Jay Peak April 12-14

We took a road trip over to Jay Peak with a buddy of my sons from NYSEF.  His friend is really the only other good skier is my son’s class and he is in the freestyle program at NYSEF.  Jay had some great deals on lodging packages and we learned for the past you get to ski on your check in day for free if you buy a two+ night package. The 3 days lift tickets would have cost more than the whole lodging package.  We stayed in the new Timberline Condos which were very nice.

Saturday was a perfect spring ski day at Jay.  Temps were in the 40’s and it was sunny. We had a great time skiing all the glades.  My favorites of the day were Canyonland which has a nice steep pitch.  Everglade which is probably the longest glade at Jay at I’m guessing 1500 vert.  It starts very steep and tight and finishes mellow.  And the perpetual favorite Beaver Pond Glade which I just wish was longer.  We skied until 4 and then the boys hit the water park while I watched the Masters.  My son’s buddy’s dad is a chef as well as an instructor at Whiteface so we ate with them in their Golf course Cottage they had booked and we had a great meal.  I heard that the Golf Cottages were prefab while the Timberlines were stick built.



Sunday was supposed to be 55 degrees but Mother Nature threw us a curve ball.  It rained in the morning and then the temps dropped and it was 34 degrees at 9 when we loaded the Bonnie Lift.  On our 1st ride up it was calm until we hit the cloud layer and then the chair was almost hitting the towers.  That was it for the Bonnie Lift and they shut it down.  So we spent the day over in the Jet area as that was all that was open.  It really was not that crowded as the temps, early rain and lack of sun had them packed in at the water park I heard.  Off the groomed was crunchy until about 10:30 but by noon we the trees were back in play.  We had a great time skiing the Kitz and Timbuktu glades.   I seem to usually over look these areas for trees elsewhere but they are top notch glades.  The boys headed off to the waterpark at lunch and I had the glades practically to myself all afternoon.





My son bashing thru big soft bumps

Our friends had to go back to work on Monday so we had my son’s friend stay with us Sunday night and we experienced summer skiing on Monday.  It was sunny and 61 degrees for first chair.  The groomed corn on runs like Jet and Haynes was sublime first thing.  The ungroomed stuff looked like the face of the moon first thing but by mid-morning it seemed to improve and we some great bump runs on CanAm skiing huge soft bumps.  It was interesting to watch the two boys ski bumps.  Both are exceptionally strong skiers for 5th graders.  My son is the racer and skis the bumps on his edges while his buddy being a freestyler has that smooth fast zipper line technique.  Both boys were getting lots of compliments from the people riding on the lift over the bumps.  It seemed like they were getting a charge out of drawing hoots from people.  By lunch time the snow was turning to mank as it over cooked and the winds picked up so we called it a day and drove home.  We had 3 really different days and experienced spring, winter, and summer. Jay has the best glades anywhere East or West - only Steamboat's tree skiing comes close in my book.


Snow melt running down snow


My sons buddy

Looks great. Hoping it snows a bit there this week for our trip this weekend to Jay.

Thanks for sharing this, Jet is one of my favorite runs on the mountain.

Coach Z wrote

Jay has the best glades anywhere East or West - only Steamboat's tree skiing comes close in my book.

Nice report. Jays best tree skiing isn't on the map. Not sure if you did any exploring but be sure to do so if not. Smuggs has better trees, make sure you get up there if you haven't yet.

There seems to be a missing helmet

Gorefarmhouse wrote

There seems to be a missing helmet

It was 70 degrees and his race helmet does not have good vents.  We were not going into the woods on the last 2 runs and were just skiing huge slushy bumps which makes you go slow so I made a decision to let him take his helmet off since I was ditching mine.

riverc0il wrote

Smuggs has better trees

You may have mentioned that opinion on your blog, but I missed it. Can we quote you on that? Oh, I just did.

I've skied the trees at Smuggs

Jay peaks are better and the shear volume of them keeps them from getting skied out

The one thing I don't like about Jay is the run out on the bottom of the Tramside

Jay trees not skied out? My goodness, I couldn't disagree more.

Jay does have a lot more on map trees than Smuggs. Most of Smuggs trees are very much off the map. Also a difference of Jay's being really wide open whereas and generally low angle whereas Smuggs are a bit tighter and steeper.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. No run out at Smuggs, either. Kokomo & Ullr's run outs are the pits.

Jamesdeluxe wrote

You may have mentioned that opinion on your blog, but I missed it. Can we quote you on that? Oh, I just did.

I've mentioned it just about everywhere for the past three years since I started skiing there. Maybe I should shut up about it.

You can quote me on that. With the understanding that when I say "trees" I'm not just talking about what is on the map.