Closing trails to make snow???

For the 1st time saw Jay Peak make a weird decision that effected their product on the snow.  Previously I thought Jay was close to perfect in just about everyting they do - well I guess nobody is perfect

Jay closes trails when they blow snow on them.  I was told by a local that this is a very standard practice there.  They were blowing on a major blue trail near the Bonnie lift and becuase of this they closed every major trail connecting Tram side with Stateside.  It forced all the intermediate traffic essentially on one trail all day so that was quite a hockey rink by days end.  I felt really bad for all the people vacationing there especially with kids.




You can see the clouds where they were blowing on Angles Wiggle.  The groomers that come anywhere near this or feed into it were all closed all day.

It reduces liability and allows the snow makers freedom to place thier equipment where it will do the most good.
For them it could be the smart choice.

DackerDan wrote

It reduces liability and allows the snow makers freedom to place thier equipment where it will do the most good.
For them it could be the smart choice.

I agree with Dan. Jay tends to focus their snowmaking on smaller areas at one time. If guns were blowing on the Wiggle, it must have been horrendous before they started. That run can be a gongshow when it is icy.

Funny thing, when I read TRs on this site where people comment about "skiing under the guns," I am kind of surprised. What, they let you do that? Closing trails for snowmaking has been Jay's way for as long as I can remember. The couple of times I have skied under a rope and run the guns was more of an arctic whiteout adventure than an enjoyable ski experience.

I just can't imagine Whiteface, Gore, or Killington shutting down a good chunk of their blue terrian to blow only ONE trail.  We had skied it the day before and it had snow on it.  I guess when you rely more on mother nature blowing snow is a bigger deal when you do blow snow but where Eastern skiing be without skiing under guns?  It is just part of the deal for most of us.

Now that I think about it I did not see a single snowmaker.  Maybe they only set the guns up at night and run them all day unattended.  Whiteface has two shifts of snowmakers and they move the guns around and adjust them during the day.  They were blowing huge whales and the problem with that is its more work for the groomers to move them around.  They were doing that on one of the Tram side runs that they had blown the day before and it took them all day to groom one slope. Based on standard practices elsewhere it seems a very inefficient.  Like I said noboby is perfect and this may be Jay's weak spot.

Our group of experienced ski pros all commented that this was not very customer friendly to cut your blue trail count and seemed to be odd compared to what we all were used to.

Hawkeye was closed wed , they weren't using the towers ,had ratnicks? with hoses pulled across the trail. I've also been there when other blue trails, Showcase and Quicksilver, were closed probably for the same reason , ground guns across the trail.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Funny thing, when I read TRs on this site where people comment about "skiing under the guns," I am kind of surprised. What, they let you do that? Closing trails for snowmaking has been Jay's way for as long as I can remember. The couple of times I have skied under a rope and run the guns was more of an arctic whiteout adventure than an enjoyable ski experience.

LOL. SBR we NY Skiers just WANT it more. Or maybe we get it (real snow) less.  And our GMs know it.

If you look through early season TRs, at times the only really decent skiing is under the guns.

Yeah and I ruined a pair of goggles in January after the warm-up one day when they were pounding a few trails all day and that snow was the only decent surface on the mountain.  My old gloves had a squeegee thing on one of the thumbs....it came in handy...too bad my new ones aren't equipped the same way.

Very common practice at a lot of ski areas. It just makes sense from a risk management standpoint as well as exemplifying a focus on customer service. probably not stats available, but it doesn't take a lot to imagine how many twisted knees result from skiing through gack.

DackerDan wrote

It reduces liability and allows the snow makers freedom to place thier equipment where it will do the most good.
For them it could be the smart choice.