Jay Peak: Playing the Long Game

Three weeks ago Doug Fish of Indy Pass sent me an email. “I’m coming East, here’s my schedule. When are we skiing together?” I looked at his itinerary and started to weigh my options. I needed some time.

Jay Peak

When it comes to weather, the farthest out I look is 240 hours. Each day, I do one simple thing; I check the GFS 240 hour snowfall map for the CONUS (aka Continental US). By noting the difference in the map vs the previous day, I can see if the GFS is seeing snow on that 10th day. Sometimes I leave a browser tab open and refresh it each morning, to more easily see the change in the modeled storm overnight. It’s a bit of a game as storm tracks flip back and forth each day.

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Magic Mountain: Rising Above

By Saturday morning, I was pretty much locked in to skiing Magic even though the storm had clearly favored some other hills. As the projected storm track moved around the map the preceding week, I surveyed which Indy Pass resorts might be good for the weekend.

Indy Pass tickets

The incoming snow storm was doubly exciting because I could break out my new-to-me powder skis, a pair of On3P Billy Goats I’d picked up from a fellow NYSB’er at the end of last winter. Magic looked good for a while so I made plans to visit on Saturday with my sons. I had some family business to conduct in Albany so I figured I could combine trips.

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Killington World Cup 2021

Some mean-spirited wind cut short the first day of the Killington World Cup 2021. After the first nine racers — including America’s darling Mikaela Shiffrin — took their chances on an icy Superstar run, officials decided to cancel the days event. The snowy gusts kept tripping up the finish line lasers and the day looked potentially dangerous, and that was that.

Killington World Cup crowd

The band O.A.R. saved the day from being a complete blowout as they played a blistering set in the cold, warming up the disappointed crowd. Singer/guitarist Marc Roberge did a great job taking on party central as the crowd sang along to the bands upbeat hits.

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