Jay Peak 2/23 morning report

[Sharon]

The only lifts running are the Metro and Bonnie. We headed out the door at 8:50 and got right on the Metro. Patrick had to get a lift ticket so we lost him right away. The "no friends on a powder day rule" was in effect. Sorry Patrick.

We went right over to the Bonnie and the first person I see in line is Skimore. We rode the lift with his friends who told us that they started driving home yesterday to catch flights back to Milwalkee, WI and realized it was the wrong thing to do. So they turned back to ski another day. They may even change their flights again if this keeps up. Our plans have certainly been extended.

Since the Bonnie was all their was, we found a creative entrance into Canyonlands and enjoyed some deep and fresh snow. We then traversed over to Expo Glade and we were treated to freshies in there as well.

Next run we did the unnamed trees past Milk Run and there was plenty of fresh in there

We attempted the drainage ravine. It was untracked so it took some effort to get through there.

There was a cat on CanAm with it's winch line all mangled. It looked like it had snapped and they were trying to deal with it. CanAm had been closed all morning, along with it's adjacent glades. They put bamboo around the cat and were hand winding the cable. Another cat that was assisting this effort was crawling out and we said it may be worth waiting to see if they will drop the rope when we get up there. Timing could not have been better. We got off the lift and got into the crowd that was waiting.

In 3 minutes the patrol dropped the rope and there was a mad frenzy. Part of the group went right under the lift, and that included my buddy Mike R. I went left to get the wider part of Can Am, thinking I'd be sharing or getting leftovers. The snowboarders all had to stop to strap in, which made it quite clear for us skiers and I barely had to share the trail with 4 skiers. Seems that everyone else dropped into Vertigo, Deliverance and River Quai. I got face shots the whole way and was whoopin and hollerin. Everyone was whooppin and we all got cheers from the lift. It was quite a spectacular moment.

We got on the lift and realized that we had to get back to the condo to see if we could stay for another night or if we had to check out. We decided to take Everglade to get back.

So we are here for another night. Getting ready to go back out.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Nice pix.

I'm going to play desk jockey quarterback and make a correlary to the LCC/BCC food fight in Utah... if I had heard that wind holds would be an issue at Jay, I would have beaten it across the border to Sutton. Somewhat less snow during big storms, but more than enough, and I can never recall wind shutting down lifts or causing a feeding frenzy.

Regardless, I would've given up this week's salary to be up there.

 

[jasoncapecod]

Patrick had to get a lift ticket so we lost him right away. The "no friends on a powder day rule" was in effect. Sorry Patrick.

bad karma.. you gotta hang for friends.. [-X

once you put pressure on getting to the fresh lines.. it kills the fun, skiing is about leaving the pressures of life behind.. sorry just my opinion

 

[Sharon]

So after lunch I went back out with Mike and Marina.

It was much windier, but the word was that the Jet triple was open. Mike and Marina went up the Bonnie, I headed over to The Jet.

The Jet was having some issues and people were leaving the queue to head back to the Bonnie. I held out.

Patrick showed up as I was about to get on the lift.

On the lift I met up with some nice guys who were headed into the Dip. I asked to tag along and they welcomed me.

It was a bit of a frenzy getting in. Seemed that was where everyone was going. And, man, I know why. OMFG it was sweet!!

The snow was crotch to waist deep and it was light and fluffy. It reminded me of Alta last year. Bottomless fluff. Choking on face shots. We would stop and giggle. Totally Skigasmic!!

I walked the whole way back with a smile on my face.

Got back on the Bonnie and decided to see how things were shaping up on the other side. So I dropped onto a thoroughly scoured Goat Run with the wind in my face and no visibility. It was absolutely brutal and I was wondering WTF was I doing. I got into North Glade and even that was drifted in. But once past the drifts it got sweet and deep. No one around. It was all mine.

I took the Metro back up and headed over to Stateside. My intent was to get on the Jet and do The Dip again. It was just so good, it was worth it to be the last run of the day if I had to walk the whole way back again. As I got there people were skiing back from the Jet to the Bonnie as it had closed due to the wind.

So I hopped on the Bonnie with 2 Jet triple refugees. They were as excited as I was. One of them decided to follow me around and we shredded some untracked or refilled lines in the Milk Run woods. Then we went into the stream drainage for a few good untracked turns and a little bit of a tricky slog to get out. We had to climb over trees and ski through gullies that just sucked is in deep and didn't let us out easy. It was insane how deep it was.

