By Jonny Jay
Sunday December 1 at Jay was hard and fast. The two+ feet of the
week before had softened with rain and then frozen, but I still had to hit
the slopes as the sun was out and early season guilt was setting in.
First outing for the year, so lugged the gear to the locker and checked
the trail guide which stated that only two runs were open on Stateside,
the Jet and Haynes. Anyway no crowds.
First run down Haynes was very
slick -- no ice just hardscrabble. The Jet looked better but you really
had to be on the skis - saw two toboggans with injured skiers in the
short time I was there. No access runs were open to the lodge so had to
hike back over, up the stairs at Harvey's and down the others -- good
workout for the legs and heart! Saw that the UN was actually open, as well as the Derrick, but reports on both were not positive. Then I bumped into someone
at the locker who has stupidly gone down Timbuktu only to report that
that was a big mistake and that was his run for the day!
No pics but wouldn't do it justice anyway because the mountain looks great! You would never know it was a bullet-proof surface until you were on it or heard it.
Thanks for the report!
ReplyDeleteReally interesting how Northern VT has not had as much luck since opening weekend as many other areas further south. It is usually the opposite!
Cannon has 50% of non-glade trails open already, all major routes, and could theoretically have all lifts running as early as this coming weekend if they wanted to, plus quite a few natural snow trails are currently open as well. For Jay to only be skiing on Jet, Haynes, Derick, and UN from one lift during the third week of operations is pretty rough.
Thanks for checking in, Steve. Yes, strange weather patterns so far this season. Even the normally snow-less areas to the south of where I live have had quite a bit of dumpage, while up here in the snowbelt there is lower than normal accumulations so far.
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