Jay: 02/23/08

riverc0il

riverc0il

New member
Dust on crust special today, all the three inch untracked powder you want with little competition if you don't mind frozen base scarping. Figured things would be pretty nice this morning with a few inches of fresh. We could have used heavy/dense stuff rather than the fluffy blower. Took three tree runs with each run progressively getting more low angle and ultimately decided today would be a groomer day. :shock: While discussing the conditions with some folks, I said "this has been the most groomers I have skied in a day all season, perhaps the most groomers I HAVE skied all season." That about sums it up.

To be honest though, Jet was skiing really nicely. I hammered Jet for several runs before deciding that I was not going to wait in the a line longer than a minute or two to ski groomers and headed home shortly before noon time.

You can really tell it is vacation week by the conversations you overhear. I was dumb founded by how many times I heard something along the lines of "wow, the conditions are great today!" Which, they were, if you enjoy skiing groomers. But I could have been doing that (more enjoyably) at Cannon on $8 worth of gas instead of $21. Ah well. Clearly a big difference in my new location is beforehand, the half hour additional drive to Jay was always a 100% worth while gamble. 40 minutes door to door versus just over two hours once hitting the highway is a different story if the woods are not there.
 
I'm with you. Things were so good so early this year that burning the gas and mental energy to get to the hill, when the trees aren't open...I can't get motivated to do it. You're a lot closer to the mountains than I am...I guess you could think of groomers as your exercise...beats riding an indoor bike, which is what I end up doing during the week.
 
Good report - always fun to read great trip reports, but it's nice to know when it's not really worth the trip.

I decided to sit today out. I was walking to the car this morning, and when I farted it cleared the 3" of powder down to bare ice in the driveway. And I have long legs.
 
drive south boyz for denser and deeper. it's really pretty good down here. skied hicks hill in madbury today and wasn't scraping anything underneath and that's on 60mm underfoot nnn bc stuff.
looking forward to tues-thurs, it may even snow some somewhere.

nice report steve, tellin it like it is.

rog
 
I can't wait until my son is out of high-school and more options open up for ski trips. We were at Jay from Monday - Saturday, 2/23. Monday morning was sun and clouds and fun spring conditions. We even stayed out when the rain returned. Skied off the Bon Adventure and the Jet. Powerline was fun. All the glades were skiing like nice, treed bumpers.

Tuesday everything was rock hard with an inch blown in the troughs keeping ungroomed just this side of survival skiing. My son quit after 3 runs. I sharpened my edges and lasted a few more. Sign at top of jet called it right, "teeth chattering crud"

4" Tues. night made the groomers good on Wednesday, and the trees skiable at least. Lower angle glades were even fun. Bumps were skiable but were work.

Thurs. a little crunchier and colder than Wed.

Friday, slept in, dinner in Newport, couple of inches during the day, couple more in the evening.

Saturday. If you ventured OB, Rivercoil, you should have found some lines with soft pillows that had added up since Tuesday. Still there was a lot of scraping going on and a rock hard, New England hard pack right under the surface. I too wish it had been heavier and not such fluff. I skied Kitzbuehl into Kitz woods around 12:30 Sat. and there was about 6-8" of loose fluff everywhere. You had to ski the tops of the bumps and the bottom of the troughs because the sides were just scraped clean and hard. Oh, and the groomers were in the best condition of the week and were very nice. We packed it in and drove home around 1.

Not the best skiing but here's a big positive. My son was skiing everything beautifully. He found good lines. He stayed agressive in tough situations. On all runs he was right with us or ahead. And all in unforgiving conditions on a fairly tough mountain. Last year this time he was just getting into tree skiing and was choosing groomers over natural runs. I think he may be ready for a trip to Utah next year.
 
I skied Kitzbeuhel into the woods for my last run on Saturday around 11am and found a few inches untracked in the woods. Maybe four at best, definitely not 6-8" and there was just a sensational amount of untracked due to the horrific base. I tagged the Dip boundary and found much the same. 6-8" probably would have kept me at Jay skiing the woods well past noon, there just wasn't enough to float over the crust, especially considering the light density. I spoke with a women while riding the Jet the was doing the vacation thing with her family, though she was a pass holder and had the knowledge and skills of a dedicated tree skier... she indicated the week was pretty bleak for tree skiing in general. On the bright side, Jay did dodge a bullet with no melt down, it certainly could have been a lot worse and the two minor snows really helped ensure solid groomer action. Tough vacation week overall from my perspective having skied both Saturdays of the vacation week at Jay. November and December and the two epic days of January seem like distant memories at this point...
 
Buck up man. Last year the season STARTED on 2/14. Look at your numbers. You're doin just fine.
 
Harvey44":3licp6te said:
Buck up man. Last year the season STARTED on 2/14. Look at your numbers. You're doin just fine.
Click to expand...
I was comparing total season so far and assuming (hoping my assumption was wrong) that we will not have a repeat of last season. I know there is a lot of season to go but just saying that considering the great early season we have had this year, that great early season was not on par with last year's great late season.
 
I kinda look at our great early season this year as a big bonus. I think the best is yet to come. I predict a big St. Patrick's day dumping! Not based on fact or science, just good vibes. I'm planning on hitting Jay this week(end) for a couple days. Maybe Thurs & Fri or Fri & Sat. Then we'll probably hit Burke or Wildcat on the way home Sunday. Kid's are off school this week.
 
By the chart I set up this summer http://bestsnow.net/vrmthist.htm this season already stands at 32 and should easily surpass last year's 37 score with even a mediocre spring.

If you have a choice between a good early and late season, early is better as you usually have some decent spring skiing on the leftovers. A bad early season means rocks and you're not skiing at all, except for the nutcases like Frank and Patrick.
 
I agree...always take early when you can get it. And you are Jonesin more in the beginning too.

Cool chart. I didn't even look at the methodology. You just know it's well thought out.

What has to happen for us to get a best ever 55? Would a repeat of last year do it?
 
February was not as good as last year in Vermont. If March and later are the same as last year the score will be 52. Average late season would bring total to 45. 2000-01 in Vermont will be very hard to beat.

Since Mammoth had a slow developing December, its current score is only 29. But a normal late season will make its total 58.

Utah is at 33 and projects to 60.

Fernie is at 30 and projects to 45.

Vermont's December was better than most western areas, thus the similar season-to-date numbers. Mammoth and Utah have long late seasons while Fernie has an arbitrary closing date and Vermont nearly always loses its natural snow by May.
 
Tony Crocker":3o02eppq said:
February was not as good as last year in Vermont.
Click to expand...

It ain't over yet.

I assume you are saying that even if this week is an A, last year was better. Maybe we could get an A+ with extra credit! :D
 
As with SoCal I'm only rating weekends in Vermont. Some years that helps. This year it probably lowers the score a bit. Same here. Both Saturdays I skied at Baldy so far in 2008 it rained Saturday night and much of Sunday, so the the weekend scores were B and C even though my personal experiences were A and B.

There are 5 weekends in March this year, and Vermont is pretty much a lock for A on the first one if the forecasts are even close.

With regard to A+'s I've thought the scores might need a "powder adjustment" if I ever pursue Patrick's "where to live" project. Something like percent of days with at least 6 inches new (Riverc0il's criterion) and/or percent of days with at least 12 inches new. About 20% of December-March days at Jay Peak have 6 or more inches new.
 
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