Thank goodness we are going to get some more snow soon. As far as snow conditions go, this was the second worst snow conditions I have skied this year (which includes those infamous December days in which only The Jet and Haynes were open). Absolutely horrid. I took four runs and went home, completely baffled by the small line of people queuing up to actually pay for lift tickets outside the Stateside Lodge. I have skied some questionable days this season, but ultimately I have generally decided it was worth the time and gas money to get at least a few runs and dial in the legs a bit more. Not today, it was a complete waste of my morning.
Something wet but not of the frozen variety caked Jay's snow base and froze over slightly. The result was that the groomers were only skiing well for those with well tuned race skis (I would have been a lot more happy today had I a pair of Volkl 6 Stars). Trails on the Stateside of the Bonaventure Quad were essentially scraped up frozen groomer tracks with a deceptive dusting of loose snow. Natural snow trails faired slightly better in most spots, a lot worse in others.
I took four runs opening up with Northway to Wiggle with Northway actually slightly edgable on my first run but Wiggle had me not in good carving form despite the low angle. Nasty frozen over wet snow. Icky, just icky. Cut over to The Jet on a dicey cross cut trail and noticed the groomed section of The Jet was a skating rink. Moguls under the lift line are still poorly developed and in piss poor shape. I cut over to lower U.N. to avoid the skating rink on Lower Jet and found despicable nasty conditions ("this sucks, this sucks, this sucks" was the mantra I repeated as I slowly picked my way down the thinly covered frozen crap). Derrick Hot Shot? Not so hot but doable and a lot better than The Jet or U.N. Scraped down frozen snow with thin cover and rocks, sweeeeeet. Willard was closed and Lower Haynes (or whatever Jay calls it) was a total skating rink. I tried to carve but was generally doing a lot of sliding. One last try, back up the blue chair for a run down Kitzbeuhel which actually was my run of the day. Horridly rocky and thin and nasty but I could actually cut an edge into the snow pack (when there actually was snow pack to cut into) and had a great mogul line going for all of two bumps. Sweeeeeeeeet. The run out back to Wiggle was just terrible and reminds me why I love Jay's open woods policy.... when there is actually snow to take advantage of said policy.
I was going to take the T-Bar to Tramside, tune up my skis with a sharp edge, and explore whatever Tramside had to offer, but after Kitz, I couldn't bare to be on skis any longer this morning. Sunday isn't worth driving an hour to Jay peak, let along longer if you are considering. Had it been 10-15 degrees warmer with sun shining, the snow would have softened up to a more than acceptable and maybe even delightful condition and consistency. The temp was hovering just below the freezing mark and the snow setup was moist which was not pleasant in the least.