We tried Hell's Woods next, but that wasn't nearly as good, so we then repeated the Milk Run woods and found shots in the woods the rest of the way down.

At lower Angel's wiggle, the wind was at our backs and swirled up the snow so it felt like we were skiing on a cloud. It was so cool. At that point, I felt like I only had one more lift ride left in me and it was 3:50 anyway, so we took CanAm down which was all refilled. My quads were burning.

It was an incredible day. Photos on the way.

 

[Sharon]

Patrick had to get a lift ticket so we lost him right away. The "no friends on a powder day rule" was in effect. Sorry Patrick.

bad karma.. you gotta hang for friends.. [-X

once you put pressure on getting to the fresh lines.. it kills the fun, skiing is about leaving the pressures of life behind.. sorry just my opinion

I had plenty of fun and I was mostly on my own, though I seemed to have made friends a long the way, which was most enjoyable. Sorry, but I think Patrick had just as good a time without me.

Besides the "no friends" rule (all of whom I ditched throughout the day) it was so freakin windy and brutal that I would have froze my arse off if I had to stand around waiting. Call me selfish, but I did what I had to do and I have no regrets.

No one says I gotta hang for friends (except for you). I do hang for friends when I want to, but sometimes I just need to cut loose when the powder calls.

 

[Sharon]

I didn't take many pictures. It was brutally windy and snowing hard. My camera was a bit fogged up too, so the pix I did take weren't very good. Here are a few

waist deep in The Dip. Wish I got more pix here, but it was such a frenzy and skigasmic that I couldn't really get any good shots. A helmet cam would have been mostly whiteout. Choking on snow in there. Was the best of the day.

In North Glade I was all alone, so I was able to take in some of my surroundings and rest my weary legs.

The mountain of snow on our deck is getting even huger by the minute.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Sorry, but I think Patrick had just as good a time without me.

This was true for Patrick and me on the memorable Jan. 29, 2006 at Jackson Hole also. No complaints from either of us: we're both adults and got what we wanted. If you're not a jaded LCC local, powder days are sufficiently rare that most experienced skiers want to get the max out of them. That may involve different choice of runs, when someone needs to stop to rest or wants to take pictures, etc. To each his/her own.

 

[Patrick]

Biggest day since probably last Winter/Spring(?) (8:50-4:00) and deepest day since last September at Chapelco (that one is going to be hard to beat). Snow was deep, waist high in many spot I was skiing.

I don't want to sound negatives on such a wonderful day, but there are a few places in big storm I'd rather be. Sutton isn't necessarily one of them. As Jay Peak, Sutton has had issues with lifts in the past. You just have to look at my combo powder days to figure it out. Wanted to head further south tomorrow for another epic day (the single was closed today), but fatigue won out. Especially the drive back tomorrow night. Working on Wednesday and racing at night.

As for today, Sharon and I skied totally different stuff at different times. Found some waist deep snow at a few spots in-bound.

Lift status:

Bonnie and Metro were fine all day.
The Jet was only open from approximately 12:00-2:30. Someone told me they have been having issues unwind related although the wind was pretty strong today.
Flyer...mecanical issues, but it's a moot point as it wouldn't have run today anyways.
Tram...wind clossure.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Patrick raises a valid point.

In big storms in Northern Vermont, where are best odds for no lift closures on key terrain? Stowe or MRG being on the leeward side of the Green Mountain spine? Or maybe if the storm is huge, off the spine completely at someplace like Burke or Bolton?

 

[Admin]

Or maybe if the storm is huge, off the spine completely at someplace like Burke or Bolton?

Bolton's on the spine.

 

[Marc_C]

In big storms in Northern Vermont, where are best odds for no lift closures on key terrain? Stowe or MRG being on the leeward side of the Green Mountain spine?

Stowe very frequently has their two primary lifts (the Quad and the Gondi) on wind hold during storms.

 

[Spensar]

No one says I gotta hang for friends (except for you). I do hang for friends when I want to, but sometimes I just need to cut loose when the powder calls.

I seem to recall a thread not long ago when some of your friends wanted to hang with you, but without the skill level, and they got way in over their heads in the glades. Sometimes it's better to break up, let it go, and arrange for a meeting spot later. And even some very good skiers aren't crazy about glades.

