Jiminy Peak 3/11/07

[bvibert]

Date(s) Skied: 3/11/07

Resort or Ski Area: Jiminy Peak

Conditions: Loose granular, hard pack, patches of ice

Trip Report: I'd never been to Jiminy before so I decided to go up there with my Dad yesterday. We got up there a bit later than intended due to some pretty slick roads in CT and southern MA, but we still managed to pull in around 9. The place already seemed to be pretty hopping, I'm sure that was partially due to the Mountain Dew Vertical Challenge that was gong on that day. We didn't have any problem finding a spot in the lodge to boot up though and we were probably on skis by 9:30 or so. We loaded the 6 pack after waiting for a few minutes in line. I was pretty disappointed when the chair stopped a couple of times on the way up, kinda defeats the purpose of having a HSD lift. By the time we got to the top a small snow squall was moving through, it was nice to see some natural falling, even if we knew it wasn't going to amount to anything. From there we decided to head across on Left Bank to the Widow's White Quad, figuring that would be less busy than the six pack. It was still pretty nippy out as the sun was still behind clouds, the surface was was a little crunchy but you could tell that once the sun came out and some traffic passed over it the snow would be nice and soft. It was still very edgable where the groomers had passed though, if you went of to the sides where they hadn't been it was pretty slick. I was impressed by how well my Father was skiing after not having been on skis much in recent years. On the way across I noticed a lot of closed ropes on the trails that drop down the from of the mountain from there. The quad had no lines which was nice. We did 3 or 4 more runs over there on Easy Does It and Panorama which seemed to fit my Dad's comfort level well. The other trails in that area seemed to be closed, including Cutter which looked wind blown and very slick. I hit the Hot Wheels 'Glade' once which was pretty sketchy with some spots of rocks and sticks poking through. We decided to take an early lunch a bit before 11. The weather at that point was still kind of dreary, we were even socked in with fog at the top of the quad a couple of times. The surface was beginning to soften up though and was generally pretty good.

The call to take an early lunch seemed to be a good one, by the time we got down and figured out where Christiansen's was it was 10:58. I was bummed at first to find the door locked, but a waitress quickly opened it up and let us in, explaining that they technically didn't open for another 2 minutes. We had the place to ourselves and got good quick service.

The plan after lunch was to try the terrain off the triple that is right outside the restaurant. There was a small line there for our first run, but it wasn't too bad and looking back up at the 6 pack the line seemed to be much longer. After that it was mostly ski on. On the way up the triple I noticed that Lift Line looked kinda hairy so I wasn't surprised to see the closed rope up when we got to the top. We took West Way, which got a little congested as it went around the corner by the rocks where there was some pretty big patches of ice to the skier's right. My Dad wanted to take a mellow run to warm up again after lunch so we continued on the No Speed zone down Lower Glade (where's Upper???) and the Slingshots after taking a small detour down Azalea Way which was a fun little green to avoid the hoards on West Way. The 'No Speed' zone was expectedly pretty busy, including a bunch of racer types buzzing by novices on their way to 360 for the vertical challenge. After that my Dad was ready to try Riptide and he was glad he did, I think mostly because there wasn't too many people on it. The surface there was nice, loose granular but not sloppy as it was Lower Glade. After that he took the same run while I gave Upper and Lower Fox a shot, which I had noticed had some bumps on skiers right. The bumps looked a lot bigger, with deeper troughs than they did from the lift. I kind of chickened out and just skied some of the bumps on the outer edge without ever really getting into them. We both needed to take a short bathroom break at the bottom so we headed back into Christiansen's, which was now PACKED, I was glad we decided to eat an early lunch. The next run my Dad though might be his last so I decided to ski with him again. He was having fun on Riptide so that's where we headed. At the bottom he told me that was his best run of the day and he wanted to end on a high note, but that I should ski for as long as I wanted while he enjoyed a beverage at the bar.

I had spied the short bump run on Mogul Thing from the chair so I decided to try it out. It was more my speed so I hit it one more time from the triple before deciding that was a long way to go for a short run. I went over to the double after that to hit Mogul Thing one last time before heading back to the triple for my last run. The bumps on Mogul Thing were soft and small on a mellow pitch, perfect for me to get my bump legs going again. After that I decided to make a better showing on the Upper and Lower Fox bumps for my last run. I wouldn't exactly say that I skied them good. I did, however, jump right into the middle of them and actually nailed a few turns. What made me happy was that I stayed in both sections for their entire lengths without bailing out to the groomed part of the trail. The bumps themselves seemed oddly shaped to me, without much in the way of a solid line. A lot of the troughs were solid ice which made it more challenging. Feeling good with myself for making a better attempt at the bumps I decided to call it a day. I was a little bummed that I didn't get to any of the steep black diamond terrain just to say I did them. I'm not much of a steeps guy any way so it's not that big of a deal to me, I'll get to them next time...

I did take a few pics which I'll post later...

EDIT: sorry for the long, rambling report. I got a little carried away...

[Greg]

I was wishing that I had given you some advice on how to ski the mountain, but it seems like you did it pretty much perfectly on your own. I've skied many Sundays at Jiminy and the approach you took was perfect. Normally we ski the six pack a bit more first thing and then hit the Q1 or Widow's before a 11 am lunch. Glad you hit Christiansen's. 11 am - 11:30 is the key time. Good food, quick service in the 11 am hour and reasonably priced. Plus that place just has a cool ski bar vibe.

Usually getting out before the noon hour gives you less crowds during lunch. After 2 pm, the place is usually dead. The Foxes are one of my favorite runs there. Glad to see some bumps on the sides. They usually do that. By the way, North Glade is the trail right after making the turn by the cliffs on West Way. That's technically the "upper" Glade, although it's not really the same run as Lower Glade, nor is it even a glade by most definitions.

Sounds like you had fun. You gotta try Whitetail, Jericho and Wild Turkey sometime. Jericho in particular usually has great snow on skier's right.

[bvibert]

I'm pretty sure that Jericho and Wild Turkey were closed on my way by them on our first run in the morning. I didn't get back over there after that, so I don't know if they opened up later on.

I remembered you saying that you liked Christiansen's, that's why we headed there for lunch.