day was Upper River Quai to Expo Glade to The Flash.

Else where on the mountain, Stateside was fully tracked out with hard pack bumps in the glades. Off map tree shots were definitely not ready for prime time and difficult to navigate safely. Any run out trail that had not yet received snow making featured waterbars, ice, groomer chunks, and worse but did allow generally safe passage despite the leg burning. Jay officially opened almost 50 trails. However, all but perhaps a dozen of their steepest and rockiest selections could be safely skied which is tremendous for the first week in December.

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Following a solid week of seasonably cold weather, Jay Peak opened for the weekend prior to Thanksgiving with the Jet and Haynes from the Jet Triple. Despite wanting to get an early start to pick up my season pass and still make first chair, I was delayed at home by half an hour. This proved to be a blessing in disguise.

After obtaining my season pass at the Customer Service desk, I made my way over to Stateside and booted up. Soon after grabbing my skis, I discovered the Jet Triple was down and being evacuated. So arriving late may have just saved me from a frosty wait high above the Jet and being evac’d from the chair. Cool.

After a warm up run down the Jet, I began my hunt for natural snow and perhaps some powder. Derick Hot Shot was nearly completely tracked out from the day before and rather thin but still a great natural snow run. It would have been well worth my four hour round trip drive for Derick alone.

But I soon met up with Scott and went exploring. We found boot deep untracked and milked it for all it was worth. Drifts up to the knees and higher were found in wind loaded areas. We took a half dozen runs together before calling it a day.

Today was a great start to the lift serviced season. While not on par with last year’s tremendous November, any time I can ski boot deep untracked in November is certainly better than average and an experience to remember. Game on!

Lots of options were on the table today. But with the lifts closed on Friday, I figured Jay would be the best pick despite the anticipated crowds. And holy moly were there crowds. This weekend was a “Perfect Storm” of sorts. No major powder days since March 1st, almost two feet of Fresh snow heading into the weekend, lifts not spinning on Friday, early Easter Holiday weekend that usually does not come into play during April Easters, Downhill Race on Haynes (after two postponements), etc. Add in the Tram not running until noon and the Flyer not running at all and you have a recipe for the longest lines I have ever experienced at Jay. The singles line on the Bonnie extended to the second lift tower and there was a ten minute wait for the Metro Singles line at one point. Tram car waits were reported to be four or five cars. So, was it worth it?

The rush hit earlier than normal, but I was able to get in an hour and a half of competition free pick your line powder festivities before the crowds arrived. Since it stopped snowing yesterday, the wind did its thing and leveled out most of the snow into a super dense wind slab. I was glad to have my fat skis today for sure! Nailed some sensational boot to knee deep early. Boot deep was the general rule for the untracked. Decidedly not as deep, soft, or good as yesterday’s earned turn powder in the same locations thanks to wind over night without any new snow.

Things looked bleak with no Tram and no Flyer at noon time but I soldiered on despite the crowds. I would have been quite alright with those lifts not running had it not been for the lines. Full cycles from the Bonnie to Tramside were taking around 45 minutes but yielded boot deep untracked late into the day. I quit at 2pm despite having just hit yet another section of untracked woods late in the day. But the lines were beyond my tolerance level at that point and I had already taken my fill. Had the Flyer come online sooner, I might have stuck around but the chairs were not even on the line at 2pm and the Bonnie singles line was back to the second lift tower again.

Lines aside the skiing was sensational despite the extremely wind slabbed snow. Base depths extremely deep at this point. It feels like early season in the woods again due to the constant need to cross block branches with poles. Instead of blocking trees not yet buried, we are instead blocking high branches that normally do not come into play! Canopy levels are getting into head chopping range. Some downed trees and bent limbs also made normally open lanes tighter than normal.

Headed up to Jay on Friday with moderately reasonable hopes that at least one of the Stateside lifts would turn (probably the Jet). Despite hopes of a late afternoon opening, it was not to be. Friday could have been my best day of the season had the lifts spun. It was still sensationally epic skiing none-the-less.

We skinned up Meadows to Wiggle where the game planning began and continued to evolve. Skiing would involve dropping down to the flats and yo-yo’ing whatever looked good. Several tree options provided sensational knee deep powder with more face shots than I could shake a skinny touring ski at. One particularly wind favored section saw me sinking below my croch for a few turns. We ascended to the top of the Jet twice and Kitz Woods was the best I had ever skied it. We made a poor selection on the next run off the Jet sliding into an area that was severely wind buffed and not protected. The wind directions seemed to change throughout the day so it was not easy predicting what areas would offer good skiing.

We got in four runs on some of the deepest snow of the season. Knowing I had two more days this weekend and probably a rather demanding Saturday, I decided to call it quits before my legs completely gave up. The snow was dense wind blown with some mammoth drifts in places. No regrets on the decision to ski and earn turns at Jay Peak which received two feet of snow compared to other Vermont resorts that had lifts turning with half as much or less powder.

Today was a dust on crust special at Jay Peak. All the three inch untracked powder you want with little competition if you did not mind bottoming out on a frozen hard packed base. My feelings predicted that things would be fairly nice this morning with a few inches of fresh. Instead of fluffy blower, we could have used heavy and dense snow. My first three tree runs each got progressively more low angle. Ultimately, I decided today would be a groomer day. While discussing the conditions with some folks, I said “this has been the most groomers I have skied in a day all season, perhaps the most groomers I HAVE skied all season.” That about sums up todays conditions at Jay.

Jet was skiing really nicely throughout the morning. I hammered Jet for several runs before deciding that I was not going to wait for a line longer than a minute or two to ski groomers. Shortly before noon time, I headed back to the Chalet and headed home.

You can tell it is vacation week by the conversations you overhear. I was dumb founded by the amount of times I heard something along the lines of “wow, the conditions are great today!” Which, they were, if you enjoy skiing groomers. But I could have been doing that (more enjoyably) at Cannon on $8 worth of gas instead of $21. This is a big difference in my new location. While living in Vermont, the half hour of additional driving to Jay was always a worth while gamble. Whereas the forty minutes door to door Cannon drive time versus over two hours to Jay is a different story if the woods are not there.

Bitter cold and uncomfortable winds had many vacationers holed up inside their condos, townhouses, and rental units for the first day of the holiday week. The slopes were empty well into late morning when some brave vacationers finally decided to leave the comfort and warmth of their condos and townhouses and do what they supposedly drove up to Jay to do. Less crowded than your average Jay weekend with a ski on Flyer and never more than one or two deep in the singles line at the Jet and Bonnie. The tram had what looked to be about a three car wait as many folks opted to wait for the tram rather than brave the chairlifts. I debated doing the wait on my last run to get a run in off the ridge but didn’t have the stomach for the line.

The wind really loaded the powder up creating a tricky wind slab layer on the surface. Boot deep untracked powder was the norm for the morning and I hammered it without much care for competition. Aside from the lack of vacationer traffic, even the regular Jay powder hounds seemed to be AWOL. Pretty laid back morning and I left lots of typical early hits for later. Lots of options.

I made a rare visit to Tramside and poked around over there for three runs before the Freezer sent me shivering back to Stateside. While exploring, I found some new shots (to me) where I suspected there might be some and wished the wind hadn’t been as bad because I was really enjoying the turns on Tramside.

Today was my first full day on a new (used) pair of Fischer Atua skis. They surfed the powder well but were not as agile as my regular Dynastar Legend 8000 skis in tight trees featuring packed powder conditions. Certainly an exceptional ski on powder snow and will be an especially powerful tool on untracked knee to boot deep snow.

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