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It was not supposed to happen like this. Jay was supposed to open next week. If we were lucky, Jay would have had The Jet and Haynes covered with man made snow and groomed to less than desirable so called perfection. Instead, Jay got two feet of snow during the week before Thanksgiving and decided to open a week early. Thanks Jay!

The surreal feeling experienced while skiing through the trees during mid-November in what looks like and feels like mid-January conditions is not something I could ever get used to. Though I would certainly love to have enough such experiences that mid-November days become just as routine as the bi-weekly six inch refreshes that Jay usually receives during the winter.

Last week I ascended Jay Peak to the summit via earned turns on approximately 2-8″ of consolidated base depth. What remained of that initial shot of natural snow after the rains preceding this most recent storm is any ones guess. At the time of this writing, Jay has either under reported snow totals or have yet to find the magical “Jay Inch” measuring location. Sinking my pole more than halfway into the snow, many places in the trees were easily two or more feet deep. But the trees always receive blow in so that is not an accurate measurement. A more accurate measurement would be the minimum boot deep untracked found on the trails as the area opened for the first time this season.

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Today was a sensational afternoon of turn earning at Jay Peak. Days such as today remind me that it often is all about “the tour, not the turns.” While the skiing was less than stellar, it was well worth the effort for the turns. But it was the other aspects of the tour that made the afternoon truly memorable. Having an overcast morning turn nearly bluebird, pushing past early season pains thereby miraculously inducing mid-season stamina, the crisp and cool air with just a hint of head wind, believing I had the summit all to myself only to be surprised to share the experience with a furry four legged creature. It was uplifting for both the emotions and the spirit.

When I arrived, snow guns were blasting up and down The Jet and Haynes. ample base had already been laid down around the Jet Triple Chair and Jay Peak looked nearly in opening day condition. A snow machine worked over the snow on lower Jet. I skinned directly from my car to Derrick Hot Shot which sported a few inches of natural covered by blown over man made from Haynes. Lots of tracks covered Derrick as it seemed to be a popular route of both ascent and descent. Base depths improved to well over half a foot by the mid-point and one foot deep near the top due to blow over. The whales on both Haynes and The Jet were substantial and should make for great wall to wall coverage for opening date which has been pushed up to next weekend!

After dropping down Montrealer, I skinned up Vermonter as the clouds blue over to nearly blue bird conditions. Views from the summit were spectacular. I chowed down as an envious four legged furry creature coveted my meal. The only thing we would share; however, was an amazing view from the summit. A glorious afternoon for a summit.

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April in New England: In like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

Out like freaking Bambi is more like it. Woke up this morning and moped around the house knowing that my original plans for either Hillman’s or Gulf of Slides were devoid of value with the current weather. I finally decided that I could either putz around the house all day or I could make a go at a final day of lift serviced skiing for the season. Since it would cost me nothing but gas and time at the worst, I figured why not?

Definitely one of the worst days of the season as far as conditions go. Probably worse than most of the Frozen McSludge Groomer Track skiing I did at Jay in December. Upon arriving at Jay, a faint mist opened up to full on light showers. Oh boy! I had anticipated rain but not quite this much. No worries, the conditions will be soft and Spring like and make fighting the rain worth it! Not.

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Met up with Nhski and from_the_NEK for a mid-week assault on Jay Peak as yet another major April snow storm slammed into New England with more on the way. I am quickly getting used to this and hope I will not suffer too much withdrawal when Spring finally returns with a vengeance to wash all this wonderful whiteness away.

Jay Peak’s web page is reporting 10 inches within 24 hours and 20 inches within 48 hours which does not match up to what we skied today. It was excellent but it was not 20 inches even in the untracked that was not skied the previous day. I would estimate closer to between sixteen and eighteen for the two day storm total. Not shabby for April regardless of how you measure it.

But that total was over the course of two days, so on lines that had been tracked the previous day, we only found about ten inches untracked in the morning. Despite light crowds, I felt that the untracked went quick as any one out there knew where to find the goods. I would not expect much untracked for Saturday but the snow is really good. Warm weather was getting the best of snow near the bottom of the mountain with some exceptionally wet and heavy snow down low. Things were still powdery on the upper sections of the mountain, but even after a foot and a half, Spring and April are letting their presence be known.

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Day 40 of the season was my 17th powder day with 18 to follow the next day. With work closed for the College Holiday, I started the long weekend at Jay Peak on the heels of a monster April surprise snow storm that would ultimately drop three feet of powder through the Holiday weekend. Amazing! What a way to start April off after March ended on such a downer.

