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Am I the problem?

VTKilarney

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We got one final day of skiing in at Jay Peak on April 17th. The weather was incredible, and the conditions were not bad at all. There was packed powder in the morning that started turning to wet granular in the afternoon. Every now and then you would see signs of the freeze after the rain storm, but it was not a real problem.

There was a group of about 15 or 20 people who seemed to be in their mid to upper 20's. They were having lots of fun, skiing in shorts (even though it was in the 30s for most of the day) and sticking mostly to the terrain park. One of them was skiing while carrying a boom-box blasting music - which I thought was pretty funny.

But things changed when we decided to ride the tram Unfortunately for us, they decided to ride the tram at the same time. Starting while we were all in line, they had no respect whatsoever for the people around them. They were drinking beer openly, and were swearing at the top of their lungs like they just got out of the navy - including one of them loudly proclaiming: "I've been shitfaced for four days straight!". There were many families in the line, including myself with an 8 and 10 year old. It became vey clear that they were all drunk.

As they entered the waiting area they walked right by the lift attendant with their beers in their hands. While inside the tram they continued to drink, swear, and yell "Party tram!" and other such things at the top of their lungs.

When we got to the top nobody on staff said a word and they went on their way. Later in the day I saw them skiing down a trail in plain sight with beers in their hand.

I don't begrudge anyone having a good time. But this really left a bad taste in my mouth. There is plenty of hill to have fun on, but when you are crammed into the tram, I am of the opinion that you really need to have some respect for the other people crammed in with you. Am I being overly sensitive about this?

And to cap off the day, I was standing in front of the RFID gate for the lift to get one last run in. A child about 5 years of age was in front of me. His father came FLYING in and attempted a hockey stop about 6 inches from the gate. Of course he lost control and slammed right into me. I was really pissed. Stuff happens on the trails, but while you are entering a lift????
 
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VTKilarney

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They were definitely older than college age. Vermont schools have this week off, but if they work in the school system I pity the children of Vermont.
 

dlague

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Well I think there are some that like to be noticed and feel the need to be loud! I saw something similar in the tower bar last time u was there! Like wise early in the season at Killington there was a group that were hammered and snowboarding. One of them could not even link three turns with out landing on his face! Unfortunately there will be those while think that others think it's cool and they will act like thy own the place. It sucks but I try to ignore it since paying attention to it makes maters worse!

Sorry you had a crappy day!


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone
 

JDMRoma

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Hudson NH
Closed?

Not according to their trail map; only 2 of their (numerous) glades are closed according to the map.

I noticed the same thing on their Trail Report yesterday, they listed it at 90% open.
A good reliable report would be welcome :)
 

VTKilarney

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I could be wrong, for sure, as I am not a glades skier. I was reporting based on ropes and people going into the woods. It seemed like about 50% of the glades actually had people skiing them. But this is far from scientific.
 

kingdom-tele

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We got one final day of skiing in at Jay Peak on April 17th. The weather was incredible, and the conditions were not bad at all. There was packed powder in the morning that started turning to wet granular in the afternoon. Every now and then you would see signs of the freeze after the rain storm, but it was not a real problem.

There was a group of about 15 or 20 people who seemed to be in their mid to upper 20's. They were having lots of fun, skiing in shorts (even though it was in the 30s for most of the day) and sticking mostly to the terrain park. One of them was skiing while carrying a boom-box blasting music - which I thought was pretty funny.

But things changed when we decided to ride the tram Unfortunately for us, they decided to ride the tram at the same time. Starting while we were all in line, they had no respect whatsoever for the people around them. They were drinking beer openly, and were swearing at the top of their lungs like they just got out of the navy - including one of them loudly proclaiming: "I've been shitfaced for four days straight!". There were many families in the line, including myself with an 8 and 10 year old. It became vey clear that they were all drunk.

As they entered the waiting area they walked right by the lift attendant with their beers in their hands. While inside the tram they continued to drink, swear, and yell "Party tram!" and other such things at the top of their lungs.

When we got to the top nobody on staff said a word and they went on their way. Later in the day I saw them skiing down a trail in plain sight with beers in their hand.

I don't begrudge anyone having a good time. But this really left a bad taste in my mouth. There is plenty of hill to have fun on, but when you are crammed into the tram, I am of the opinion that you really need to have some respect for the other people crammed in with you. Am I being overly sensitive about this?

And to cap off the day, I was standing in front of the RFID gate for the lift to get one last run in. A child about 5 years of age was in front of me. His father came FLYING in and attempted a hockey stop about 6 inches from the gate. Of course he lost control and slammed right into me. I was really pissed. Stuff happens on the trails, but while you are entering a lift????


did you ask them to notice their environment? It isn't hard. The tram is a sociology experiment, lots of people get ignorant in the box, never had an issue asking them to notice for the seven minutes it takes to get to the top
 

Euler

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Why didn't you say something to the obnoxious group, or to a Jay employee about the group? When people do things that are just wrong, we ought not to ignore it, I think. (easy for me to say from my couch!...I understand how awkward it is to address situations like these)
 

Not Sure

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Sometimes "not " getting involved can have consequences.
About 10yrs ago I drove past a large bridge, looked over to see a person standing by the highest point staring with a far away look.
I though to myself there going to jump, I should stop and say something, then I shook it off .
2hrs later i drove past below the bridge to find the road closed due to a suicide!
I am still haunted by that persons face !
Dui drivers seem to walk away , while some inocent pays the price.
I would have been on the phone with management first then the cops if no action was taken second.
Just my 2 cents
 

VTKilarney

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Why didn't you say something to the obnoxious group, or to a Jay employee about the group?

