Jay Peak Grooming

[skizoo]

My wife and I are in Stowe but considering heading to Jay for a day this Friday, 2/10.

Looking at their website, I can't find a grooming report.. their interactive trailmap shows all trails as ungroomed which seems a little odd.

My wife is a low intermediate skier and really only skis groomed blues..

anyone know what the current grooming status is of their intermediate terrain?

Also, I see they are offering a 3 for discount.. any idea what the crowds will be on a Friday?

Thanks

 

[awf170]

yuck, don't go. Jay has to be one of the worst lower intermidiate ski areas ever. My mom is a lower int. and wont even ski there anymore because there isnt anything for here. Jay has hard terrian and really easy, nothing in between. Like I said before, even though jay peak gets a ton of snow it is an extremely icy, rocky, terrible mountain if your not a glade skier.

 

[thetrailboss]

Yeah, honestly intermediate terrain at Jay is not great. Slabs across the fall line, and when it does hit the fall line, it is steep. Their grooming is nothing to write home about.

That said, reason why nothing was groomed is because (a) it is midweek, and (b) they got powder, so their clientele don't want groomed stuff, they want powder.

Some good classic blue runs include Vermonter, Northway (which has a horrible ending IMHO), and JFK (improved from what I hear).

 

[NHpowderhound]

I would reccomend just about any other mountain for your wife besides Jay for all the reasons above. It's just not a mountain geared for low-intm. cruising.
((*
*))NHPH

 

[meat]

yeah, I agree, the grooming is usually marginal, but can occasionally be good. one of the problems is on the trails that they make snow on. it seems a lot of the time when making snow its the quality of shooting a hose in the air and letting it freeze on the ground, and when the real stuff gets skied/blown off it can get pretty darn icy. a lot of the blue runs are pretty steep in comparison to other hills also. not a good lower int hill, and it will probably be less crowded other places (even at stowe)tomarrow with this 3 for 1 deal. I'm real interested to see what the crowds will be like tomarrow

 

[NYDrew]

Jay is like a less extreme mad river glen. There philosophy is "if it doesn't have to be groomed, why bother" no one goes to Jay for their groomed terrain.


whats the name of that glade...beaver creek, now thats classic jay.

 

[NHpowderhound]

NYDrew wrote

whats the name of that glade...beaver creek, now thats classic jay.

Beaver Pond Glade and Beyond Beaver Pond Glade(renamed Andre's Paradise)
((*
*))NHPH

 

[riverc0il]

i concur with everyone above. you are already at stowe, why go to jay? sounds like you want to save money? it ain't worth it, jay is a terrible mountain for lower intermediate groomers. if you are looking to try something different in northern vermont for cheap groomers, burke has excellent grooming terrain but is an hour and a half or more from stowe, so it's not close. bush north would be good for groomers too. though you are already at stowe, why bother?

 

[NYDrew]

Which mountain is Bush north? Lincoln or Ellen? I didnt pay to much attention to the compass while I was there.

 

[Brettski]

Mt. Ellen is SB North...

And Jay is GREAT...get in to a lesson and have a great day!

Stowe to Jay in the Winter must be 1 hour +

 

[skibum1321]

Mt. Ellen is SB North...

And Jay is GREAT...get in to a lesson and have a great day!

Stowe to Jay in the Winter must be 1 hour +

Stowe to Jay is far more than an hr. Jay is an hr and a half from Burlington.

 

[awf170]

And Jay is GREAT...get in to a lesson and have a great day!

Stowe to Jay in the Winter must be 1 hour +

No offensive or anything, but if you think jay peak is a good cruiser/intermidiate mountain you really have to try some other places, like sugarloaf, stowe, wildcat, burke, and sugarbush north. Another thing no one has mentioned is that jay is really flat, then steep, then flat, which just makes it a horrible cruiser mountian for any skill level

 

[GrizzlyFD]

And Jay is GREAT...get in to a lesson and have a great day!

Stowe to Jay in the Winter must be 1 hour +

No offensive or anything, but if you think jay peak is a good cruiser/intermidiate mountain you really have to try some other places, like sugarloaf, stowe, wildcat, burke, and sugarbush north. Another thing no one has mentioned is that jay is really flat, then steep, then flat, which just makes it a horrible cruiser mountian for any skill level

Maybe you haven't hit the jet (or anything on stateside), upper can am, exhibition, JFK, lift line, power line, etc...
Probably one of the best mountains around for sustained pitch, of course with some runout at the bottom. How about staircase or everglade for sustained pitch?

 

[riverc0il]

Probably one of the best mountains around for sustained pitch,

i disagree wholeheartedly. jet is the best section of the mountain for grooming, but it isn't much and the vertical isn't very high. for it's vertical, i would argue jay is one of the worst mountains in it's size for sustained vertical. i love jay's trees and powder, but i fail to see any reason for skiing jay if not for trees and powder. there are a lot better and cheaper options that are a better overall value for groomer skiing.

 

[RIDEr]

I can't believe nobody mentioned Smuggs. Smuggs is the closest mountain to Stowe and can provide you with enough variety for both intermediate and advanced riders \ skiers.

 

[skizoo]

Hi everyone

thanks for the replies.. we opted for Smuggs as a 1 day alernative to Stowe, the main reason I was looking for an option is that Stowe had the guns blasting on virtually all of their decent easy blue cruisers most of the week, which made my wife's enjoyment of the mountain, somewhat less than ideal..

Smuggs was great for a day, some nice groomed blue cruisers, guns off, she was able to ski from the top of Madonna and Sterling had a blast.. I have never skied Jay but probably would enjoy it, but based on what most said here, my wife would hate it..

thanks again!