Jay Peak, VT: 2/6/10

I’m in northern VT for the weekend on my way to several days in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Left my office in northern NJ at 6 pm last night. Stopped to send some e-mails at the best highway rest stop in all of North America: the one on northbound I-81 in Guilford VT, just before Brattleboro.

By 11 pm, while driving past White River Junction, I was falling asleep at the wheel, so I pulled off, drove into a church parking lot, cranked the seat back and fell asleep. Woke up at 3 am, and I’m pretty sure that it was near zero outside, and not much warmer inside the car. In my 20s, I used to do the sleep-in-the-car routine occasionally, but I’m getting too old for this crap. It’ll take me two spa treatments for my neck and back to recover.

A tale of two ski areas today: extremely soft, dry snow in the woods, connected by scratchy boilerplate (left from the rain 12 days ago) on the groomers and mogul trails. While a certain pessimistic NYSB’er who shall remain nameless (Jason) was calling BS on Jay’s report of 20 inches since Monday, I can tell you that the snow in the woods certainly looked and felt like it.

But that wasn’t the whole story: there is still icy styrofoam wherever people have skied a lot (both on-piste and off), so you had to step daintily in places.

6 comments on “Jay Peak, VT: 2/6/10

  1. With that much snow, the Dip must have been in good shape? or maybe too steep with the crust under it?

  2. “Stopped to send some e-mails at the best highway rest stop in all of North America: the one on northbound I-81 in Guilford VT, just before Brattleboro.”

    Absolutely the best! Open 24/7. Next time, pick up a free copy of Vermont Sports (http://www.vtsports.com/).

  3. Bill jumping in with the product plug. 😉

    Yep, I sat in one of those ultra comfortable wooden rocking chairs next to a wood stove for half an hour, while mooching off their WiFi. Felt very civilized.

  4. Wrong — it was Chateau de Kia! Waking up at 3 am freezing and with a stiff neck and back… priceless.

    Oh well, things have changed for the better. I think that you’d agree with tonight’s accommodations.

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