I came SO close to doing that both in line and on the lift. I really struggled with that. Here is why I didn't:
1) They clearly were trying to be rude. It's hard to explain, but you could tell that a lot of what they were doing was so they would stand out and be seen. I was concerned that if I said something they would have felt like "mission accomplished" or, even worse, the situation would have escalated.
2) I had no reason to believe that the Jay staff would have backed me up. One detail I left out is that the lift operator who handled the loading area (the guy with the clicker to count passengers) recognized one of the members of the group and actually stood their and chatted with her while she was drinking the can of beer that she held in her hand. Truthfully, i have no problem with someone who sneaks a drink on a chair lift - but to be clearly intoxicated and to drink openly in front of staff indicated to me that the staff just didn't care.

In hindsight I probably should have just waited until the next tram. I naively thought that they would tone it down once we got into the tram.
 

Warp Daddy

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You are definitely NOT the problem .

These so called young "adults " are MORONS who went out of their way to impose their will on everyone . You have every right to be upset , these cretins infringed on your environment and forced everyone on that tram to ENDURE idiotic behavior .They WILLFULLY dis this with absolutely no concern for other PAYING customers

In my career as a college president we also dealt on occasion with Morons and more often than not invited them NOT to come back and to suffer the loss of their tuition and board fees. After one takes a few of these actions it is amazing the cultural change that can take place because word gets around that this will not be tolerated .

The lesson learned for any service organization management team when dealing with obtuse idiots who refuse to comply after reasonable warning and policy enforcement for the greater good is simply ZERO Tolerance. NO exceptions !

As far as that liftie who failed to exercise good judgement by pulling these drunken louts off the line , he/ she should be disciplined .
 

WWF-VT

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2) I had no reason to believe that the Jay staff would have backed me up. One detail I left out is that the lift operator who handled the loading area (the guy with the clicker to count passengers) recognized one of the members of the group and actually stood their and chatted with her while she was drinking the can of beer that she held in her hand. Truthfully, i have no problem with someone who sneaks a drink on a chair lift - but to be clearly intoxicated and to drink openly in front of staff indicated to me that the staff just didn't care.

I wonder if anyone from Jay Peak is reading this thread and cares to comment. Can you imagine the liability for the mountain if there was an incident as a result of the drinking and obvious intoxication in front of the staff ?
 

bigbog

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I came SO close to doing that both in line and on the lift. I really struggled with that. Here is why I didn't:
1) They clearly were trying to be rude. It's hard to explain, but you could tell that a lot of what they were doing was so they would stand out and be seen. I was concerned that if I said something they would have felt like "mission accomplished" or, even worse, the situation would have escalated.
2) I had no reason to believe that the Jay staff would have backed me up. One detail I left out is that the lift operator who handled the loading area (the guy with the clicker to count passengers) recognized one of the members of the group and actually stood their and chatted with her while she was drinking the can of beer that she held in her hand. Truthfully, i have no problem with someone who sneaks a drink on a chair lift - but to be clearly intoxicated and to drink openly in front of staff indicated to me that the staff just didn't care.

In hindsight I probably should have just waited until the next tram. I naively thought that they would tone it down once we got into the tram.

Your reasons for not getting involved = not mentioning something to ANYONE is NOT GOOD!!!
You weren't the problem, very true, but either you condoned it or just didn't give a darn about
potential harm coming to someone downhill....and I'm not into the Big Brother, break up every bit of freedom -thing...but there's a difference between freedom and potential mishaps from out of control skiers...not only to others but potentially to themselves...y/n?
The lifties not administering the resort's codes of responsible behavior when on the mountain = ANY EXIST??? weren't very good either, to say the least.
What if someone downhill was to take a hit from any of those bozos....all your "feelings" would be insignificant. We take action, not starting a fight or anything, but to change people's irresonsible behavior...to potentially save someone downhill from getting killed.
 
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Tin

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I wonder if anyone from Jay Peak is reading this thread and cares to comment.

They just don't care.

I tried getting in touch with a few people at Jay (including someone on here) when ski patrol and an instructor told me how they avoid running upper mountain lifts on weekdays or when there isn't enough people there, and how they have BS wind holds to save money, never heard a thing back. Some of the exact quotes were "Ever notice we have more wind holds during the week than the weekend?" , "There just are not enough people to run the Tram today.", and "Some days they will only run Bonnie and the Jet to freeze people into the water park". And of course you're paying full price. I'm all set with Jay. Wasted about $600 and 5 hours of driving to ski off the Jet and Bonnie for a few days.

And never trust a Jay trail report. The first day of my last time there they had at least 6 main trails (Can Am, Powerline, Green Mt. Boys, etc) and countless glades listed as open and we found nothing but ropes across them.
 
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