Ski Safari days 2, 3 and 4 at Jay. After hearing about it for so long I finally made it up to Jay Peak to check it out for myself, and I can say that it lived up to its reputation. Apologies as this is kind of a hybrid conditions and trip report:
I got a pretty good last minute deal on a ski in / ski out condo that had two extra bedrooms and plenty of space. Kleetus was already planning on skiing SugarBush on Sunday and despite not having an Indy Pass, I convinced him to come stay with me at Jay and ski at least 1 day - he ended up skiing 2.
Day 1 Monday - We got right after it. It had snowed maybe an inch/1.5 the night before, and on our first lift up the Bonadventure Kleetus pointed out the Deliverance "Glade" visible from the lift, and said it was one of the harder runs on the mountain and we could do it at some point. I could see that it was completely untouched and I said something to the effect of "Let's just do it first". It was the right call. I wouldn't call it a glade, so much as a narrow tight steep chute through the trees that required several jump turns. As we skied it we uncovered plenty of rocks along the way that made me glad we did it first thing. The day continued and Kleetus took me in pretty much all the other glades on the mountain. Within an hour we weren't getting first tracks but everything was skiing nicely:
I want to say this was Hell's Woods?
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The glades off the upper mountain were technically closed because they were blowing on NorthWay and didn't want people skiing it, but Kleetus convinced me to poach Valhalla with him. It was worth it:
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Day 2 Tuesday - Wind Hold. Most of the mountain went on wind hold by late morning and what was open was more of the same as the previous day, though things were getting a bit fast and skied in. We spent most of the day lapping the glades and trails off the Jet lift.
Today - When I arrived this morning everything but the Jet was pretty much on wind hold, or had mechanical issues. It was a bit of a bummer, but by lunch time they did get the Flyer open. The one easier lower mountain glade I hadn't done yet because NorthWay had been closed this whole time was CanyonLand. I finally got into it today and it was awesome. Nobody had been in there the past few days:
I never got the waist deep powder shots I see in the pictures of Jay, but they have a solid base, with the whole place pretty much in play. Given how this season has been going farther south, Jay was a welcome treat.
