thesnowway.com

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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Hard to believe I could possibly be disappointed today; but after yesterday’s romp and continued snow storm, I had myself psyched up that Thursday would be the day of the decade. Perhaps it was for first sliders, but I was held up at work most of the day only boarded the Willoughby Quad at 2:50 P.M.

I was able to get in four runs before the quad was shut down “due to wind” at 3:50 P.M. Went into the trees on the first run and was rather disappointed. The snow had been slaughtered and I was not going to get perpetual refills like Wednesday. Next I took a wonderfully packed/loose powder Willoughby to Birches where I found occasional untracked while trying not to get stuck in knee to thigh deep powder.

The snow consistency is amazing and unbelievable all at the same time. I have never seen better base building snow as what has covered Northern Vermont this week. Everything is open with great coverage. Despite several feet of snow fallen; once this snow got wind loaded, you just could not sink more than half a foot to a foot down into the snow.

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I have had better individual runs and have skied deeper and better quality powder. I have skied knee deep blower powder with excellent base down narrow chutes and sweet glades. But I have never had a day featuring untracked on every run. Instant refills on the untracked due to heavy snow, blowing winds, and very little competition. Even though I have had better individual powder runs and better powder conditions, today is easily one of my best ski days due to untracked runs from open to close.

Boot to knee deep untracked all day with heavy snow filling in tracked lines within an hour or two. Essentially, untracked every single run from open to close. The snow is a very dense type of precipitation falling in small, tight, dense crystals. Definitely not fluffy but powder all the same. It made keeping tips up a challenge and spelled certain doom if tips got submarined. After much consideration, today tipped the scales, and I am officially in the market for something fatter than my current 89mm waist Dynastar Inspired Bigs.

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Powder Day? Two days after the storm? Pinch me!

After staying out late last night, I was feeling very tired at the 6 A.M. alarm. Ditched plans to ski either Jay or Mad River Glen (more likely MRG), I opted for a $15 half day at Burke Mountain which averaged about a buck fiddy per run. Sweet deal, especially considering the quality of the runs.

The competition at Jay Peak on a powder day is insane. You get so little chance at scoring top to bottom untracked despite the amazing quantity of terrain and tree shots at Jay. It is baffling how quickly the powder goes gets played out only one day after a storm. But two days after the storm? Even off the map shots are fully tracked out. Enter Burke Mountain two days after a storm at noon time…

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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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Worked late yesterday so I came in late to work this morning. Felt really good, kind of like I was sticking it back to the man for the man sticking it to me every so often. Jay Peak reciprocal mid-week pass was in effect for two runs before heading into work. Burke was empty, wow! Talk about a mountain that is under utilized mid-week, let alone on the weekends. Burke’s very friendly staff directed me to the correct desk for my ticket and I was advised (by a former Jay employee who I talked trees with) that Cave Man would be better than Throbulator (both recently opened). The employee informed me that he had been on the trail crew that maintained Cave Man over the Summer, pretty cool getting that type of information when both runs count!

Up the Sherburne Express and then up a rather cold Willoughby Quad to the summit. Two inches of dust on top of the groomed made the first couple turns on Big Dipper feel amazing. But I bared right onto Wilderness that had natural snow and really nice small and soft moguls with 2-4″ of light fluff on top of a packed base. I built up a lot of speed since the moguls were small and the snow was soft. Cruised some arcs down another groomer with 2″ of fluff en route to the Caveman entrance.

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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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A NELSAP Special Event sponsored by the new Snow Valley owner allowed NELSAP’ers a rare chance to earn turns at the Private lost ski area Snow Valley. The owners plan to develop a Private Ski Club with Private Real Estate and lodging for club members. Snow Valley is private property and earning turns at the Ski Area is not normally allowed making this powder day an extra special treat. Six inches of blower powder, sweet!

