Jay Peak (Dec 29, 30) & Sutton (Dec 31, Jan

Jim C · Apr 17, 2000

(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/4/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.) It felt good to be back at my favorite ski area, Jay Peak, after 2 years in Alberta. The base was the shallowest I have ever seen at Jay (I've mostly skied there during the incredible '96 and '97 seasons), but it was still great skiing thanks to 6 inches of fresh snow on the 29th and 8 inches on the 30th. Skiing at Lake Louise, Sunshine, Fernie, etc. is fine, but there's nothing that compares to tree skiing at Jay. Trees in the west are too monotonous (all conifers) and the trees are generally too branchy at skiing height to really get the sensation of flying through the woods. Plus, there are so few good bump skiers out there that nice bump lines are rare. Other No-Bullers have described how great the skiing was at Jay on the 30th, so I'll just add a few points (too bad I didn't meet up with them). My friends and I spent most of our time on the fixed-grip quad and Jet triple, skiing runs such as Canyonland, Timbuktu, Powerline, upper Milk Run, etc. While the glades were excellent, our few forays into the woods suggested that while doable, they needed another foot or more of snow for fun and safe skiing. Ice storm damage was not as bad as I expected. Our best run was first tracks down Powerline on the 30th. The wind and 8 inches of new snow combined to create a soft bed of powder, about 10 feet wide, down the entire right side of the trail. Turn after turn were truly bottomless, knee to mid-thigh deep (telemarker-measured heights). About 2/3 of the way down we cut left over to the trail underneath the fixed-grip quad for more untracked. We returned to Powerline about 2 hours later hoping to find more fresh stuff. Unfortunately, it was completely tracked out, despite being a closed trail. Other highlights included skiing untracked powder on lower Vertigo and lower Can-Am, both of which were accessed by a traverse starting near the top of Buckaroo Banzai. The bump line underneath the Jet triple was soft and tight. I flushed out a grouse on lower Vertigo, which is something I haven't done since skiing the Orchard at Jay a couple years ago. Back then, I flushed numerous grouse in a single powder-filled day, including one that shot out from beneath my ski as I skied over it and another that shot up between my legs, brushing my crotch with its wings as it fluttered away. That's what I call a close encounter with nature while on skis. The low-light of the day was breaking my binding (Rainey Superloop, last year's model) while climbing over a snowmaking pipe. This pipe was crossed when entering lower Can-Am from the woods adjacent to lower Vertigo. To make matters worse, I broke a ski pole when skiing down to the bottom on one ski. I had asked my buddy Paul to carry my ski with the busted binding, but he refused on the grounds that it would ruin his powder run. Fair enough, I guess. Luckily, I had new Superloops on my spare pair of skis so I simply moved a binding over. I broke a Superloop last year when crashing into a tree. That binding was replace on warranty by MEC, but I have yet to find out whether the latest breakage will be covered by MEC. Who else does not like the new Green Mountain Freezer? I expressed reservations about this lift back in the fall to the list, and I think my worst fears have come true. It is a brutally cold ride that doesn't get you anywhere the tram, and even the fixed-grip quad with a bit of hiking, did not. The swath that it cuts through Everglade and Staircase is horrendous. I hope that Jay doesn't keep advertising Everglade as the longest glade in the East anymore, as it has been severed. The Freezer is the reason for the $7 hike in the lift ticket price. They should have at least bought shields for the Freezer. Shields work very well on other brutally cold lifts, such as some at Mont Tremblant. While it is possible that the Freezer reduces lift lines on the Tram and other lifts, when I was there, few people were riding it. I'd be interested in hearing others' opinions. After being away from the east for 2 seasons, I've noticed that snowboarding is waning in popularity here. There are fewer snowboarders than 2 years ago and the remaining snowboarders are not as good as before. Mind you, there were never large numbers of snowboarders ripping the bumps or glades at Jay in the past, but now they are a rare sight. Since all trends begin and end in the east, I suspect it's only a matter of time before snowboarding popularity wanes throughout the continent. On the contrary, telemarking popularity has exploded. A couple years ago I could usually count the number of pinheads at Jay on one hand, yet this time I saw dozens, including quite a few youngsters (early 20's in age). It looks as though people are beginning to realize that the most enjoyable way down the hill is with free heels, in my opinion. We were staying in a condo at Sutton because accommodations at Jay were too expensive for us, Looney-paying skiers. On both the mornings of the 29th and 30th, it was difficult to jump in the car and drive an hour to Jay from our slope-side condo knowing there was fresh snow on the ground at Sutton. Our strategy was to ski at Jay while the snow was falling and then return to Sutton or other nearby hills afterward, hoping that they would still hold freshies for us. I think our strategy worked out. When we did finally ski at Sutton on the 31st we were not expecting much. Only 8 trails were open on the 28th, perhaps 30 open by the 31st after reported snowfalls of 3 and 6 inches. Man, this hill drastically under-reports snowfall and open terrain!! I guess I've just become accustomed to tactics used by Vermont ski hills that overinflate new snow and trail counts. For example, I think Jay uses a centimetre ruler but reports the snowfall in inches. Jay reported 22-30 inches of new snow between the 26th and 30th, while at the same time Sutton was reporting 25-30 cm of new. That would lead one to think that there was 2.5 times more new snow at Jay compare to Sutton. Well, that supposition would be wrong….Sutton had at least as much new snow as Jay, perhaps even more. Even though only 30 trails were technically open, the whole mountain was skiable and being skied. I have no idea why the 30 or so remaining trails were closed. I'm sure that trails at MRG were open on 1/2 the base that was found on closed trails at Sutton. Bottomless powder was found on many closed trails, while bumps and packed powder were found on those skied more thoroughly. I don't know what the ski patrol was thinking, other than keeping the trails closed meant more freshies from themselves. The good thing was that they kept the ropes high enough that you could ski underneath them without having to duck. Also, I didn't see them stopping a single person on a closed trail, even though one of the most popular trails was a closed run underneath a chair lift. One whole section of the mountain (furthest to the left, looking uphill) was closed. To access this section, we had to only hike across a slightly uphill trail for 5 minutes. Once there, we had our choice of a 1/2 dozen single and double black runs, all with untracked to slightly tracked powder. I've had this experience once before of having to ski closed runs that should not be closed, and that was also in Quebec, at Le Massif. So, I am assuming that Quebec has some kind of law that trails cannot be opened unless there is a base of 4 feet. The marketing departments at Quebec ski hills certainly don't run the hills, as many marketing departments at Vermont hill appear to do. We returned on the 1st to continue skiing excellent snow on the quirky trails and glades at Sutton. There are no real long or steep runs at Sutton, but it is the quirkiest ski hill I have ever seen. There are an infinite number of nooks and crannies to explore. Lots of small ledges and boulders that give ample opportunity for catching air. Timing is everything in skiing, and we hit Jay and Sutton at the right time. Thank goodness, because now I'm back in Newfoundland facing the prospect of not skiing again for the rest of the season. Sure, I'll get out for some local X-C skiing or perhaps drive to western Newfoundland for cat skiing or resort skiing at Marble Mtn. if it ever snows, but I'm not holding my breath given the lack of winter experienced by the island thus far this season. Jim

Jay Peak (Dec 29, 30) & Sutton (Dec 31, Jan

Jim C

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