Jay Peak

[east coast ripper]

heading up to jay peak this saturday for the 1st time. was wondering from some of the regulars that can ski anything there, where i should focus my time when there. i have skied many other resorts in vt, nh, and ny, and can ski pretty much anything. looking for the areas with the best snow conditions and some challenge. glades or groomers. 2 intermediates will also be with me, so any suggestions for them as well would be good as well. normally i wouldnt ask for help finding good runs, but i have heard that there are many areas that are hard to find at jay unless you know where to look. thanks for any input.

 

[Ski&Ride]

I'll also be there this weekend for the first time - skiing mostly intermediate trails with my wife & kids, but will make some solo runs too. Would appreciate any tips/recommendations.

Thanks,

 

[Brettski]

One of my favorite mountains...matter of fact, My desktop is of my family on jay...as is my avatar

Never been in the woods at Jay though, which is suppose to be the high lite of the resort..

I believe you can sign up for ski "school" and they will tke you into the woods...which is what I should have done...

Just be aware of the run out on the left side of the Mountain

EDIT: Jay is also nortorious for it's wind Holds on he tram and the quad...which eliminates access to the summit

 

[awf170]

Pretty much the only thing good at Jay are glades. There are a few okay bump runs, and I guess the first timer terrian is pretty good (metro quad). Go to Jay for glades, if don't care about glades pretty much any other mountain is northern new england is a lot better.

 

[ctenidae]

Been there once, and I honestly don't remember what anything was like, except for the glades, which were fantastic.

 

[RIDEr]

Plan on getting on the first tram up. From there, you can figure the wind for the day. If the wind is strong spend the day over by the Jet triple. If the wind is moderate spend the day over by the Green Mountain Flyer (High Speed Quad at base).

I was there a couple of weeks ago and would only recommend now with the recent snowfall for skiers to hit the glades. My friend who is an extreme skier hated the glades a few weeks ago, but I can imagine with the recent snowfall that the snow has packed down enough to enjoy it all....

 

[JPTracker]

The tram is worth doing once for the view and to do Vermonter. It is not worth the wait to do Northway. Get an early Tram as the line can get long.

Off the Flyer - Ulers Dream & JFK are good. Make sure you take Kokomo at the bottom or else the runout will be bad. Also Goat to Green Mountain Boys is good but do Goat early. After 10:00 it gets scaped off & turns icy.

Off the Bonaventure Quad - Northway to either Angles Wiggle or Lower Milk Run. You Can do Northway from the Flyer but the run out across Taxi down Queens Highway can be long.

Off the Jet - Jet, Hayne & Derek Hot shot are good expert runs. Only one intermediate run - Montrealer. Worth doing once for the view.

Woods are skiable but be carefull. Beaver Pond off of Ulers is your best choice to begin with.

 

[riverc0il]

good advice thus far. i will echo the that the tram is a waste of time unless you want to do valhalla, green beret, face chutes, or tucks chute. of those trails, only valhalla is open and it is pretty sketch right now. i would recommend catching first tram and taking vermonter before it gets scratched to hell. it would be an especially nice first run with an over night dusting. once you do the tram once, forget about it. if you aren't skiing the expert terrain off the summit, the tram is mostly a tourist trap with a 30 minute wait unless you take it first thing on a non-powder day.

JPTracker's advice to look for the best snow in the glades in the beaver pond area is sound. hopefully we'll get some more snow this week, the glades are bare and thin cover with lots of crap sticking out.

your intermediate friends are not going to have much to enjoy, jay peak is not a good cruising mountain. jet and haynes are two steeper groomer options. all the intermediate trails off the bonaventure quad (red chair) kinda blend together into one indistinguishable blue. the goat is a nasty trail after the early morning, be sure to ski down the trail under the freezer if you want to access stuff like green mountain boys, lower river quai, lower goat, etc. as previously mentioned, the run out off the freezer for trails dumping into the west bowl area is horrid, kokomo is definitely the better of the two run out options to get back to the base.

if you are interested in moguls, U.N. is the place to be. pretty good up top, sketch in the middle, good down low. upper looking good is nasty right now, not worth the effort, same with canyonland and powerline, not worth the effort for those trails unless we get more snow. bumps on kitzbuehel have been doing okay too.

i have a few recent reports at my web site linked to in my signature if you are interested in recent conditions.

 

[east coast ripper]

1st off, thanks for the replies. however, it seems that alot of the comments in here were kind of negative. i got the jist that the conditions there might be sub par. i read what rivercOil had to say, and i know he skies there regularly, and you seemed to say that alot of what jay is good for, isnt yet in good condition, or the signature runs like green beret or the chutes are still closed, as well as much of the woods being sketchy. to top this off, my intermediate friends are limited in options, and sounds like half way through the day they will be skiing runs that are ice and skied off due to traffic as many runs funnel together. like i said, i have never been there, and was looking forward to it, but might our time be better utilized by going to stowe instead? i was looking to have some fun in the trees, but i still want the others ith me to be able to have fun. please correct me if i'm wrong in assuming what i have read.

 

[riverc0il]

you can still have fun in the trees at jay. i suspect other nothern green mountain ski areas will have sketchy thin cover on natural snow trails as well. jay is definitely sub par for this time of the year, but better than most. if we get snow by next weekend, jay is back in business as hands down the best tree skiing in new england. your intermediate friends would definitely have a better time at stowe, i can't speak for their conditions though. but at stowe they would get 2k verts on the main mountain lifts and some great trails for cruising with spruce across the way for something more mellow with slightly less verts. not trying to talk you out of jay, i think for trees, jay can't be beat (even when there is thin cover... especially when there is thin cover) which is why i decided to get a pass there.

 

[kingdom-tele]

have you considered going to burke?, far better "intermediate" terrain/ great cruising trails, overall it sounds like your friends may enjoy the trail skiing at a mountain like burke

 

[from_the_NEK]

Burke is is excellent shape right now considering the lask of snow we have been getting. I'm going to try to get a report from Sunday posted today.
The Blue cruisers are in VERY good shape and there is nobady there to ski them into icy oblivion. Even most of the natural cover trails (blue and black) are holding up quite well.
However, there are only two tree runs currently open at Burke. One is a beginner tree run on the lower mtn and the other is a tight run through the spruce trees at the summit. The remainder of the glades need another 10 inches before they can open.

 

[from_the_NEK]

You can see Stowe and Jay from Burke :razz:

 

[east coast ripper]

thanks for the tips, i have never been to burke, but have seen it mentioned on here. i am just trying to find the best balance of terrain for me and my friends. i tend to like more challenging terrain, and would like to have a good selection of good blue cruisers for them and some steeper more varied terrain for myself. another choice a friend mentioned to me was smugglers notch. never been there either, but have heard good things. i am limiting myslef to these resorts, cuz i will be coming from plattsburgh, and jay, stowe, smuggs, and burke are all relatively close. so out of those choices i need to make a decision.