Veterans’ Day Weekend typically signifies the start of the season for many Northeastern Ski Areas. The big players in the game including Killington, Bretton Woods, Okemo, and Sunday River usually aspire to appease the early season masses with Holiday Weekend skiing heading into mid-November. The freaky start to the 2005-2006 Ski Season continues as an abnormally warm weather pattern settled into New England for the first half of November. A brief cold spell allowed many ski areas, including Jay Peak, to begin snow making operations for the season.

Saturday morning I awoke with many doubts that the skiing possibilities being worth the required effort. After the big October storm roared through New England, many blow downs had occurred throughout the mountains which had me considering a hike into the local Backcountry to clean up some lines. I declined the nobler pursuit in deference to pure hedonism at Jay Peak based on their snow report and snow making operations. Jay was reporting 22 inches of new snow in the past four days. Despite the natural snow having melted, the man made base was indeed about 22 inches deep, and more!

Pulling into the lot near the Jet Triple Chairlift, I noticed I would not be alone in my pursuits this afternoon. Two snow boarders were already hard at working building a kicker on Lower Haynes. My attention was quickly drawn to the snow line which begin halfway up the Jet and Haynes trails. Unfortunately, only the Upper sections of these two trails had received snowmaking so a top to bottom skin would not be possible. I strapped my gear onto my pack and began the hike up to the Upper Jet. The abnormally warm temperatures were surprising but welcomed. My long thermal underwear was one layer too many. I would ski the remainder of the afternoon without need for fleece nor windbreaker.

Upon reaching the Upper Jet, I booted up, clicked in, and began the skin up the amply covered trail. Snow was blown edge to edge on the Upper Jet with a considerable base depth for only two nights worth of snow making. Whales occasionally populated skier’s left whereas a more naturally rolling coverage was my chosen skin track on skier’s right. The steeper sections combined with the drained and frozen snow had my skins sliding backwards requiring one short stretch of booting up a steep knoll.

The visibility and weather was fantastic upon reaching the top of the run. Excellent views were had in all directions and Jay Peak’s summit stood regal despite the lack of natural snow cover. Two Quebecois joined me at the top of the Jet following their skin of Haynes. I switched over to downhill mode and made off like a bandit about to plunder and pillage. The snow and skiing was fabulous! The sun had slightly melted down the top layer of snow creating excellent edgable nearly Spring-like snow conditions. I whooped and hollered much verbal praise during my descent milking each and every turn for all they were worth.
Top of the Jet Triple Chairlift

Opting for a second run with different scenery, I passed by two boarders hitting the kicker they recently built on Lower Haynes and began a second skin on Upper Haynes. Hot on the skin tracks of the two Quebecois advancing on their own second run, I reflected on my complete lack of physical conditioning. Halfway up the Haynes trail, I was tiring and got sloppy on a steep section. I slipped and fell and began a slow slide downwards. Spinning my body to get my skis downhill, I sliced my right index finger with an edge. After recovering my dignity and composure, I began up the trail again stopping a short while later when I noticed my index finger was bleeding profusely from the cut. I dropped pack and began digging for my glove liners which I found only as my skin bag caught wind and flew away down trail. Not wanting to descend the eighty feet to retrieve the bag, my descent trail had been decided upon and I would retrieve the bag on my way back down.

I quickly gained the summit of the Jet Triple again and partook in my summit apple tradition. Nothing beats a delicious and juicy Granny Smith apple after a nice climb. My second well earned run down Haynes began with several wonderfully open carves. Haynes lacked the whales featured on the Jet trail which allowed me to really open things up on the descent. After stopping to retrieve my bag, I continued down Haynes linking some wonderful and varied sized turns basking in the full enjoyment of a beautifully styled and well executed turn. Only four days into the season, three of which featuring only one or two runs, and I was already beginning to feel the muscle memory creeping back into my body. Not the kind of muscle memory of just linking turns, but rather the muscle memory that inspires the grace, beauty, and awesome power of a turn executed at its highest level. I live for that moment of pure elation when I lay down tracks into snow like a master painter placing a brush stroke onto his masterpiece.

At the bottom of Upper Haynes, the two snow boarders who had built the kicker were now joined by a dozen of their new best friends. I skied down below the kicker to where the snow started turning into grass, then I skied a little bit lower still to where the patches finally ended, and then I skied a little lower still until I could not find any more snow to turn on. Calling it quits slightly early due to fatigue, I packed it in after two runs knowing there were plenty more turns to be had the following week when the chairlift mercifully begins turning chairs around the bull wheel.