Early season skiing on man made snow: the White Ribbon of Death. But today at Jay, man made saved the day. I was pulling for an overnight freeze followed by slow warming resulting in late morning corn snow. Instead, I found temperatures well above freezing and rotting natural snow by the time I arrived at Jay. During my skin up Derick, I suspected that the man made was going to ski better than the natural and my suspicion proved accurate.
Noting the depth of the snow is essentially moot as all the natural snow at Jay will be gone within a few days due to warm and rainy weather. But for the record, I found a general 6-10″ of rotten moisture laden but somewhat supportive snow. Higher elevations retained a foot or more of base depth but it won’t survive the week.
The Jet had its whales flattened by grooming machines but the snow was not groomed and certainly not an option for skiing. Haynes retained its whales though the combination of natural snow and subsequent melting made the whale sizes smaller than normal. It was typical porcelain ungroomed man made but the warm temperature would ease the usual slipperiness considerably.
Despite feeling strongly that man made would be the best option, I decided to try my luck on upper Derick. Given the availability of abundant natural snow during mid-November, I couldn’t not try. But turns were challenging and the snow was not forgiving. I bailed onto Haynes ASAP. Turns were edgeable but still a little slick, certainly on the more enjoyable side of whale skiing and much better than the natural snow on Derick.
Halfway down Haynes, I cut left en route to Angel’s Wiggle for an easier skin route. Just to be sure the natural snow was truly awful everywhere on the mountain, I dropped into Upper Milk Run where I found worse skiing than the more cut up and packed down Derick. I switched over and skinned back up to the top of the Jet for my third and final run.
Visibility was almost non-existent due to thick fog so I skied without goggles. Upper Haynes was rather unpleasant due to the man made being frozen solid. But at the Derick cut in, I found that same edgable snow that I enjoyed on my first run. Visibility improved during the descent but not enough to prevent the occasional surprise lurch due to an unseen roller.
The fog finally relented as I dropped into the lower part of Haynes where I enjoyed my best turns of the day. I laughed with delight as I made big arcs around, in between, and over the mini-mounds. It took two runs and the better part of the third, but I finally found some awesome skiing, on man made no less.
Last night I evaluated my options between hiking at Jay or riding the lifts at Sunday River or Killington. I knew the natural snow at Jay might not be ideal and I might end up hiking for man made instead of natural. But man made can be damn fun too, especially when you have that white ribbon all to yourself. I don’t think I would have made the same decision last year. This year, I want it just a little bit more.