Early season Jay?

[Kimmyt]

So, The Boy and I are going to go on a mini-road trip during the time I get off in between the Christmas and New Years holidays. My company shuts for the whole week or two so I've got some free vacation and I think we're going to risk a trip up north to see if we can get some early season skiing in (sad that last year in CO his early season skiing was in October, now we're worried and it'll be in late December!).

We figure the safest bet will be Jay since it's far north and gets some weather. We've been there before and like the no-frills aspect of it. Plan on staying in the Super8 in Newport to save $$ and then also we can decide to go to Stowe or Smuggs depending (not sure on the distance, but I think I remember them all being sorta close together?). Will probably be eating canned tuna and ham sammies.

I know you can't really predict anything for the NE in early season, but any Divas have input on the likelihood of at least a few decent trails being open at Jay? I know there are some locals on here, I don't need all trails to be open, but I'd sure feel alot better if someone would say, 'well most years theres at least X amount of trails open by then...'

Haven't booked yet so depending on the answer maybe we'll be staying home with the fam...

K.

 

[Jilly]

Well Jay is to open this weekend. That help. "That's a girl" is our local expert on Jay. Hopefully she weight in on this for you.

 

[Jilly]

If you have no snow and are still dreaming of skiing, DO NOT look at the Jay Peak website. They have 15 runs open today with about 2 ft of snow. Thatsagirl - where is your report!! Some of us are only dreaming!!

 

[Severine]

You should see the photos and video on AZ from Jay Peak's opening day! Beautious!

That said, from what I've been told (having never been there, so take it for what it's worth...) Jay Peak is heavily dependent on natural snow. Which it's very hard to predict what that will be like at any given time in New England, seeing as the weather is constantly changing. I do believe that they're off to a great start this season, at least. And I would think that late December would be a safe bet. But again, I'm no expert on that area.

 

[abc]

I don't ski till after New Year.

And even that, I've hit really marginal situations in some years.

My approach for early season is to look at snowmaking capability. If the weather is cold enough, resorts will be making snow like crazy. So, if nature cooperates, you have freshies on top of nice thick base. And if not, you at least have enough man-made snow to ski on.

Of the last 10-15 years, it's rare there's enough natural snow by X'mas time for good skiing without the help of man-made snow in central Vermont. Whether Jay Peak does or not, of course, I don't have any idea.

Did I just brought the thread back to the original question without answering it?

 

[Kimmyt]

Jay Peak has some snowmaking, but from what I remember not nearly as much as the more commercial resorts further south. They talk and talk about their Jay Cloud and it does seem like they get more weather than most other places, though that could just be hype or the locals rubbing it in our faces (hehe). Anyway, we booked at the Super8 in Newport because it was pretty cheap, and we were jonesing. My company shuts down over the holidays so even though there's holiday crowds, I like to try and take advantage of the 'free' days off.

The skis are in the shop and getting waxed and tuned... waiting for my boot back from binding adjustment to start vacuuming the house (since Epic told me that was the best way to break in my boots!). I've never been this excited to do housework before!

K.

 

[Jilly]

If you want to take a look at skiing Jay, check in with the Tremblant-insider.com. Click on the chat room, then click on MSSI threads. Russ just posted video's from Saturday.

 

[lv2ski]

Jay-cast

It is hard to predict, but I would think the lower mountain should be pretty skiable (and snow-making trails) by then. Jay does need adaquet fresh stuff b/c of some heavy traffic trails and areas that get windblown, but some of the lower glades and less busy trails can be a blast if open. Oh, check out the Hotel Jay for fair prices, great food and slopeside location

 

[Thatsagirl]

ACK! I have been so busy skiing, I haven't checked out the forums in awhile. Let's see, how's the snow at Jay?

"Opening of the Heavens Day" at Jay, 11/17/07:

One of the best opening days in years. This is me showing some skinny-ski steeze on Kitzbuehel (62cm underfoot). I laid down the 4th set of tracks. It was so awesome, we went back up and did another lap:

Jay, 11/25/07:

I bought a new camera, and since I was practicing with it, there are no pics of me, but this is my husband and personal patroller:

And some sunsets that afternoon from the top of the blue chair...

All the patrollers have reported to the top of the blue for sweep. While they huddle inside, their skis stand guard over the mountain. That’s the top of the tram on the distant peak.

Here’s my husband contemplating his navel. Or maybe he’s watching the sunset? Stowe, Sugarbush and Mad River Glen are in the distance.

This is the last one I took before we headed down for sweep. Could have taken a lot more, the sky just kept getting more and more brilliant, but no time to stop and dilly dally...there was work to be done.

Jay, Tuesday, 12/4/07:

The snow started Sunday night, fell all day Monday, continued to fall overnight, and the forecast said it would snow all day Tuesday. Mother Nature did not disappoint. We found about 30 inches of goodness when we got to Jay Peak. For a Tuesday at Jay, it was pretty crowded. Guess a bad case of the flu was going around New England. I should also mention that it snowed all day Tuesday.

The day started out very hectic because the mountain wanted to open up the Bonaventure chair and as much new terrain as possible. Lucky me, they needed the manpower, so I was assigned Green Mountain Boys for trail check. My husband did the product testing on Racer. It’s hard to be the first one down a trail for the season. You just never know what you’ll find. I’m sure you all feel very sorry for us. We both discovered about three feet of perfectly billowy snow, no surprises lurking beneath, and floated down the mountain laughing the whole way. Great warm-up run! No pictures of that, because we were working.

I’m not working—at least not too hard—in this photo:

Or in this one:

It was a rather windy day, so we headed into the woods to check out the snow there:

Kitz Woods was a winter wonderland. Help, I think I’m lost. Wait, I do see some trails over in the distance:

As I pondered my options, my personal patroller came to the rescue (he was so intent on rescuing me, he realized he left his goggles in the patrol shack ):

Honestly, we didn’t take a whole lot of pictures, we were having too much fun skiing after all the work we did opening up new terrain on the mountain. The woods all over the mountain were beyond delightful. And just because we could, we took our first Dip run of the season. It had been plundered, but we still found some hidden treasures. On December 4, 2007. What do you think about that?

At this point, we've been getting flurries every single day. Jay's gotten about 37 inches since Sunday night when the storm arrived. Most of the mountain is open and very skiable and they continue to open more every day. They are making snow as well.

So, Kimmyt, I think you made the right decision to book your trip. Let me know the dates you're up here, and hopefully we can arrange to hook up for a locals' tour.

Thatsagirl

 

[Kimmyt]

i think i just had a skigasm

 

[SkiNurse]

Excellent pictures...thanks for sharing.

Are you wearing a Patriot SV jacket??

And if you are, how do you like it?

 

[Thatsagirl]

i think i just had a skigasm

:ROTF:

I'm sorry...

Are you wearing a Patriot SV jacket??

And if you are, how do you like it?

I have the Javelin SV jacket. It's a shell jacket with 3-layer Gore-Tex, whereas the Patriot SV is 2-layer Gore-Tex. So I'm not sure how they would compare. Here on the East Coast, we tend to get that "r word" in the winter so the 3-layer Gore-Tex keeps me especially dry. Also, Jay is very windy, and that extra layer of Gore-tex helps immensely. I have a few different layering systems that work underneath it, and I am able to stay "just right," whether it's -25 F or 65 F outside. I also use this jacket for hiking and kayaking, and used it on a trip to Alaska in August when it was chilly and rainy. Excellent all-around jacket. I'm certainly getting my money'sworth (which, BTW, I got a deal on it through Sierra Trading Post, $169 instead of retail $450).