Construction News from Jay.

[JPTracker]

Just returned from my annual homeowners association meeting at Jay Peak and have the following news on upcoming construction projects. Nothing to happen this summer.

Base Area Redevelopment:

Phase 1 - Expanding and remodeling base lodge - project to take two years to start in spring of 2008. Possible foundation work this fall but I doubt it. The base lodge will extend all the way over to the Flyer and provide great amount of increased space for all activities. One of the features will be that the bar will be located above the tram, looking down on the tram and out onto the mountain instead of in the basement like it is now.

Phase 2 - Building a addition behind the existing hotel which will include an indoor water park. To be done after base lodge.

Phase 3 - To replace existing hotel.

Stateside lifts:

1 - Currently in talks with Poma about replacing the Bonaventure with a high speed quad.

2 - Refurbishing the Bonaventure chair to be used to replace the jet triple. To handle the increased traffic a couple of new intermediate trails will be developed over where Kitz woods and Kitzbuehel are down thru Hells woods.

3 – Refurbishing the Jet Triple and use it to replace the T-bar, relocated to the right of the terrain park.

Possibly starting in 2008 but I don’t see it beginning then with the work on the base lodge going on.

Cross Country:

The club house for the golf course will be built in 2008 and will double for use for cross country in the winter and will also contain a new restaurant and other facilities.

West Bowl:

Sometime in the future. No schedule mentioned.

 

[snoseek]

reusing current lift is smart

 

[kcyanks1]

2 - Refurbishing the Bonaventure chair to be used to replace the jet triple. To handle the increased traffic a couple of new intermediate trails will be developed over where Kitz woods and Kitzbuehel are down thru Hells woods.

Why not just leave it as a triple, then, and not ruin the glades?

 

[riverc0il]

Interesting plans. Not sure why the Bonnie needs replacing, what is up with that? Certainly not a capacity issue, Bonnie usually has a pretty short line. Jet Triple area could stand some additional up hill capacity, but that just means the fresh lasts even less than it already does. The relocation of the Jet to the T-Bar is amusing, I guess people don't like riding surface lifts? They could always just buy a second hand T-Bar for the terrain park and not make any changes and I would be cool with that. The Jet Chair could perhaps be the shortest chairlift in all of New England if it replaces the T-Bar. To make Kitz Woods an intermediate pitch trail would probably requiring a switch back and would kill the glade, that is too bad. Hells Woods I would not cry about but it is occasionally an interesting cut through the woods via the lower entry points. Doubtful that the increased capacity would really merit the additional intermediate trails but they gots to do what they gots to do.

Don't suppose there was any word on the Stateside Lodge? The place could use some work and additional capacity, but the Tram Base lodge certainly is first priority.

 

[David Metsky]

Losing Kitz and Hell's Woods are a big blow. That would considerably suck, IMO. I'll probably spend more time skinning in the backcountry.

 

[JPTracker]

Interesting plans. Not sure why the Bonnie needs replacing, what is up with that? Certainly not a capacity issue, Bonnie usually has a pretty short line. Jet Triple area could stand some additional up hill capacity, but that just means the fresh lasts even less than it already does. The relocation of the Jet to the T-Bar is amusing, I guess people don't like riding surface lifts? They could always just buy a second hand T-Bar for the terrain park and not make any changes and I would be cool with that. The Jet Chair could perhaps be the shortest chairlift in all of New England if it replaces the T-Bar. To make Kitz Woods an intermediate pitch trail would probably requiring a switch back and would kill the glade, that is too bad. Hells Woods I would not cry about but it is occasionally an interesting cut through the woods via the lower entry points. Doubtful that the increased capacity would really merit the additional intermediate trails but they gots to do what they gots to do.

Don't suppose there was any word on the Stateside Lodge? The place could use some work and additional capacity, but the Tram Base lodge certainly is first priority.

The Bonnie has several problems. It is in bad shape mechanically. Its 25 years old and showing its age. It is also a very long ride, 12 minutes. One of the biggest problems, especially in the spring is thunder storms. With the 12 minute ride up that means the quickest they can empty the lift is 12 minutes. There has been times they shut it down early as a precaution because of this.

The lift that is actually in the worst shape is the T-Bar. It could die at any time. The good thing is no one can get stuck on it.

Absolutely no talk about the stateside lodge. I think they would do the West Bowl first and thats a ways off. Maybe a good question for the AlpineZone Challenge.

