Jay 04/11/10

[riverc0il]

Impressive coverage at Jay considering the past month. Jay had as many lifts running than available routes (read routes, not trails) which was quite different than the way most resorts play the late season. But that is just the way that Jay is setup. Northway off the Tram, Goat and Green Mountain Boys off the Bonnie, and Jet, Haynes, and Motrealer/Wiggle off the Jet. Snow ran out at the end of Wiggle about 50 feet shy of the Bonnie (chair required to get back to Tramside) and no snow until the base of the Jet requiring a hike if you wanted to go Tramside to the Jet (but that is to be expected this time of year). Other than those two hiking aspects, all open trails were wall to wall coverage with no bare spots excepting parts of the bump line under the Jet.

Jay got some snow this weekend and it was snowing/sleeting when I got there. Snow conditions were loose wet granular. Pretty decent skiing actually though the fog made things a bit awkward at times. Goat was promoted to a black run per signs as it was pretty darn slick. Other than the small bump line under the Jet, there are no moguls which was a little disappointing. But given the weather, I will take good snow conditions on groomers off a barely skiable bump run (I didn't even bother with the bumps under the Jet).

Plenty of snow for the next weekend and I am sure they can do two more weekends. Three though, might be a stretch.

 

[thetrailboss]

I saw that both Jay and Sugarloaf got decent snow yesterday. There was an inch or so at SB. I think the race this season will be between Jay and Sugarloaf. SB's new routine is just too low to last a long warm spell.

 

[riverc0il]

I think Loaf can go as longer. Jay will be hurting once the lower mountain begins to melt out. I don't think Jay could possibly compete for last to close. I liked what I saw at Killington last week more than Jay today... but a lot could have changed at K since last week.

Jet and Stein's are probably comparable for elevation so I don't think that is a factor. It all comes down to who's base lasts the longest as the flats melt out faster than the trails. SB has the added issue of the traverse to Stein's so I imagine that can be tricky as well. Jay is making it work because they can push snow down into the Jet loading area but the bottom of Jet/Haynes is really flat and so is the run out by the Metro Quad Tramside.

I don't think any place is going to make it until May.

Any idea why Bush does not blow enough snow to keep the link between the Quad and Heaven's Gate in tact? If they could keep that linked for skiing, they could up/down load with skiing from the summit down to Jester. Easier just to blow heavy on Stein's? It seems like Lincoln is a great place to close the season during a good snow year and a good spring. Ellen definitely has a huge advantage in a low snow year or tough spring.

 

[thetrailboss]

I think Loaf can go as longer. Jay will be hurting once the lower mountain begins to melt out. I don't think Jay could possibly compete for last to close. I liked what I saw at Killington last week more than Jay today... but a lot could have changed at K since last week.

Yes I think the 'loaf is further north as well...

Any idea why Bush does not blow enough snow to keep the link between the Quad and Heaven's Gate in tact? If they could keep that linked for skiing, they could up/down load with skiing from the summit down to Jester. Easier just to blow heavy on Stein's? It seems like Lincoln is a great place to close the season during a good snow year and a good spring. Ellen definitely has a huge advantage in a low snow year or tough spring.

Very good question! I think this season was tough because much of November was too warm for the resorts to build base, so Sugarbush started off behind and had to play catch-up. This season they just were not able to make up for that lost time plus they are slow to move the snowguns from one run to another.

Another constant criticism that has been made is that for Lincoln Peak since Claybrook was put in and the snowmaking plant was moved they have not made nearly as much snow as they did in the ASC years. I am not sure if they rent compressors anymore, or rent less of them. They used to have a fleet of rental compressors just above the maintenance building on the Bravo Lift line (you can see the empty canopy now) but no more. This also slows down their snowmaking progress.

As to why Stein's: they can blow a lot of snow on it once or twice a season and it faces north. It holds snow well and has the Valley House Double at the top which is what they can fire up and have one lift and one trail (theoretically). That said, Ripcord got A LOT of snow this season and skied very well this season...in part because they groomed it regularly IMHO as well.

But IIRC I heard that Thursday "Deathspout" had a pretty substantial river running through it which pretty much washed away any snow.

You're right about Mount Ellen. This season just shows that sometimes Downspout is just too long to get open quickly and just too long to keep maintained in the spring. Plus, in order to download, you need Jester as well. So that means two long trails whereas at Mount Ellen if you had one run from summit to Glen House you were good (Jester also melted out in too many spots).

I don't think that this spring has been normal though...the 70-80 degree weather really devistated a lot of terrain very quickly and shuttered many a few weeks earlier than normal.