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Jay Peak April 13-14

Conrad

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Date(s) Skied: April 13 & 14, 2013

Resort or Ski Area: Jay Peak

Conditions: Powder in the mornings, Spring-like in the afternoons

Trip Report: Every year the Ski and Outing Club at my school (University of Maine at Farmington) has a trip to Jay Peak and decided to do it this year. I had never been to Jay Peak before so it was going to be nice checking out a new mountain. We left Friday at 3:30-4 and quickly ran into some rain and ice. We had two large vans for most of the 24 of us, and then a minivan for equipment and a couple of people and for a while it was slow going, especially the stretch between Bethel and Gorham. By the time we reached Gorham, NH, we had already passed 3 car accidents, some of them looking serious. Fortunately after Gorham, the weather improved and we traveled the speed limit all the way until the last hour of the trip when it became snowy again. All in all, it took about 5 hours for us to get there and 6 hours for the other vans since they picked up groceries and had to take longer to stop for dinner.

Saturday morning, I got up early for the 8:30 tram (I mistakenly thought they opened at 8 ). There was probably a good 4-5 inches of powder on the mountain. It was kind of like fine grained ice particles, not normal snow, but whatever it was it made for great skiing. I quickly discovered that if I hurried, I could beat the tram back down the mountain and hop on the same tram which allowed me to clock quite a few runs in the morning. However, by the afternoon there was too much of a line to make that work. By the afternoon the powder turned into epic spring skiing conditions and I skied right until getting on the Green Mountain Flyer at 3:57.

That night, the Bruins were on so I wanted to watch that, but a lot of people wanted to visit the water park after the first period so I tagged along since they wanted me to come too. It was quite the place. While we were there, there were these two guys who are quite the characters and the whole time we were there they were finding all of the hot chicks (lifeguards, random people, etc.) and shouting out 907 or whatever one of our condo numbers were. After the water slides, we went to the hot tubs outside where there was pretty crazy with beer (I do not drink alcohol by the way) and these girls who apparently worked for Ski the East or something who were wild and basically sl*ts. I think they kicked everyone out a couple minutes before they actually closed because it was too crazy. As they were making us leave, I could here the guy in our group who was such a character inviting everyone to our condos shouting out 907 907 907! However in the end basically no girls and only a couple of guys from New York and a couple of Canadians crashed the festivities and kind of became the joke. In spite of all this, I managed to get a good night's sleep and woke up Sunday morning in time for the 8:30 tram.

Sunday morning, there was even more fresh snow than Saturday (maybe 6-9" inches in the woods) and it was still very powdery. Jay Peak only reported 7" over the weekend, but I think a lot of it blew off the trails. Instead of doing a hard core day of skiing by myself like Saturday, I skied with other UMF students for the entire day and we still did a lot of really good terrain, just at a slower pace. In the early afternoon, everyone met up and we did a couple tram runs together. The first time we did Tuckerman's down to some other glades and then the 2nd time we did Face Chutes. Most people cut in before going under the tram and a couple people went a little farther including me to get a little bit more of a challenge. When we turned in, there was a nasty chute going straight down the center, or you could go to the skiers left for a bit easier of a run although still very tough. To the skiers right was possible although almost as tough as the chute which I think one person did. However, after thinking about it for sometime and waiting for someone to get out of the way, and with everyone below watching, I dropped into the chute, turning, wiping out, recovering and doing two more turns, and then wiping out again with everyone cheering and me being left only with a jammed thumb. Probably the most epic moment of my ski season. See the photo of it below:

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That line on the left has now been conquered!



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Here's another view of that line on the first day when there clearly wasn't enough snow on it.

After the last few runs together as a giant group, we took off. I got back at around 6:40, almost 45 minutes earlier than everyone else since they took longer to stop for dinner and apparently took the "scenic route." But take a look at some more photos coming up.



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It was snowing most of the weekend day and night, but sometimes it was just a whiteout.



