Your Favorite Glade/Tree Runs

[BenedictGomez]

I'm assuming this is an on-map thread:

Gore - Chatiemac, Chatterbox, Twister

Jay Peak - Andre's Paradise, B.P.G., Bushwacker (dont laugh, it makes me feel good about myself), Canyonland, Kitz Woods

Smuggs - Bermuda, Docs, Shakedown

 

[crank]

M favorites:

Everglade at Jay and also everything out of bounds to skiers right of Timbuktu up to and including the Dip.

Goat woods at Stowe.

Chattiemac at GORE

 

[bdfreetuna]

Everglade at Jay and also everything out of bounds to skiers right of Timbuktu up to and including the Dip.

You got me curious with the Dip there. Looks pretty nice but as I suspected they were heading toward the road and end up there. The video ends at a parking lot which looks vaguely familiar but I haven't skied off the back of Jay -- so do you have to hitch a ride from there or can you ski the side of the road all the way back to Stateside?

 

[Smellytele]

You got me curious with the Dip there. Looks pretty nice but as I suspected they were heading toward the road and end up there. The video ends at a parking lot which looks vaguely familiar but I haven't skied off the back of Jay -- so do you have to hitch a ride from there or can you ski the side of the road all the way back to Stateside?

Need to hitch a ride or at least I had to whenever I did it. Well had a hung over buddy who didn’t ski that day pick us up


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[crank]

You got me curious with the Dip there. Looks pretty nice but as I suspected they were heading toward the road and end up there. The video ends at a parking lot which looks vaguely familiar but I haven't skied off the back of Jay -- so do you have to hitch a ride from there or can you ski the side of the road all the way back to Stateside?

You can ski all the way out to where the Dip drops off to the road and still make it back to the Jet chair. It's about a half mile back to the area if you ski out to the road. That last face down to 242 is a great pitch. You can ski, well really walk back with your skis on, along the side of the road. We have always been picked up by passing locals so have never walked more than halfway back without getting a ride.

 

[deadheadskier]

Accidentally ended up at the road with a fellow Azer 4-5 years ago. Within about 5 minutes of walking someone in a pickup truck picked us up. Great skiing out there

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[KustyTheKlown]

the dip drops you onto 242. if you ever stay in montgomery and approach from that side, you'll see the tracks and where the people traverse the road back towards stateside base.

 

[bdfreetuna]

the dip drops you onto 242. if you ever stay in montgomery and approach from that side, you'll see the tracks and where the people traverse the road back towards stateside base.

Seen that on the way up to Big Jay Tavern and back. So does The Dip dump you out on the same spot on the road as Big Jay? Always just assumed those were Big Jay skiers in that spot.

 

[BenedictGomez]

do you have to hitch a ride from there or can you ski the side of the road all the way back to Stateside?

What a lot of folks will do is drive together & take 2 cars. You ditch one car in one of the roadside "lots", then continue on to Jay. You both ski down to the road for last run, get in the "ditched" car, then drive to the car parked at Jay Peak.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Seen that on the way up to Big Jay Tavern and back. So does The Dip dump you out on the same spot on the road as Big Jay? Always just assumed those were Big Jay skiers in that spot.

i've only skied the dip, not big jay, but my understanding is that they dump out to the same/similar points along 242

 

[crank]

i've only skied the dip, not big jay, but my understanding is that they dump out to the same/similar points along 242

Big Jay parking cutout along 242 is a couple of miles further down the road towards Montgomery Center near the Alpine Haven condos.

Completely different thing and you are skating on logging roads for about a mile to get out of the woods and onto the road. I've only skied Big Jay a couple of times and both times we had enough cars to leave one at the parking area to get back to the resort. You could hitch, but kind of far to walk.

Between the skin to get from Jay to top of Big Jay and the hike/skate out... leave yourself a couple of hours. Well I am a slow hiker. lol. The thing about Big jay is the snow can really load up on the face. First time I did it was in a storm and there was 2' of fresh in the resort and about twice as much up near the top of Big Jay's face. Trees are big conifers pretty tightly spaced and it is kind of steep. Once it opens up it is still good but you don't have long before you need to catch a traverse to your right that takes you to the logging rads I mentioned. Missing that will have consequences - slogging through deep, untracked snow for who knows how long to get to 242.

Was it worth it to leave the resort with 2' of fresh, plenty of untracked and free refills... probably not, but, it was a fun adventure.


BTW, if you stay at Alpine Haven you could ski home off of Big Jay.

 

[Cat in January]

Call me a homer, but the East Bowl at Black Mountain of Maine drops an honest 1,000+ of uninterrupted hardwood forest with 5 distinct glades: Beaver, Royal (new), Roach, Wild, East Branch with new headwaters top zone and twitch exit on the bottom. Cliff dropping expert to intermediate. I stay off most of the big drops, but there is a new one this year that looks tasty

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Big Jay parking cutout along 242 is a couple of miles further down the road towards Montgomery Center near the Alpine Haven condos.

Completely different thing and you are skating on logging roads for about a mile to get out of the woods and onto the road. I've only skied Big Jay a couple of times and both times we had enough cars to leave one at the parking area to get back to the resort. You could hitch, but kind of far to walk.

