Jay Peak, VT 3/12/00

[Walter]

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 3/14/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Had a friend visiting me in BTV from NYC. He bailed on Friday and Saturday after reports of bombproof hills. The "big snow" hit Burlington with all of an inch of guono-type white. Very wet. Awoke Sun AM and checked the Internet reports...nothing looked too promising with reports of mixed precip everywhere. But then there was Jay. It always snows at Jay. We went...mixed precip to Johnson, heavy clouds over most of the way up 100. Parked at Stateside and took the Bonaventure chair up. Visibility was poor all day, but then again, we go to Jay for two reasons - snow and glades, and they were both in evidence on Sunday. Jay got about 4 inches overnight. The morning had some very fine snow which became big puffy flakes as the morning wore on. First run, North Glade, then Beaver Pond Glade, then Everglade - all were decent with enough new snow to cover the hardness underneath. Great practice in jump-turning technique on upper Everglade. Staircase was closed, though probably was passable except for the boulder field at the beginning of the trail. We moved over to the Bonaventure chair and did Canyonlands to Bonaventure three straight times and then headed over to Vertigo off Can Am. The ice on the top of Can Am (with zero visibility) was probably the hairiest moment of the day. The fog seemed to close in around lunchtime, but no matter, the snow was still great. After lunch it was time for the Jet. Timbuktu, Kitz Woods, repeat. Timbuktu was ruined by some yahoos who seemed to do more yelling than skiing, but we just went striaght down and left them behind. 3 PM, Kitzbuhel was calling - 95% ice - took it very slowly. All in all, I got my moneys' worth at Jay, as usual.