Jay Peak Conditions

Ah yes, we share the pain. My one visit to Whiteface, many, many moons ago, did remind me Jay. Toss of the dice, really, growing up in Montreal, could have become a Whiteface skier almost as easily as becoming a Jay skier.

Jay Peak reporting 10" at the base 13" up top.

Another 3-5 today

I am not at Jay right now but my nephew is. He sent this report from the hill about an hour ago:

Pudd wrote

Bombing rain lots of snow but you need to stay on the man made
Natural is like mashed potatoes

Better than doing a puzzle

Pudd

So, we arrived at Jay after the aforementioned rain had finished and what snow remained had turned to concrete. Jonny Jay and I skied anyways, because, well, that's what we do. Both of us are a bit twisted that way, and take real delight in making the best of bad conditions.

Things are changing though, there was some fresh snow this morning and I sampled it before leaving. More is on the way. The base should be there until June.

Never seen Jay having to defend so much on Facebook. Don't really get giving mountains shit on FB.

To Jay's credit they always embrace and engage.

Harvey wrote

Don't really get giving mountains shit on FB.

It's one snarky society these days.

Harvey wrote

Never seen Jay having to defend so much on Facebook. Don't really get giving mountains shit on FB.

To Jay's credit they always embrace and engage.

I didn't see the comments you are referring too but the photos they posted yesterday were not truly representative of the conditions. Intrepid explorers, and those posing for photo shoots, would find spots of windblown pow covering rutted frozen concrete, stumps and stream beds. Not to mention the fact that the pics were taken on closed runs.

Having said that, runs with a man made base were pretty sweet compared to the previous few days.

This should calm down the haters:



I had been waffling about whether to get a fatbike but after seeing this, I think my mind is made up.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

 

I had been waffling  

Harvey wrote

Never seen Jay having to defend so much on Facebook. Don't really get giving mountains shit on FB.

To Jay's credit they always embrace and engage.

It's a snoloco world now. We're all just living in it.

Jay Peak's FB post yesterday was great. It basically said "we will sell you a lift ticket if you really want one but we'd rather not sell you a ticket" or something to that effect. It sounds like they just opened for the one or two crazies staying at the mountain that had already purchased their ski vacation and would want to ski no matter what. Jay definitely goes a bit crazy posting powder puff pics taken off map and isolated areas that are not representative of the real conditions. But they also are pretty straight when conditions are truly terrible. They were the only ski area that I saw on social media yesterday that basically said "please don't bother coming". Compared to Cannon which posted to FB bragging about their new snow... one of my coworkers went and skied two runs before leaving and said it was atrocious. Cannon has far worse social media and snow conditions reporting than Jay... very sad for Cannon IMO as they used to be one of the best. But Jay is actually one of the better areas at calling a spade a spade when conditions truly suck.

Just a thought FWIW about the Jay FB bashing Harv mentioned. Lately, there's been a rash of posters on the net who tend to bash as a group. Examples of this occur in the comment sections of news articles. There you can see what are obviously foreign writers ( poor linguistics ) posing as western people and then supporting/espousing things that are not usually supported/espoused by most other posters. The western writers posting then call them out on it.

So, wonder if this is also happening when it comes to ski resorts ? That is, non Jay fans or Jay competitors or their supporters bash on Jay, etc.

I admit it's a bit of a stretch, but totally plausible in this day and age.

riverc0il wrote

Jay Peak's FB post yesterday was great. It basically said "we will sell you a lift ticket if you really want one but we'd rather not sell you a ticket" or something to that effect. It sounds like they just opened for the one or two crazies staying at the mountain that had already purchased their ski vacation and would want to ski no matter what. Jay definitely goes a bit crazy posting powder puff pics taken off map and isolated areas that are not representative of the real conditions. But they also are pretty straight when conditions are truly terrible. They were the only ski area that I saw on social media yesterday that basically said "please don't bother coming". Compared to Cannon which posted to FB bragging about their new snow... one of my coworkers went and skied two runs before leaving and said it was atrocious. Cannon has far worse social media and snow conditions reporting than Jay... very sad for Cannon IMO as they used to be one of the best. But Jay is actually one of the better areas at calling a spade a spade when conditions truly suck.

Fair enough and I had the same thoughts about the recent snow reports. My beef with Jan. 2 report sprung from the fact that I skied there that morning. One could easily see see how those pictures could have been made but also realize that the trees were a long way from prime time.

SBR here, reporting live from Vermont. Not sure how long this connection will last, so I'll make it short.  I am jammed between a bed and a table at an upstairs window poaching the neighbour's wifi. Jay conditions are pretty good. Not great but pretty good. Six inches of fresh dense snow on top of last night's grooming really helped those of us who got there early, and I was one of them.

After I rolled into town yesterday, I had enough late afternoon light to head of Mt. Trixie. It was cold but very nice.



Today I went to the mountain. Between 8.30 and 10 am was fantastic, after that, OK. Somehow I managed to get first tracks on Powerline at 9.30 am. Huh.



Less popular glades were pretty nice. More popular glades were tracked out and mogully. A less popular one:



And then there was this:



More later. SBR over and out.

So, I forgot about the time change but it didn't really make much difference being an hour late. Another 6 inches overnight, another fine day at JPR. Had a surprise powder run through the terrain park under the tram. I guess the park factor scared everyone away and the park types weren't around. Boot top pow around all the features! Very fun. No worthwhile pics - too cloudy. Snowed all day, good sign for tomorrow. All clocks reset.

If you read the JPR snow report this morning, you might have thought, "oh, poor SBR, there is another five inches of snow." That five turned into a surprise deep powder day. As the cool kids say, it did not suck. Knee deep in some places. And, of course, with the wind, there was no snow in some other places. Then the sun came out. Still able to find a few untracked rabbit holes in the afternoon.  

Honestly, one of my top ten days at Jay, and I have had many days at Jay.

Pics?

Harvey wrote

Pics?

Pics will come later. This connection is like dial-up and I need to eat. Harv, remember NSBS at Jay Peak, day one? It was kind of like that.

Sounds like I made the wrong call going to Smuggs on Sunday, only one inch there...

...still better terrain, though.



Glad you scored some surprise powder! Surprise powder days are the best.