Between the skin to get from Jay to top of Big Jay and the hike/skate out... leave yourself a couple of hours. Well I am a slow hiker. lol. The thing about Big jay is the snow can really load up on the face. First time I did it was in a storm and there was 2' of fresh in the resort and about twice as much up near the top of Big Jay's face. Trees are big conifers pretty tightly spaced and it is kind of steep. Once it opens up it is still good but you don't have long before you need to catch a traverse to your right that takes you to the logging rads I mentioned. Missing that will have consequences - slogging through deep, untracked snow for who knows how long to get to 242.

Was it worth it to leave the resort with 2' of fresh, plenty of untracked and free refills... probably not, but, it was a fun adventure.


BTW, if you stay at Alpine Haven you could ski home off of Big Jay.

interesting, thanks for that.

 

[Zand]

I could go on and on forever in this thread...

Obviously as far as reliable conditions in the woods go, you can't beat Jay. Favorites there are Everglade, Staircase, Vertigo, and Jet Woods. Some other good ones mentioned here but IMO they get a little too much traffic compared to the ones I mentioned. Burke took a couple of ny favorites and neutered them (Scooby Doo and Rerun) but the ones into East Bowl and Jungle are still terrific.

Smuggs...Shakedown is a great on map glade. Doc Dempseys was in rough shape last time I was there. Off map is the place to go there. Stowe, I have barely ever skied off map there, but Goat Woods, S-53, and other stuff in that area is terrific.

MRG has such good trail skiing that I've never really gone off map there. Sugarbush I'm not all that familiar with the woods on North, but on South I honestly love a lot of the stuff off Valley House with Steins Woods being my favorite.

Killington's glades are incredibly underrated. Julio and Anarchy are among my all time favorites, but the Throne on a warm spring day is always terrific as well. Okemo and Stratton are surprisingly good with glades...everyone says Test Pilot at Stratton but I love the glades off Ursa. Okemos has good ones on South Ridge and the ones on Jackson Gore are nice and long.

The Trials at Mt Snow are where I fell in love with glade skiing. For southern VT, the expansiveness is unmatched and they hold snow very well.

Cannon has Kinsman, enough said. (Actually the ones off the summit are fantastic as well). Loon has some good ones off East Basin plus the one on South.

Sunday River has great ones on White Cap and some other nice long ones elsewhere, plus fun liftline cuts which I enjoy almost as much. Sugarloaf has Kick Back, Dropline, Branding Ax. Still haven't skied Brackett.

Gores glades are worth a ride even if you don't live close. As is Plattekill.

But these were all ruined (just kidding!) once I spent a day in Eagle Wind at Winter Park. A whole new world.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

eagle wind is cool but i want it to be twice as long/vertical, and not spit you onto that annoying ass run out.

best way to ski that stuff is from the summit chair, hang a left on belle fourche, gets you to eagle wind with more vert

i think i actually prefer the challenger/super gauge part of MJ for long and consistently pitched tree skiing at WP

 

[Zand]

eagle wind is cool but i want it to be twice as long/vertical, and not spit you onto that annoying ass run out.

best way to ski that stuff is from the summit chair, hang a left on belle fourche, gets you to eagle wind with more vert

i think i actually prefer the challenger/super gauge part of MJ for long and consistently pitched tree skiing at WP

If you ski Left Hand and that stuff I agree. I kept getting off the lift, going down the traverse for a second, then hopping through the first gate in the fence and back towards the lift. The fence runs down the liftline for quite a ways, so no one skis that area on the other side of it. Plus you get the full,vertical of the lift and no traverse at the bottom.

 

[bdfreetuna]

+1 for Jackson Gore glades. Went there last season with my wife on a Ski Vermont pass and we were pleasantly surprised with the terrain, flow, and length as such. Almost but not quite on the level of Gore's Burnt Ridge terrain. Close contest with Stratton but I'd give Okemo the edge just for that pod. I was ready to just keep lapping those woods at 2:00PM but her legs were burnt.

I did notice that Scooby Doo at Burke seemed "easier" somehow last season compared to my experiences previously.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

I skied okemo two seasons ago after that absolutley massive late March 18”+ dump. Was with a group in a house and couldn’t sell the crew on driving to and paying for magic. Those Jackson gore glades, and the south ridge, served up some fun skiing at an otherwise very boring lountain

 

[kingslug]

We seem to end up in the same places.. I was there for that..got stuck overnight after bailing on Stowe and woke up to some good stuff. The top was windblasted ice but that didn't matter.

 

[Zand]

I did notice that Scooby Doo at Burke seemed "easier" somehow last season compared to my experiences previously.

This may sound like "Old Man Yells at Cloud" but the new HSQ kind of made Burke weird to ski. It would've been much better if they put it in the place of the Willoughby Quad. Rerun was my favorite glade on the mountain (probably because it was lappable via the Poma) and while I love liftline trails, they didn't really do much to clean that one up and it's rarely skiable. That same season they put Scooby Doo on the map, and that plus Doug's Drop being much easier to get to from the new Liftline trail (and the thinning out of Scooby Doo they did that year) made it not nearly as good (and it was also lappable from the Poma). Not to mention some of the other things they put on the map that year (Lower Powerline, J-Bar [or Wayne's World apparently], and Hibernator) should have never been put on without a LOT of work. Also putting Upper Powerline on the map led to more people in those woods as well.

It is what it is I guess. I just miss the old Burke and clearly all the changes did nothing to bring in revenue.