 

[riverc0il]

Word, I was not aware that the Bonnie was that old nor slow. It certainly never feels like 12 minutes! I actually think that the Bonnie is one of the faster fixed grip chairs around so I am surprised to hear of its age how long the trip is. Now the T-bar does look old and beat up. Makes sense they would look to West Bowl before Stateside Lodge. If they get the West Bowl thing done in combination with the Tramside Development, that will actually take care of the space issues in the Stateside Lodge. I'd love to know more history about Jay and its infrastructure and lifts. Are there any online resources or would I have to ask around, say at the pass holder party, for information from the higher ups?

 

[JPTracker]

There was litle talk about West Bowl schedule other than the base redevelopment comes first. My personnel guess would be 6 - 10 years out before they start.

As far as history goes there was a good article on the site Walter Foeger, Jay Peak & Natur Teknik but the article does not seem to be currently available.

As far as asking around the pass holders party usually will have a lot of long time pass holders. Also some of the lift attendants who have been around for a while. Being an owner I talk to both Bill and Steve who are great at answering your questions. They were both at our home owners meetings and did the bulk of the presentations.

 

[thetrailboss]

Bonaventure Quad: she is old. Did not realize it was that old. Did they reuse the drive or something? IIRC it was installed in the mid to late 80's. I also know that the Jet is old as well. Good call on only having a FGQ replace it. Are they thinking HSQ for Bonaventure now? How would that impact traffic flow, etc? If anything, it would mean more folks at Stateside, which is not all bad considering that the main lodge can be crazy.

And has the Bonaventure been struck by lightning?

 

[thetrailboss]

Here is some info on the lifts at Jay from Chairlift.org.

Riv asked about the history of Jay...here is a pic of the original Bonaventure Lift from Chairlift.org:

Note also that there was once a Poma near where JFK is now and that supposedly there was once a chairlift that ran from Tower 2 of the tram to the summit

As to original infrastructure and history. A general thumbnail sketch is that the local Kiwanis Club raised money and put in a Poma on State Side. At some point there was a T-bar added as well. Both were replaced by the Triple in the 80's. I think that there may have been a surface lift added where the Bonaventure Quad is now...but at any rate, that became a double and then a quad.

The original lodge was State Side IIRC.

Weyerhauser Lumber purchased the mountain from the local group and the timber rights. They cut most of the trails, built the tram and the Tram Base, and tried to run the resort. They added the Bonaventure Double, Green Mountain Double, as well. It did not go so well. They sold to the current ownership, Mont Saint Sauvier, in '78 IIRC. They brought on Stenger shortly thereafter....he replaced the lifts. Triple then quad. The HSQ was in 1999 and the tram was redone in 2000 or so. Took a lot of arm twisting to get the $$$ for the last work. Took a lot of effort to get the golf course done as well....that was 20 years in the making, and the attempt to sell the mountain. Stenger stepped up...he now owns a share of the mountain with MSS.

 

[JPTracker]

Bonaventure Quad: she is old. Did not realize it was that old. Did they reuse the drive or something? IIRC it was installed in the mid to late 80's. I also know that the Jet is old as well. Good call on only having a FGQ replace it. Are they thinking HSQ for Bonaventure now? How would that impact traffic flow, etc? If anything, it would mean more folks at Stateside, which is not all bad considering that the main lodge can be crazy.

And has the Bonaventure been struck by lightning?

The Bonnie replacement will definitely be a high speed quad. I don't think its ever been struck by lightning but its always a possibility.

 

[JPTracker]

Note also that there was once a Poma near where JFK is now and that supposedly there was once a chairlift that ran from Tower 2 of the tram to the summit

As to original infrastructure and history. A general thumbnail sketch is that the local Kiwanis Club raised money and put in a Poma on State Side. At some point there was a T-bar added as well. Both were replaced by the Triple in the 80's. I think that there may have been a surface lift added where the Bonaventure Quad is now...but at any rate, that became a double and then a quad.

The original lift at Jay was a Poma lift that ran halfway up where lower UN is now. Later the Jet T bar was added to bring you to the summit.

The Poma over by JFK actually ran up the Poma Line trail next to Ulers. The chair that ran to the summit was the Skyline chair which ran from the area below northway by JFK to the summit behind the tram house. You can still see the foundation for it behind the tram house. The idea was you could ride the original Bonnie double up which dropped you on St Georges Prayer then ski down to the Skyline chair to get to the summit. This chair and Poma was also to be used for the late season skiing.

There was also a T bar about were Lower Can Am is now. This got relocated over to Chalet Meadows when they replaced the Bonnie and relocated it to its current location.