Photo Gallery

Who knew all the vacationers would sack the goods?? The powder that had been reported on Thursday was no where to be found. I managed to score 300-400 linear feet of untracked all day. Things certainly could have been worse, if that is a complaint! Essentially, all the main routes were packed down and most of the non-main routes were too. I have become rather snobbish about my snow lately, powder to the people! But not much powder to be found today

Taft Slalom was groomed flat as a pancake. Upper/Middle Hard were both fantastic! Vista Way, generally the worst or the best on the mountain on any given day along with Paulie’s Folly, was the best today with awesome packed powder and occasional soft bumps with quality lines. Profile had good bumps in between the scraped off sections which made it not worth repeating. I was not feeling Zoomer. Paulie’s got the winch treatment last night and was flat as a pancake. Decent bumps was found on skier’s right of Paulie’s Extension down through Avalanche with exception of the section by the Banshee Cut Back (something needs to be done about that area, it is uglier than the Links).

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Berkshire East was selected as the first location of the AlpineZone.com Meet Up. Seven forum members meet Sunday morning at Berkshire East in Massachusetts to share some turns, tales, and fun. A good time was had by all! As always, it is always fun and interesting to put some names to forum member handles in addition to getting to know some folks better. Plus, it sure beats skiing alone and is a lot more fun too boot! Especially considering the lack of trails open at Berkshire East this weekend due to a recent rain storm. What normally would have been an awfully boring day on the slopes was turned into a really fun day with some great folks. A group photo can be found at AlpineZone.com. Greg Blasko, founder of AlpineZone.com, is the photographer of all pictures on this page.

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Saturday dawned with amazing blue skies after 4-6″ of fresh light powder fell in the Franconia Notch region. Originally, the plan was to tackle Burke and enjoy some refreshments in the Lyndonville area before and after. However, a report of fresh light powder at Cannon Mountain had me thinking otherwise and I was unable to by pass Cannon while heading North on Interstate 93. Parking at the Tram Building, I opted for the powder boards and anxiously headed inside to boot up in time for the first tracks Tram at 8:15AM. While boarding the Tram, I was surprised by the number of folks on AT gear as I was, mostly sporting the Freeride.

Upon reaching the Summit, decisions had to be made. I could either nail a top to bottom hard scrabble run while the getting was good or make a B-line for the Saddle. I opted for the Saddle with the deciding factor being the delayed opening of the Cannonball Quad which would further delay a return to the summit. Whereas a Saddle run would take plenty of time allowing for the delay to catch up to my tracks.

The hike up the Saddle was simply amazing with fantastic colors and photo opportunities everywhere. The trees were especially spectacular as they were coated with white candy. Disappointment was had on my first run down Taft as I noticed that the powder was less than Cannon had stated and had fallen over a thin coating of NCP making for interesting turns in conditions best described as “Dust on Crust.” I didn’t let conditions on Taft hold my disappointment as conditions below the Taft were amazing in places and worthy of four hikes up and three hikes back which ties my perpetual Saddle in a Day high of Four.

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Whereas normally the day immediately following a huge dump is the best day for turns, in this case two days after the dump turned out to be the better of the pair. Saturday was an epic day at Cannon and saw record numbers of people to the mountain. I picked up skiing buddy Porter at Bentley and made a B line for the Tram base at Cannon Mountain in the Franconia Notch of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Prospects from the base area were excellent with some sun shining through despite the ugly cloud aloft on Grumpy Old Man Cannon’s Shoulder.

From the summit, we headed straight for the best snow on the hill descending Upper and Middle Hard by way of Taft Slalom. All trails had phenomenal snow that was occasionally packed with mounds of softer snow. Taft was best on skier’s right which would deteriorate into unsafe thin cover later in the day due to beginner and intermediate skiers snowplowing and side slipping near the rock ledges. We then boarded the Peabody Quad and took Bypass to find scraped conditions and rather firm bumps. Paulie’s Extension had decent snow dumping into skier’s right on Avalanche which still contained occasional untracked patches and amazingly fun snow to plow through.

