MadMadWorld
Active member
Stowe glades "better" than Jay? How do you define that?
Well it's not really fair to compare on map since Stowe barely marks any. People have been cutting lines through the trees on Mansfield since the 60s.
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Stowe glades "better" than Jay? How do you define that?
As a hardcore Jay skier here are my thoughts on this thread in random order:
-Jay sucks for intermediate skiers;
-Jay is not great for groomers, Stateside is OK and that's about it;
-Jay glades are awesome. Anyone who says Jay is not top three out east for glades is either trolling, jealous or delusional;
-Jay is awesome for the variety of unmarked terrain - my own ski map of Jay has 78 official runs and 42 unmarked glades;
-Jay is awesome for slackcountry opportunities;
-Jay is awesome for kids;
-The tram is slow and inefficient but the top cannot handle that many skiers anyway. Waiting for the tram to ski Vermonter or Northway is something I will never understand. Otherwise, ski the tram very early or very late. As fun as some of the runs off the ridge are, none is worth a 40 minutes wait;
- Outside of a few Saturday and windhold days, there are no line-ups at Jay. Hence I fail to see the need for high-speed lifts. Even on a busy Saturday, you can ski most glades without seeing anyone else. That's what slow lifts will do for you. I love slow lifts;
- Arguably best snow and longest season out east (not counting having one run open over an extended period of time);
In no particular order....Smuggs, Stowe, MRG all ahead of Jay. I must be delusional.
Stowe glades "better" than Jay? How do you define that?
I'm not getting that either.
Only advantage I see is the stuff off Sterling Pond via Stowe or Smuggs is pretty great, but that's slackcountry and not within the borders and I'm not sure we're counting that? Though if we did, then a Jay skier could likely point to the similar run to the road off Timbuckto.
Hear hear. And even for someone who skis groomers not glades, more high-speed lifts would mean a lot traffic on the slopes, not necessarily a more enjoyable experience. I hit Jay after a 2-foot dump in Feb 2013 and had a blast but mid-afternoon the second day there was one run near the top, I forget which, that we were taking to a glades entrance and it was like a six-lane superhighway with a LOT of people bombing very fast and a lot of the surface scraped off despite all the new snow. We got to the near-solitude of the glades and were like, WHOA, what was THAT??? A distinctly sour note on an otherwise great trip. Then again my own bias is towards a place like MRG with one fixed-grip single chair to the top, capacity 500 skiers per hour.- Outside of a few Saturday and windhold days, there are no line-ups at Jay. Hence I fail to see the need for high-speed lifts. Even on a busy Saturday, you can ski most glades without seeing anyone else. That's what slow lifts will do for you. I love slow lifts;
more high-speed lifts would mean a lot traffic on the slopes, not necessarily a more enjoyable experience.
This is a big myth. The reality is that capacity can be controlled with a high speed lift. Aspen, for example, has some low-capacity high speed lifts. And keep in mind that while the cable is running faster, there are fewer chairs on that cable.
Here is why Jay would benefit from more high speed lifts. Jay is cold and windy. A skier is coldest when riding the lift. Jay would be a much more appealing place to ski if you could minimize the amount of time you are on the lift itself. They could do this while keeping capacity exactly the same. Of course, the downside is that, if capacity is the same but the lift ride itself is shorter, lines would increase somewhat. So I can see both sides of the coin.
While it is true that they could capacity the same it would be en economic non-sense.
Please Note: The Tramside Carpet is closed for the season
Say it isn't so!!
Please Note: The Tramside Carpet is closed for the season, the Flyer Quad is closed for midweek operations but is slated to spin this coming Friday.
Yep. It was a hard blow. We had to use the carpet on stateside this morning.
As a hardcore Jay skier here are my thoughts on this thread in random order:
-Jay sucks for intermediate skiers;
-Jay is not great for groomers, Stateside is OK and that's about it;
-Jay glades are awesome. Anyone who says Jay is not top three out east for glades is either trolling, jealous or delusional;
-Jay is awesome for the variety of unmarked terrain - my own ski map of Jay has 78 official runs and 42 unmarked glades;
-Jay is awesome for slackcountry opportunities;
-Jay is awesome for kids;
-The tram is slow and inefficient but the top cannot handle that many skiers anyway. Waiting for the tram to ski Vermonter or Northway is something I will never understand. Otherwise, ski the tram very early or very late. As fun as some of the runs off the ridge are, none is worth a 40 minutes wait;
- Outside of a few Saturday and windhold days, there are no line-ups at Jay. Hence I fail to see the need for high-speed lifts. Even on a busy Saturday, you can ski most glades without seeing anyone else. That's what slow lifts will do for you. I love slow lifts;
- Arguably best snow and longest season out east (not counting having one run open over an extended period of time);
As for intermediates, I totally disagree. There are intermediate runs off every chair. In addition, there are intermediate glades all over the place for those starting out in the woods. Even some of the black rated trails are very skiable by intermediates such as The Jet and Derrick Hot Shot.
Directly off the Bonnie and Flyer, you have access to a grand total of 4 intermediate runs (Northway, Ulr's, Alligator Alley and Goat run. Four and that's it. All four are extremely traveled and the latter is an ice-fest pretty much year-round. There are some interesting intermediate terrain on the lower mountain (flash, racer, lower goat, but you are pretty much stuck with the above four run to get there ALL the time. These four runs also act as collectors so you get lots of advanced skiers and beginners on them. Other resorts have entire pods totally dedicated to intermediate skiers with lots of options and where no expert will ever show up (Stowe for example has 2 chairs serving pretty much only intermediate terrain with something like 25 runs).
Much of stateside is advanced intermediate (a bit intimidating for the true intermediate skier), and Montrealer takes you straight back to the Northway.
Intermediate skiers can have fun at Jay, but there are much much better resorts for them.
it was like a six-lane superhighway with a LOT of people bombing very fast and a lot of the surface scraped off despite all the new snow. We got to the near-solitude of the glades and were like, WHOA, what was THAT??? A distinctly sour note on an otherwise great trip.
The main reason for high-speed chair (which are more expensive) is to increase capacity. While it is true that they could capacity the same it would be en economic non-sense.
I'm not getting that either.
Only advantage I see is the stuff off Sterling Pond via Stowe or Smuggs is pretty great, but that's slackcountry and not within the borders and I'm not sure we're counting that? Though if we did, then a Jay skier could likely point to the similar run to the road off Timbuckto.
That's what I was getting at as to the definition of "better"!No super steep gnar chutes with no way out rock bands. The trees are all neatly spaced as if someone measured the space between each one. All the glades allow skiers to easily link turns without any serious challenge. That is why Stowe is better.