A
Anonymous
Guest
Thought that I would contribute my thoughts on Jay Peak this past weekend in particular, and season long in general. Firstly, as a long time season passholder at Jay I have been very disappointed in the management of the mountain this season. The examples that I could site are numerous, but I will only mention the most glaring error: the foolhardy decision last fall to not do the normal undergrowth trimming in the glades, Jay's signature runs and raison d'être (too many man-hours spent on the golf course perhaps??). Even in a normal snow year the glades would still be skiing though knee to waist high shrubbery due to this omission. This season they are practically impassable and downright ugly from a visual perspective. One of my friends commented yesterday that he was scared to take his little one through the kiddie glade because the stuff poking up was taller that his daughter! Anyways, barring about 4 feet of snow the glades will be very poor this season.
On to this past weekend, Jan. 29-30. As usual the website snow report had no relationship to what the situation actually was on the mountain. Case in point, on Friday Can-Am, Vertigo and Deliverance and Powerline were listed as open, on the weekend they were closed. Speaking of Can-Am, both it and Exhibition, which had received snowmaking during the week, naturally were CLOSED! Classic Jay, blow snow so as to close a trail. It was very frustrating to see these well buried trails closed while the rest of the mountain was either very icy (most of the groomed trails after about 11:00am) or very bare with lots of rocks, grass and stumps (everything ungroomed). One would ride up the Bonaventure Quad looking down at Liftline and seeing more non-snow stuff than snow, and it was open, and then look to your right and see Can-Am beautifully white from side to side and closed. In terms of glades they are still very lean with an ice base, what I call skiable, but not ski friendly. If you like your $1000 skis the only glade one can ski is Expo. Trails like the Haynes, Jet and The Derrick became true skating rinks in the afternoons. It was quite amusing to watch the tourists trying to negotiate the first 100 yards of the Jet which largely was better ice than that which I played college hockey on. The UN and Kitzbuel were largely medium sized bumps separated by ice rinks. Even the teenage idiots were avoiding them.
In summary, with no snow in the forecast, Jay is not the place to be. Those of us with season passes just have to grin and bear it and hope that Ullr smiles on us in the next two months.
On to this past weekend, Jan. 29-30. As usual the website snow report had no relationship to what the situation actually was on the mountain. Case in point, on Friday Can-Am, Vertigo and Deliverance and Powerline were listed as open, on the weekend they were closed. Speaking of Can-Am, both it and Exhibition, which had received snowmaking during the week, naturally were CLOSED! Classic Jay, blow snow so as to close a trail. It was very frustrating to see these well buried trails closed while the rest of the mountain was either very icy (most of the groomed trails after about 11:00am) or very bare with lots of rocks, grass and stumps (everything ungroomed). One would ride up the Bonaventure Quad looking down at Liftline and seeing more non-snow stuff than snow, and it was open, and then look to your right and see Can-Am beautifully white from side to side and closed. In terms of glades they are still very lean with an ice base, what I call skiable, but not ski friendly. If you like your $1000 skis the only glade one can ski is Expo. Trails like the Haynes, Jet and The Derrick became true skating rinks in the afternoons. It was quite amusing to watch the tourists trying to negotiate the first 100 yards of the Jet which largely was better ice than that which I played college hockey on. The UN and Kitzbuel were largely medium sized bumps separated by ice rinks. Even the teenage idiots were avoiding them.
In summary, with no snow in the forecast, Jay is not the place to be. Those of us with season passes just have to grin and bear it and hope that Ullr smiles on us in the next two months.
