Jay/Bolton/Bush, 2/4-6/00

[GregB]

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 2/7/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>2/4 Friday at Jay Peak Vt. <BR>I went to Jay for my first time with my friend Jeff who is an intermediate skier. On the Freezer by 9:30 we did a few groomed cruisers to warm up. Northway to lower Kitzbuehel. Soft packed powder Mctrail. We went up the Jet triple and I was salivating looking at all the powder and bumps on Jet, U.N., and Haynes. I convinced Jeff to try Jet and that would give me a clue as to whether he could handle the non-groomers. At the bottom of the steeper section I waited about 20 minutes for him to pick his way down the sweet powder moguls. He decided that groomers were all he wanted to do so I was, "I'll meet you at the bottom of the lift" for the rest of the day. U.N. and upper Kitzbuehel had lots of chowder and huge powder bumps. Kitzbuehel is and awesome trail. Classic steep New England twister. Stateside woods had lots of untracked wind packed pow that was tough to turn in. We headed to the Bonaventure chair. Powerline is a sweet trail. Nice double fall line on skiers left. Powder, chowder, rocks, ice, stumps, it was all there. Can Am to Liftline was nice but the natural snow trails had better snow and less scratch underneath the powder. Canyon Land woods were sweet too. Next we headed up the Tram. The chutes off the tram were open I think but I never saw anyone on them. I didn't want to ski them alone so we headed down Vermonter. I went down Green Beret. I was a little scratchy but still very nice. Back up the Jet triple to do Kitz Woods. Nice soft powder mounds everywhere. Finished off the day down JFK to Everglade. I love Jay and I will definitely be back soon. Blue jay day with no wind and seasonable temps. Liftlines were non-existant. Tram was down for awhile in the afternoon. Why does Jay have to be so far away. <BR> <BR>2/5 Saturday at Bolton Valley Vt. <BR>Jeff wanted to bring his eleven year old step son to Bolton for his second time on skied. I had a Vermont Youth Corp. ticket for Bolton so what the hell. A late start got us in the lodge about 10:30. We started on the bunny slope and within an hour he was snow plowing off of the summit. Kids learn fast. Jeff and his son went off to snow plow the groomers which gave me the chance to explore some of Bolton's natural snow expert terrain and glades. I have never skied Bolton when the natural snow trails were open. Vermont 200, Show Off, Preacher, and Devils Playground were all scratchy ice, rocks, powder, and saplings with lots of soft snow. Surprisingly challenging. Then I headed over to the Wilderness chair. The bottom part before the mid-station is totally flat. I went to the top of Ricker Peak and headed down Bolton Outlaw. More rocks and powder. Very sweet but way too short. Not worth a second trip up so at the mid-station I took crossover to the main mountain and headed over to the Timberline Quad. All the trails off of this lift were natural snow due to a water problem with the snowmaking over there and little grooming was done. The skiers right of Brandywine was sweet chowder and pow. Tattletale was closed. Spellbinder was very sweet with large saplings on the headwall with tons of powder everywhere. Lost Boyz is a short steep glade with lots of freshies to be had. Many runs off of Timberline made the legs Jell-O and I was done by 4:00. Small liftline all day with maybe a 5 min. wait on the Mountain double being the longest. Snow showers during the afternoon but not much accumulation. I hope Bolton makes it but try to give them the business if you can. Definitely worth it when the natural trails are open. <BR> <BR>2/6 Sunday at Sugarbush Vt. <BR>My friend Eke and his girlfriend came up for the weekend and he wanted to learn how to ski. 3-6" of freshies. Wind was nasty. It was hard to walk up to the lodge. I was fearful of wind held lifts but it never happened. His girl friend claimed to be a good skier so we stuck him in the ASC four hour learn to ski clinic and head up the Gatehouse quad to the North Lynx triple to do a groomer to warm up and I could see her abilities to judge whether she could handle the non-Mctrails. Birch Run, Waterfall, Hotshot. Effortless groomed packed powder. My assessment that she should stick to the groomers. I have never been to the Bush when Castlerock was open before but I didn't want to leave her alone so I had to come up with a plan. I knew she was out of shape so I brought her up Heaven's Gate and did a non-stop run down Jester and Murphy's. My plan was working. Her legs were burning and her toes were cold. She wanted to sit in the way overcrowded lodge to warm up which gave me my chance to escape to Castlerock for my virgin runs. It was about 10:00 when I got to the Castlerock double and there was maybe eight people in line. I tried Middle Earth. Lots and lots and lots of moguls. The back sides were pretty scraped down already to rock and ice with big mounds of fluff on the tops. Very sweet trail. When I got the bottom again the line for the double was getting longer now. Maybe a five minute wait. Next was Castlerock Run. Same conditions as Middle Earth. The line for the lift was getting longer but skiing single lets you cut the line most times. Liftline looked pretty scraped off so I wimped on that and did about four more runs down Middle Earth and Castlerock run and Cotillion. My legs were getting rubbery so I went back to the bottom to check out Twist, Mall, and Moonshine. From the bottom I could see that everything to the right of the Mall was closed so I said screw it. I watched Eke on the bunny trail for awhile and had some great laughs. I took another ride up to North Lynx Peak with Eke's girlfriend. She did Birch, I did Sunrise. Sunrise had huge chalky bumps with pow on top. The skiers left was the best place to be. We met at the top of the Gatehouse quad and did Sleeper Chutes to the bottom. The middle of the trail on the groomers were getting scraped down to ice due to high traffic. The longest lift line was on the Gatehouse Quad for whatever reason. Maybe 5-10 minutes at the most. Other than Castlerock the other lifts had little to no line. The sun was out all day and you could avoid the wind with good lift selection. Man is that Gatehouse lodge way too small. It was packed to the gill and full of lots of rude people. <BR> <BR>Three days of sloppy seconds, sloppy thirds, moguls, moguls, and more moguls, good friends and good times. Body is tired. F the man!