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Caught the 8:30 tram both days.

Next post for more photos.
 

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Conrad

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DSCN0012.JPG
I just can't get over how gnarly some of Jay Peak's terrain is. My first few times off the tram I probably did a few runs I shouldn't have before I realized that it is important not to go the wrong way.



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Guess who's tracks those are.



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Many of the morning runs looked like this.



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Conrad

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DSCN0091_zps9b92c213.jpg

The best run of the trip was doing the Chutes or Tuckerman's and then going down and doing the tram line.



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Unfortunately Bonnie was shut down for good so I never had a chance to ride that lift.



DSCN0005_zps3ae20830.jpg

Looking up one of the tram's lattice towers.
 

polski

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There was probably a good 4-5 inches of powder on the mountain. It was kind of like fine grained ice particles, not normal snow, but whatever it was it made for great skiing.

All hail graupel!

Also, gotta say, it's typically really hard to convey slope pitch in a photograph but this is fairly pucker-inducing - nice:

View attachment 8702
 

BigJay

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Had they started the disassembly of the Bonnie yet? I don't see any chairs hanging from it in your picture.

Chairs are in the Jet parking lot.

Cable is off the base terminal and first two towers. Base terminal ready to be moved up the mountain. They will have to shorten the cable. No signs of work at the top terminal.
 

thetrailboss

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Nice TR. The apres report was particularly interesting.

Chairs are in the Jet parking lot.

Cable is off the base terminal and first two towers. Base terminal ready to be moved up the mountain. They will have to shorten the cable. No signs of work at the top terminal.

Wow. They are not fooling around. Confirms that the Bonnie will be no more. Too bad it would be a good backup for the new 6-pack. I assume it is going to the Jet soon?
 

JFP

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We did the multi-family condo stay style version of the Jay trip Fri thru Sun. The conditions were April fantastic & loved the wicked terrain in the chutes/woods for this time of year. I found myself squealing like a child in many instances on the untracked lines Sunday (this was later morning/early afternoon as I had to sit out the morning chasing my 1 yo around the lodge while my wife was getting hers). My wife was done in the car running at the base ready to head out w/all the kids sleeping Sun afternoon while I was still lapping the tram; finally I had leave the goods in order to salvage my marriage a bit after 3. We had agreed to leave at 2, it was just too good, she was so pissed. It was quiet for awhile on the way home, but so worth it. Haven't been there since staying in the ol' hotel Jay; the big experiment continues up there.

The couple rumors I heard floating around were bonnie somehow moving upslope a couple of towers (remaining a fixed grip/ 6-pack scrapped), or a 6-pack going in on the line to skiers right of where the chair is now (must be the Powerline). Also heard they want to put in an IMAX. Not sure of the veracity of any of it.
 

thetrailboss

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My wife was done in the car running at the base ready to head out w/all the kids sleeping Sun afternoon while I was still lapping the tram; finally I had leave the goods in order to salvage my marriage a bit after 3. We had agreed to leave at 2, it was just too good, she was so pissed. It was quiet for awhile on the way home, but so worth it.

Yeah, I've done the same thing and had a similar reaction....


The couple rumors I heard floating around were bonnie somehow moving upslope a couple of towers (remaining a fixed grip/ 6-pack scrapped), or a 6-pack going in on the line to skiers right of where the chair is now (must be the Powerline). Also heard they want to put in an IMAX. Not sure of the veracity of any of it.

IMAX would be interesting.
 

from_the_NEK

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The Act 250 permit submission is two phase...
1. Remove Bonnaventure lift
2. Install Powerline HS6
Some of the steps overlap.

http://www.anr.state.vt.us/imaging/planning/7R0854-18/schedules/cover sheets.pdf

Even an updated doc from 3/22/13 talks about modifications to the plan to limit risk of erosion while removing towers.
http://www.anr.state.vt.us/imaging/planning/7R0854-18/Applicant Submittal-3-22-13.pdf

So if they decided to just shorten the lift all of the sudden, that would be very surprising and may invalidate their permits starting them over at square one just when deconstruction-construction is just starting.