Got started on The Jet at 9am despite Nhski running a little late (no friends on a powder day and all that…). But we played it like usual staying close to the lift for the first few runs of untracked and met up at the top of the Jet on the start of my third run. Sweet! Certainly has been a ton of fun finding a fellow skier to enjoy the great Jay powder with, always elevates my day to have a great skier to share it with.

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Epic. Spectacular. Sensational. Best Day of the Season.

Originally, the plan for the weekend called for two days at Mad River Glen. Yesterday’s storm was good but less than I had expected at The Glen. Assuming Jay over reported Sunday’s snow totals, I considered both areas about even in Saturday snowfall. Sunday morning I opted to ski which ever ski area had a better report (with interpretation for the usual Jay Hype and artificial snow total inflation). Jay reported in with about double the snowfall that Mad River posted and I was feeling the Jay vibe. Great call on my part as we scored minimum knee deep untracked on almost every run today at Jay.

Met up with Dan after a few runs off the Jet Chair and we tore up the trees all day long. Halfway through a tree shot that I thought was not worth trying, we were skiing “only” boot to knee deep slightly tracked, and I turned to Dan and said “this is acceptable.” I had to laugh at such a statement considering any other day that shot would have been sublime.

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This was a weird, interesting, and occasionally really fun day of skiing. After a quick up and down the Jet Chair, I started off the morning with my skins on for the first time since December. Nice to be earning some turns again as the powder machine has finally been turned off and fresh snow required hiking. Unfortunately, temperatures were warm this morning and the fresh untracked was heavy and difficult to ski. Still a fun adventure was had with a combination of lift serviced and earned turns this morning.

Finally began my lift serviced activity around 11a after my morning jaunt. While switching to alpine gear at the car, the sun changed to rain. Not sleet, not hail, not freezing rain, etc. Nothing crystalline about the quality of the precipitation. The precipitation was being absorbed into my jacket instead of bouncing off. It was a fantastic two months of below freezing temperatures without a thaw, but the melt out begins today. Thankfully the base is still very deep. At one point today, I plunged my pole down into the snow below the handle!

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If next week’s storm turns out to be rain and washes everything away and we do not get any more snow, I will end my lift serviced portion of the 06-07 season a very happy man. This was the day I had been waiting for since the lifts started turning. Easily the best day of the season and a top five day for my skiing career.

After having skied hard open to close at Burke on Friday and Cannon on Saturday, I originally planned to take it easy on Sunday. Probably only ski until noon time or so, then warp up the weekend. One of my little toes had been extremely sore lately from my neglect and abuse, and I knew Sunday would be painful. The original plan was Mad River Glen, but they did not report any new snow from last night whereas Jay reported eight inches. A no brainer, I changed my plans. Dare I say Jay under reported eight inches? Well, maybe that was the official number but the woods were socked full of goodies. When I got to Jay, eight inches on the trails sounded about right actually. It proceeded to snow all day long with a few puking sessions thrown in for good measure. Hard to even guess what the total was by the time I left at 4p, but lines were already been replenished for the next day.

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Very satisfying day today at Jay Peak. Glad to see the vacation crowds hit the road and return the mountain to its typical not very crowded general state. Lines picked up around 11a-1p but I assume the Tram or Flyer must have got started by 2 P.M. when lines died back down. Aside from our first run off the Bonnie, we only skied the Jet so I have no idea if the other side of the mountain got going or not.

Met up with Dan bright and early. We found the main routes and glades well packed down with decent packed powder. Most trails and glades are back to having plenty of thin spots. Hate to say it… but we need another two foot dump. But when do we not? We still managed to find 6-8″ untracked and some mighty fine skiing. A superb, satisfying, and surprisingly good day at Jay today with lots of exciting exploration.

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A crazy day at Jay for sure following fifty-four inches of dense snow. Due to poor road conditions and traffic, I arrived at Jay later than expected. But the late start was not an issue since the Bonaventure Quad did not open until 9:15 A.M. The natives queued up were getting restless but a mutiny was narrowly avoided. When I first arrived at Jay, I looked for a rack to put my skis on. Much to my amazement, the racks were completely buried! Jay received an astonishing amount of snow over the three day storm cycle. While some critics suggested the spin masters of Jay Peak’s marketing department exaggerated snow totals, it would be really hard to pin down an exact scientific and accurate snowfall total any where in the Northern Green’s this week, most especially at Jay due to the wind. Perhaps the marketing folks were slightly over zealous in wanting to hit that magic five feet mark at the reported sixty inches. But Jay got the snow, reporting in with a range between 54-60 inches of snow. The increase is snow depth from last week is very impressive.

