Jay this weekend

[BenedictGomez]

Can't believe how many intelligent members don't get the value of the Tram. The wide-eyed wonder of those 6 to 60 years old, first time riders is what it's all about! An elderly woman naming all the gorgeous vistas from the top to her out-of-town friends - is what it's about! Who knows how many 5+ figure weddings are booked due to photo - ops of mountain top wedding parties...get my drift?

How badly does that view deteriorate if you take a high speed quad and then a fixed grip double to the top?

When the majority of the skiers are there, the experience is an frustratingly long wait. It's also the experience of being jammed up against a sweaty stranger.

That's what enduring lifetime memories are made of! You obviously just don't get it. I bet you don't even appreciate standing in ski boots for over an hour. Come to think of it, you should probably quit skiing altogether.

On a Monday with all other lifts likely empty.

THIS.

Ski on. I wasn't even there, but I know, this; precisely, this.

What's beyond me is why anyone would wait an hour to ski an extra 100m vertical especially when the really cool stuff boils down to 5 turns on Face Chute, 3 on Green Beret and about 15 on Pumphouse.

And for the life of me, I cannot understand waiting an hour so ski Northway or Vermonter unless you like skiing half days and are happy with 6 runs per day.

Apparently it has to do with weddings, and old ladies naming random mountain peaks in southern Quebec.

 

[drjeff]

Step #1 when discussing "novelty" type lifts.....

One must remember that the typical AZ poster is far from the typical skier and only represents an incredibly small percentage of a ski areas business, so what makes sense to an AZ poster, may very well make no sense whatsoever to the countless number of masses who actually do comprise a ski areas annual total customer visits during all 4 seasons.....

Step #2 - see step #1

 

[fbrissette]

Step #1 when discussing "novelty" type lifts.....

One must remember that the typical AZ poster is far from the typical skier and only represents an incredibly small percentage of a ski areas business, so what makes sense to an AZ poster, may very well make no sense whatsoever to the countless number of masses who actually do comprise a ski areas annual total customer visits during all 4 seasons.....

Step #2 - see step #1

I'm not questioning Jay Peak motives. I'm questioning skiers who wait in line for one hour.

 

[Savemeasammy]

I don't get up to Jay as much as I'd like, so I'm a bit more inclined to wait in a line for the tram than I would for most other lifts. The terrain off the top is unique relative to other lift serviced terrain elsewhere. On New Year's Day a friend and I waited for perhaps 30-45. At the top, he and I were the only ones to head into the face chutes. Everyone else headed for one of the groomers...

It was a memorable run, so for me it was worth a bit of extra time.


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[tumbler]

was at Snowbird and the Tram line was out the door into the courtyard but the Peruvian was ski on. Take the tunnel into Mineral Basin and you have all the terrain the tram accesses. It's like a moth to flame.

 

[mriceyman]

Yeah, that really makes no sense.

More for the summer clients.. good selling point.. for the hardcore skiers its pretty much a waste


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[snoseek]

I'm thinking about going up tomorrow? Did anyone ski today? Snow still decent?

 

[from_the_NEK]

As I've noted before, there is not much terrain acreage served by the tram. And most of that terrain is steep. The traffic limiting effect of the tram helps preserve the surface conditions on a lot of that expert terrain so that it isn't tracked out in a half hour.

On another note I made three runs with Kingdom-Tele somewhere near Jay Peak on Saturday. We never touched a lift and it was glorious .

.

 

[bdfreetuna]

no snow left up there, huh

 

[Not Sure]

Step #1 when discussing "novelty" type lifts.....

One must remember that the typical AZ poster is far from the typical skier and only represents an incredibly small percentage of a ski areas business, so what makes sense to an AZ poster, may very well make no sense whatsoever to the countless number of masses who actually do comprise a ski areas annual total customer visits during all 4 seasons.....

Step #2 - see step #1

Lol .... when I rode the tram at Cannon in august a long time ago I had a chat with the "operator ?" He said the tram gets more use in the summer than winter. I imagine the same is true for jay? The fact that it's there is a "coincidence" ( can't think of another description) in ski season. I can understand a first timer or fair weather skier wanting to pose for a selfie taking the tram but wasting an hour to a dedicated skier is unfathomable. I place myself in the latter as well but if there not standing in front of you in another lift line there's a silver lining.

 

[56fish]

How badly does that view deteriorate if you take a high speed quad and then a fixed grip double to the top?