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Thursday saw more than two feet of fresh snow coat Cannon Mountain in the Franconia Notch of New Hampshire within 24 hours time. Suffice to say, there is no other place in the world I would rather be than Cannon Mountain on a powder day. The storm was originally suppose to strike eastern Massachusetts, but the storm track kept moving further north until the White Mountains became the clear jackpot recipient of the first major snow storm for ski country of the season. I cleared a vacation day with the boss and anxiously drove up to Cannon for the first of two days of snowy bliss.

Driving into the Tram Parking Lot, I noticed lots of cars turning around towards the Peabody Slopes and I quickly followed suite as the Tram was on a wind hold. At the Peabody Slopes, I was surprised to see a parking attendant directing traffic into the lower lot despite arriving well before the lifts began turning. Myself and every other car behind me pressed on up into the upper lot to confirm in disbelief that it was already full! Weekdays at Cannon are usually not very busy, but this Friday saw weekend sized crowds as most Cannon die hards were also taking the day off from work.

With the Tram and Cannonball Quad both on wind hold, the Front Face was the place to be. After a brief delay, the Peabody Quad uploaded people to mid-mountain for a race to Zoomer, Paulie’s, and Avalanche which got tracked out ridiculously quick. Within a half hour, no completely untracked line could be made top to bottom and by 11AM most of the Front Face was tracked out completely. Avalanche was a notable exception that lasted well into Saturday morning with awesome lightly picked over freshies.
Fresh Untracked But Too Heavy for Good Turns

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We pulled into the Peabody Slopes upper parking lot at 8:18AM to see it was almost full! I thought the Super Bowl Sunday Two-fer crowds were gonna be ugly, but it turned out that everyone showed up early so they could leave early. Crowds were definitely not a problem and had this been a normal snow year with better than 90% of terrain open, what little crowds there were, would have been slightly better distributed.

Sunday was a Blue Bird day with no clouds in the sky and awesome views of the Franconia Ridge with a little haze on the horizon preventing far views towards VT. The temperature at the summit at 9AM was 40F! The afternoon only got warmer, what a beautiful day.

Sunday was the best groomer action I have experienced at Cannon this season in the AM. We took laps on Middle Cannon, Gary’s, and Rocket and they all had really great snow. Bumps on skier’s right of Gary’s and Rocket are still kinda blah but much better than my last report. Over on Avalanche, there had been a water leak near the Banshee Cut Off that left much of skier’s far right on avalanche frozen ice. Bumps skier’s right were more like random mounds that were best skied by turning on the backside, which was kinda fun. Nice line on Zoomer right under the chair with delightful soft snow.

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Saturday promised clear skies and temperatures in the 40s and 50s. Perfect Spring Skiing weather despite the fact that Spring Skiing should not begin for another month! Upon arriving at Cannon Mountain, I visited Guest Relations to claim a free ski ticket for maxing out my frequent skier card. The morning sunrise brought forth tremendous color leaving an electricity hanging in the air. Today was going to be a great day to be on skis regardless of how little snow fell during the month of February.

Feeling the need for speed and a proper warm up (for once!), I made my first runs on some groomers. Big fast GS turns were had down Middle Cannon to Paulie’s Extension followed by quick and nimble slalom turns down Avalanche. Groomer festivities were continued down the center of Zoomer which featured bumps on both sides of the groomed center.

After my legs were feeling up to task, I tracked down the bumps on Paulie’s Folly since bumps on Zoomer Lift Line and Avalanche looked sketchy, hard packed, uneven, and no fun. Paulie’s has in past years disappointed but this year I have enjoyed epic runs almost every day! This day was no different as I offered verbal praise and cries of joy to the natural snow gods. The snow was soft, pleasant, and edgable. The bumps offered supreme satisfaction. Sure there were some natural terrain features such as rock, dirt, and weeds. And my bases suffered when I let my guard down> But it was a great run that I repeated twice later in the day.

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