The mob at the Red Chair was unorganized chaos! The rope dropped, the crowd pushed forward, and we all got ours. First run featured lots of untracked in Deliverance (this was my first run in Deliverance as a Jay Peak skier). Steep chutes are quickly becoming my favorite terrain. The snow was once again a dense wind loaded variety not allowing for deep untracked. The snow involved boot deep sinkage generally and occasional knee deep shots in wind sheltered areas. Point em’ steep and keep those tips up! Submerged tips required a huge expense of energy to resurface. I am a fat ski convert, give me 95mm-100mm under foot and a wider tip!

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It was the best of times and the worst of times at Jay Peak today. If you knew where to go to find the powder, it was the best of times. For those that showed up expecting to find a foot of fresh on in bound trails and glades, it was probably frustratingly the worst of times.

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Yesterday morning must have been nice. That much was evident after only a few tree runs on Sunday. Alas, I was not able to attend to the powder festivities Saturday morning. Sunday was still a good day at Jay, but I can not help but feel my relative experience of ‘good’ has changed over the years. Just a few yaers ago, today would have qualified as very good if not super. Now, I turn my nose up at being a day late for boot deep untracked. Packed and loose powder with only occasional boot deep? Only two knee deep drifts in the woods? What type of crap is this?

Sloppy seconds were the order of the day as (no surprise) the powder hounds were out in force on Saturday. The ‘Stupid Bowl’ kept the crowds relatively light (perhaps crowds had shifted to Cannon Mountain in New Hampshire for their yearly Two-Fer tradition). No line for the Freezer all day but the Tram had a two car wait. It was a terribly cold and windy day to be riding the Freezer. I took two absolutely miserable rides on the most reviled lift in New England. When getting stuck at the Tram lodge drainage, I opted for the slow Metro Quad back to Stateside more often than not. I am always boggled by the amount of people that wait for the Tram. Locals, Regulars, and Pass Holders rarely ride the Tram except for occasional access to Green Beret, Valhalla, Tuckerman Chutes, or the Face (of which only the former two trails were open and not worth the ride).

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More of the same from Jay Peak today with traffic levels taking a toll on snow conditions. Over night snowfall was only an inch or two which was of little benefit. Groomeed trails were getting scraped early and lots of scraping occurred between the bumps. A few nice mogul lines were still to be found on packed powder. The trees took a beating and need a refresher.

My luck ran out today as troubles with the chairlifts continued. Several emergency stops occurred on the Red Chair this morning (a chairlift lurching to a stop is an unnerving sensation, unlike a typical lift stoppage). After what seemed like twice the normal lift time, we finally made it to the unload station and the lift was shut down but was running again by noon.

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Today was an interesting but rather good day. The temperature started off in the pits which encouraged visiting the lodge every second or third run. By the end of the day, I was considering removing layers. Further suggesting abnormalities, the Red Chair, Blue Chair, and Tram all suffered off line issues throughout the day. The Blue Chair was down for half the day, the Red Chair was down for a quarter of the day, and the Tram went down around noon time for what about a half hour. Lift mechanics were spotted climbing up the Tram arm to the wires near the summit shack and inspecting one of the cable holders. Just another bizarre day at Jay Peak.

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As I predicted in my report yesterday, powder was long gone by Sunday and replaced with packed powder and frozen granular. What I had not predicted was the wind buff both in and out of the trees would be so substantial. The poor setup likely had many folks who did not ski Saturday wondering if there was any powder this weekend. Open slopes and groomers were a crappy hard packed loose granular which left much to be desired whereas wind protected trees sported decent packed powder.

On our first run, I actually made a few nice turns down The Goat before running into scraped and icy conditions at the S turn under the Freezer which is always a suspect spot on the mountain. We continued down Green Mountain Boys which also had nasty loose granular surfaces and skied into North Glade. With the Freezer and Tram off line for half the day yesterday, I was hoping that the Tram Side glades would have conditions than Stateside which took the full brunt of eight hours of traffic. Unfortunately, the wind buff even terrorized the woods and North Glade was no exception with variable wind buffed snow and general thin cover. A work out for the first run of the morning to say the least (especially considering I was already hurting from Saturday). The snow was better lower in North Glade but not worth a repeat.

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