Oh and a IMAX theater? First I've heard of it but may be that it goes into the "recreation center" that is just across the parking lot from the soon-to-be-built Stateside Hotel/Lodge. This center has been on all of the Master Plans but no word on what would be in it. At roughly 150'x85' (estimated size from the master plan), an smallish IMAX may fit in there. Most rural IMAX ever?
 
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Conrad

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We did the multi-family condo stay style version of the Jay trip Fri thru Sun. The conditions were April fantastic & loved the wicked terrain in the chutes/woods for this time of year. I found myself squealing like a child in many instances on the untracked lines Sunday (this was later morning/early afternoon as I had to sit out the morning chasing my 1 yo around the lodge while my wife was getting hers). My wife was done in the car running at the base ready to head out w/all the kids sleeping Sun afternoon while I was still lapping the tram; finally I had leave the goods in order to salvage my marriage a bit after 3. We had agreed to leave at 2, it was just too good, she was so pissed. It was quiet for awhile on the way home, but so worth it. Haven't been there since staying in the ol' hotel Jay; the big experiment continues up there.

The couple rumors I heard floating around were bonnie somehow moving upslope a couple of towers (remaining a fixed grip/ 6-pack scrapped), or a 6-pack going in on the line to skiers right of where the chair is now (must be the Powerline). Also heard they want to put in an IMAX. Not sure of the veracity of any of it.

Glad you were up there having a good time too. Even though there hasn't been an official announcement regard the replacement six-pack of the bonnie quad (as far as I know), I was reading one of those booklets they give you and it actually said that there will be a six-pack next season.
 

from_the_NEK

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For those that haven't been following the "Jay Peak Conceptual" thread in the main forum, here is what the planned stateside layout will look like by next Christmas:




Red Line is Taxi Quad (built last year)
Yellow Line is Bonnaventure Quad (currently being torn down which needs to happen to build the new stuff)
Purple line is the new Powerline HS6.
 

Edd

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So the Bonnie goes away for good? Didn't realize that. What's the advantage of the termination points of the new HS6 over the Bonnie?

I'd previously assumed for some reason that the Bonnie was being directly replaced with an HS6.
 

thetrailboss

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The Act 250 permit submission is two phase...
1. Remove Bonnaventure lift
2. Install Powerline HS6
Some of the steps overlap.

http://www.anr.state.vt.us/imaging/planning/7R0854-18/schedules/cover%20sheets.pdf

Even an updated doc from 3/22/13 talks about modifications to the plan to limit risk of erosion while removing towers.
http://www.anr.state.vt.us/imaging/planning/7R0854-18/Applicant Submittal-3-22-13.pdf

So if they decided to just shorten the lift all of the sudden, that would be very surprising and may invalidate their permits starting them over at square one just when deconstruction-construction is just starting.

Oh and a IMAX theater? First I've heard of it but may that goes into the "recreation center" that is just across the parking lot from the soon-to-be-built Stateside Hotel/Lodge. This center has been on all of the Master Plans but no work on what would be in it. At roughly 150'x85' (estimated size from the master plan), an smallish IMAX may fit in there. Most rural IMAX ever?

Yeah I doubt that Bonnie is going to last...
 

from_the_NEK

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So the Bonnie goes away for good? Didn't realize that. What's the advantage of the termination points of the new HS6 over the Bonnie?

I'd previously assumed for some reason that the Bonnie was being directly replaced with an HS6.

I believe the "rerouting" of the lift is due to wind issues, isn't it?

I'd be surprised if "wind issues" improve with the new lift alignment. However, the new top terminal is over 100 ft higher than the Bonnaventure and provides access to the Green Mountain Flyer side of the mountain without having to walk. This is especially useful for the days the GMF and tram are on wind hold. Gotta spread out those crowds.
 
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