It doesn't.....odds of a new chair at JP? Tram sells weddings, Porsche, etc... As usual, I do agree w most (98+%) of your observations :beer:

 

[snoseek]

As I've noted before, there is not much terrain acreage served by the tram. And most of that terrain is steep. The traffic limiting effect of the tram helps preserve the surface conditions on a lot of that expert terrain so that it isn't tracked out in a half hour.

On another note I made three runs with Kingdom-Tele somewhere near Jay Peak on Saturday. We never touched a lift and it was glorious .

.

All those pics are awesome but that third photo is glorious!

 

[BenedictGomez]

As I've noted before, there is not much terrain acreage served by the tram. And most of that terrain is steep. The traffic limiting effect of the tram helps preserve the surface conditions on a lot of that expert terrain so that it isn't tracked out in a half hour.

What a revolutionary concept in terrain preservation!

Create lift access that sucks so bad that expert skiers wont even bother skiing the expert terrain. Why, it's genius I tell you!

And new for 2016-2017 the "improved" tram is now 34% worse than ever before, so WOW, that snow must be amazing up there*.


* I wouldn't know.

 

[cdskier]

I'm having a difficult time understanding why non-expert skiers wait in that line for the tram just to ski a couple blue trails along the ridge. Ideally the primary people that *should* be using the tram are people that want to ski the expert trails up there. If that was the case, the line would be pretty short since it seems most people that currently use it are skiing the blues from what's being said here. Eliminate those people and you have little to no lines...(in theory)

 

[deadheadskier]

Probably just the simple desire most folks have to visit the Summit of a mountain.

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[BenedictGomez]

I'm having a difficult time understanding why non-expert skiers wait in that line for the tram just to ski a couple blue trails along the ridge.

I've asked myself this 1000 times.

If you've never been to Jay Peak and you want the photo-op, once, I get it. Other than that, it baffles me.

And it's not even as if those intermediate segments up there are interesting or unique in any way, shape, or form.

 

[thetrailboss]

Looks like we are having another debate about the values of the Tram. I think the only thing that would help is if Steve W could weigh in on the issue. I imagine, again, that the benefits for them are advertising (only one of two Trams in New England), the ability to use it for off-season business (I have heard from multiple folks at resorts that non-skiers just don't do chairlifts because of fear of heights and lack of familiarity), and to deliver the full 2,100 vertical feet in one run as well as the ability to give skiers and riders full access to most of the resort from one lift are benefits that outweigh the inconvenience and costs.

Of course from a purely skier-moving perspective it is obsolete. If that were the primary focus then indeed having a double reinstalled to the top would be a good idea. I imagine that the limited terrain cannot handle any more skiers or riders.


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[BenedictGomez]

The harsh reality is, they have absolutely no choice in the matter anyway, even if they did want to modernize. It would take someone well-capitalized like SNOW or MTN to get rid of it and replace it with a better and more efficient option.

 

[VTKilarney]

and to deliver the full 2,100 vertical feet in one run

Except that Jay doesn't have 2,100 vertical. The tram isn't even 2,000 feet worth of vertical. But your point is well taken. I can understand doing it once if the line is no more than 15 or 20 minutes. But that's all I could see.

I suppose it made sense for weddings because it was already there. But investing MILLIONS to repair the tram for a few weddings each year? That's absolute madness.

Cannon's tram is much busier than Jay's in the summer because it is in a much more touristed area. Not many busses are coming to the Jay tram.

 

[from_the_NEK]

What a revolutionary concept in terrain preservation!

Create lift access that sucks so bad that expert skiers wont even bother skiing the expert terrain. Why, it's genius I tell you!

And new for 2016-2017 the "improved" tram is now 34% worse than ever before, so WOW, that snow must be amazing up there*.


* I wouldn't know.

Who says expert skiers don't use the tram? And there are plenty of lifts out there that are purposely low capacity to limit the amount of people skiing the terrain. Some here may be familiar with a few of them: MRG single chair, Castlerock double, the Madonna Double. Sure those are chairs but each one of them are the only way to get to entire trail pods/mountain peaks that contain A LOT more terrain than what is found at the summit of Jay. Additionally, each of the resorts that is home to those lifts listed above has had the opportunity to replace the old low capacity chairlifts with something higher capacity and chose not to*. One of the MAJOR reasons behind the decision to stay low capacity was snow preservation.

*Although there is still talk the Madonna Double may get replaced at some point.