Jay Peak, VT: 10/29/06

riverc0il

New member
\:D/

Day 3!!!

With two more days left in October and snow still falling at Jay, don't count me out for five days for the month before all is said and done.

Met up with Austin for the drive up to Jay Peak. Occasional flurries near the high point of I-91 got us jonesing but we knew the best was yet to come. Climbing up Route 242, there was a VERY definitive snow line between the rain and snow, although Jay probably got all rain at one point, they obviously had a pretty sweet change over Sunday morning. Not much snow in the parking lot, but it was starting to come down. By the time we reached the summit, it was puking!

We tracked up Jet then ducked into the Stateside Glade to skin in the trees due to wind on the open slope. The glade had decent coverage and base, though just a few inches short of being comforable. Fine for skinning though. Up Hells Crossing to Vermonter to the Summit and it got progressively deeper as we ascended. Base depths in the trees were significant. Vermonter base depths averaged between 4-20" I would imagine, I was able to nearly half burry my pole at 125cm legnth in some places. Not powder, very much like Stowe on Thursday... a fine dusting and a few inches of pow on an impressive deep and buffed base. Awesome turning conditions and no signs of thin cover.

Turns down Vermonter were sweet! :D Occasional wind buff and ice made things interesting. In a bizarre turn of weather, the snow turned to stinging ice pellets as we neared the summit even though it was fine snow just a few short vertical feet below.

Earlier today, I was wondering if something off the ridge woud be skiable. Say..... Valhalla? YUP!!! Excellent base depth despite a few spruce and saplings still sticking up. I clicked out of my bindings to climb up for a jump and went down to my thigh (I am 6'1" for some perspective!). Easily three feet deep in may places, though variable conditions persisted and it was hard to tell whether to carve an edge or ease into the powder. The snow got better the lower we got and I took a knee deep shot of pow while dancing in and out of some trees. Mighty impressive for any time of year, let alone October! I can't even imagine what tomorrow will be like. I plan on leaving work early for at least one run, so i will report back tomorrow.

I have a crap more pictures coming and some nice video from the afternoon. It may be a few days before I get to all that, especially the video, as I will be busy... doing.... well... you know. ;) Here is a sampling and I am sure Austin will jump on later with some more.
 

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damn!

You guys had the guts to face the gusting winds!

I was mountaint biking at Bromont sunday and on top, we could barely stand up... and it was blowing snow like crazy. The mountain was covered with an inch or two of snow... The summit of Bromont is not even the base for Jay Peak... Winds must have been awful!

Congratulation on your 3rd day in October! You REALLY earned your turns yesterday!
 
bvibert":o11d17gh said:
Sounds sick! Keep the pics coming and get to that video! Skip work if necessary! ;)
yea, but then when am i suppose to ski? ;)

in regards to the wind, it was blowing hard but it wasn't too bad until we got to near treeline at the top of vermonter where green beret and valhalla spilt. even at that point, it was more the frozen precip that was a pain. we almost got blown over a few times approaching the summit, but nothing i was too concerned about.

alright, i'm out! jay here i come!
 
riverc0il":xvqjyyjw said:
alright, i'm out! jay here i come!
:shock: :shock: :shock:

WTF???? :x This is the work throll *?%*8 sitting in a cube in front of his computer.

Seriously River, Go Go GO!!! Have Fun... :D \:D/ It should be beautiful...

Notice that Sutton was white from their webcam.
 
Here are my pictures:

Steve starting the skin up Jet
IMG_0680.jpg


Steve pondering whether the woods are skiable or not on the skin up
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Skinning
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Zoom of skinning
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Looking sweet
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Steve looking up
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One happy camper
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The happy camper getting some nice turns on Northway
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More skinning
IMG_0713.jpg


Random snowboarder having some fun
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I think it snowed a bit
IMG_0734.jpg


Checking out valhalla. So do you think it is deep enough?
IMG_0737.jpg


Two skiers near the top of the tram
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Steve on Vermonter
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IMG_0765.jpg


Looking down Vermonter
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More Steve on Vermonter
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Valhalla, defiantly skiable.
IMG_0787.jpg


Steve near the top of Valhalla
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IMG_0794.jpg


Nice turns near the bottom of Valhalla
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Air!
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Steve loves waterbars
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A very awesome untracked trail
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Jay Peak Video

Kindly right click and save to your computer prior to viewing, if you would please. Enjoy the video and take it easy on the skiers who were only on their first or third day skiing ;) Sorry for the low quality... depending on how quickly I am able to learn some new stuff, band width and file size will cease to be an issue hopefully before this season is over.
 
River, I just got a chance to watch the video and found that I really enjoyed your audio/video editing style. Is this one of your first efforts (It sounded like that from the post)? Anyway, you did some great work on it. What do you use for video cameras and editing software?

J.Spin
 
J.Spin":c6lid59t said:
River, I just got a chance to watch the video and found that I really enjoyed your audio/video editing style.

I agree. Now that Spin's back living in Vermont, it may be time for you guys to work together. It sure was nice seeing some familiar scenery from my old home hill, too.
 
thanks j.spin. i know you do videos too (i think i actually picked up some video tips from your web page a while back), so i appreciate your comments.

this is actually not my first video. i began shooting video last year and this is my 9th video, although i don't really count the first cannon video as being much more than an equipment test, so we'll call it 8 so far. the videos were shot using a panasonic PV-GS15 camcorder and edited using pinnacle stuido 9. the camcorder is a higher end of the intro consumer line, not that great and not too dependable in cold weather :? but gets the job done. i always have a really really hard time getting enough action shots to fill an entire song worth of video, i just squeeked this one out without having to use any pictures and panning. my other videos are available here:

http://www.thesnowway.com/videos.htm
 
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