There can be a lot of stress trying to keep everyone in a group content about what runs to ski or not ski, and a group is not always bliss. Ideally you have a few of you with similar skill and interest levels and you just click, click, on how to ski the mountain. Often that's not possible. It's not fair to blanket state that you should always stick with your friends on a hill.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I seem to recall a thread not long ago when some of your friends wanted to hang with you, but without the skill level, and they got way in over their heads in the glades. Sometimes it's better to break up, let it go, and arrange for a meeting spot later. And even some very good skiers aren't crazy about glades.

I agree... to each his/her own. And no one cared, so whatever.

Unless his back was acting up, I'm reasonably sure that Patrick would be able to keep up with Sharon skill-wise. :-" And with those bright red goggles, he would have been a great fashion accessory.

 

[Spensar]

If I recall Patrick isn't huge on glades. He had his new skis anyway.

Bytown Twiggy Pine Edition
With Joisthanger II bindings

Save $600
Reg. $999.99
$399.99

http://www.dinardoskis.com/ski/specials/index.html (last pair on the page)

 

[jamesdeluxe]

If I recall Patrick isn't huge on glades.

So he drove from Ottawa to JP to do what? Ah, I forgot... slopeside poutine.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Unless his back was acting up, I'm reasonably sure that Patrick would be able to keep up with Sharon skill-wise.

No doubt there.

If I recall Patrick isn't huge on glades. He had his new skis anyway.

Patrick on 2x4's would do better than most of us on new skis in glades.

On powder days I think a lot of the split-ups involve the "piddle factor," when someone is late or wants to stop to do something. In Jackson it was Patrick getting his big camera out of his backpack (the one that had rolled down a 1,000 vertical chute at Big Sky) at 9AM for pictures when I thought time was of the essence competing with Jackson locals on a weekend powder morning.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Patrick getting his big camera out of his backpack (the one that had rolled down a 1,000 vertical chute at Big Sky) .

I never heard that story. :lol:

And it survived?

 

[Tony Crocker]

I never heard that story.

The day was our first at Big Sky/Moonlight, Jan. 23, 2006. There's an extensive write-up with pics of the next day with hamdog viewtopic.php?t=1678 with just a short reference to the incident the day before.

Patrick and I signed out with Moonlight patrol about 1:30PM and followed him down the same shale-strewn ridge as to Big Couloir. At about the same spot you go north into the North Snowfields instead of SE into the Big. The snowfields descend in a broad 30-35 degree face to a cliff band. From there you traverse left to Rip's or Great Falls, both are chutes maxing out in the 40 degree range. In the middle of Great Falls Patrick takes his pack off and gets the camera out. At this point a wind gust blows the pack over, so it rolls down the rest of the chute, emptying its contents: probe, shovel, spare clothing, camera case and the extra lens for Patrick's camera. We ski down gathering up the pieces, except for the lens. I skied into a shallow depression, the lowest point, and found the lens, which Patrick said later did survive its 1,000 vertical ride. Immediately the Moonlight patroller showed up and told us to get out of there, as it was a terrain trap if anything slid from the ridges south or west of us.

 

[j howard]

hey all-
i happened to be at smugglers on this day, and got some first hand reports from stowe as well. it sounds like most all the high lifts were closed everywhere, so being on either side of the spine didn't matter: this was a big storm.

at smuggs, the madonna chair was closed. fortunately the stuff off sterling mtn (which is still excellent, including the O.B. shots) was still open. i found untracked lines easily all day- though towards the end, had to be creative to do it. some spots were easily chest deep. this day was definitely one of my best powder days to date. i bought a pair of powder boards this year, and sure was blessed to rip a day like this one.


at one point (during a big wind gust) we were wondering if stowe would have been a better choice for the day (and on the other side). but we found out otherwise back at the hotel. i'm not exactly positive which chairs at stowe were closed, but it sounded like it was most of them.

i kind of wish i could have stayed through tuesday, but the trip up just for monday was still worth it. i believe this storm will be the highlight of the year- it's going to be hard to beat. anyone that caught it lucked out.

 

[Sharon]

i believe this storm will be the highlight of the year- it's going to be hard to beat. anyone that caught it lucked out.

You may be right. Glad you got to enjoy it at it's prime. I feel quite fortunate to have been able to be at Jay Peak for this event.