Jay Peak, VT: 4/21/11

The kids were up at 6, ready to go. You’d think that with a season of real early mornings and real late nights, a guy in the ski industry could sleep in because someone else is taking care of everything, but not in this family — it was time for first tracks.

Midwinter conditions and snow at Jay today. Very windy, all high-speed lifts were closed including the tram. We all stepped out of the condo and yarned back on the bridal as the sub freezing temps hit us like a ton of bricks. We layered up and prepared ourselves for a mid-winter day. We skied down to the base lodge alongside the magic carpet.

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Plattekill Skis Jay Peak VT

Jay PeakHave you ever wondered what it’s like for an owner of a ski area to visit another resort? Is he constantly checking out the lifts, the prices of food, if the ticket people are friendly, or the kind of snowmaking guns they use? Or is the idea to get away, forget about your profession for a few days and just ski — and let someone else deal with things?

This week, Laszlo Vajtay, owner of Plattekill in the western Catskills, is skiing with his family at Jay Peak in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. He’ll be checking in with reports about his vacation: skiing, food, accommodations, skating, curling, or just hanging out with the kids. Here’s the first installment, about his arrival at Jay.

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Jay Peak, VT: 3/2/11

Northeast Ski Blogger Summit Day 1: I’ve been imagining skiing Jay Peak since 1999. I was working late one night in December and started fantasizing.

Stateside

I googled “best powder in the east” and I found Jay Peak’s website. It sounded perfect to me. Tons of snow and trees.

After a long drive last night, we woke up this morning at 6:30 and it started to snow at 7 am.

Bonaventure

The forecast was for 1-2 inches, but I was hoping for some of that legendary Jay magic. When we got to the mountain at 9 am, it was really coming down, and it snowed until 2:30.

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