Welcome back to winter! Just in time for the Christmas Holiday and two days after the Winter Solstice, Ullr was kind enough to bless Jay Peak with two inches of fresh snow. For some excited skiers and riders, it was all fun and games until trying to drive up an unplowed Route 242 without snow tires! Snow began promptly on Route 242 just past the village of Jay and several cars with out of state plates and no snow tires dotted the side of the road. Trails were surprisingly sparse during the morning hours due to the slick conditions on an unplowed Route 242. Even once road conditions allowed safe passage for all cars regardless of treed, crowds were manageable through the morning and afternoon.
This afternoon featured the best weekend skiing at Jay Peak in almost two months since the earned turn October storms. The base was still generally wet from the rain on Saturday. However, a nice layer of fresh wet snow blanketed the trails with occasional spots of lighter powder making for excellent sliding conditions.
Beginning the morning with a ride up the Bonnie Quad, I found delightful cruising on Northway with exceptionally good high speed carving on the lower half of Angel's Wiggle. I opened up my skis and carved huge edge to edge arcs back to the base area. While tempted for a repeat, I decided to take a rain check and opted for the Jet Triple.
The wet snow combined with high winds made for uncomfortable chairlift riding weather. One gust of wind was so fierce, it slammed a chair's safety bar down as the chair came around the bull wheel which broke the safety bar off the chair! The lift attendants were quick to attend to the issue and fix the chair.
The Jet had variable conditions which can largely be described as wet loose snow on top of a scraped and packed base. The Jet was receiving most of the skier traffic from the lift and deteriorated throughout the afternoon. Random piles of loose snow formed up near the afternoon hour and even the sides of the trail were quickly deteriorated from the normal playful delights found on the edges.
Conditions were much better over on Haynes. The snow had a much better consistency with less loose wet snow but more scraped patches to avoid. I stayed skiers right and hugged the trees were I found delightful loose snow and occasion two inch powder sections. Delightful skiing was had until shortly after noon time when even Haynes began deteriorating. Lower Haynes was superb for high speed cruising and big arcs.
I returned to Northway to Angel's Wiggle for another romp of high speed carving before calling it a day. The Freezer shut down due to winds earlier in the day and reopened afternoon, but I never went over to Tramside since only Beginner trails were serviced from the Tram lifts with exception of Northway which I was accessing from Stateside. Overall, I had a surprisingly excellent afternoon at Jay Peak and skied longer than my previous lift serviced days. With a big storm moving into New England Christmas Day night, the season is finally beginning in earnest as the first third of the ski season comes to a close. Here is to a wonderful second third of the ski season!