Eastern Snowboarding

The Complete Jay Peak Writeup

I’m finally back from my Jay Peak adventure, having returned late Sunday night. This was my third trip to Jay, and unfortunately might be my last.

A little background on Jay Peak

Jay Peak is nestled just inside the Quebec/Vermont border, about eight hours from Toronto and a couple from Montreal. It’s so close, in fact, that it practically is Canada. The hill is packed with Francophones. Canadian money is accepted at par. Hockey Night in Canada can be found Saturday night on channel 6. If you didn’t have to cross a border, you wouldn’t think you had left the country.

Jay Peak likes to boast about its powder, its vibe, its aerial tram, its glades, and its mountain in general. But having been there three times now, I’ve come to a few unfortunate conclusions:

• You can’t trust the weather. Despite all the snow Jay gets, it’s still subject to wacky east coast mountain weather. This means it can snow, rain and freeze all in the same weekend. Unlike Whistler, which is big enough to almost guarantee decent weather somewhere on the mountain, the lower altitudes of the east coast mean the weather can often be unpredictable.
• The apres scene does not exist. If you’re looking for it, you’re at the wrong place. The bar closes early. The pub closes at nine. The one general store on the hill closes early, too.
• There’s no easy way to get to Jay from Toronto.
• There aren’t too many lifts, meaning if one or two are closed, there isn’t much to do.

Of course, there are some positives as well:

• No apres means no attitude. The locals are friendly, everyone is at the hill for the same reason, and style is not a concern for most.
• When it does snow, the powder is amazing.
• There are so many enjoyable glades and woods to explore I usually don’t know where to start.

Anyway, on to the actual trip.

Friday: Day 1

We arrived at about 8:30 in the morning, and it was just starting to snow. It hadn’t snowed in several days and it was windy, so the conditions weren’t the best. The tram and The Flyer were closed, which sucked, because a good deal of excellent terrain was served by these two lifts. So we were stuck on one side of the mountain for the entire day.

We tried to hit every glade we could find, which led to a mixture of experiences. The green ones that were open were generally fun, as were the closed ones that we poached (grin). The black ones were a mixture of cut-up ice and fresh snow, so it led to some good hits. It also led to some very tough runs. The snow didn’t continue, and instead turned into freezing rain; the conditions therefore got worse as the day went on.

I find glades tend to be a good test of one’s snowboarding skills. Skiing between trees in a forest requires tight turns, frequent jumps and split-second decision making. I had a few run-ins with trees, and one run-in with someone else I was riding with, but otherwise did pretty well in the glades. Conclusion: icy in spots, but a fair bit of fun.

Saturday: Day 2

This day was a complete write-off. It rained Friday night, before freezing up. The result? Tons of ice, awful wind, and a fair bit of fog. Once again, the gondola and the Flyer lift were closed, leaving us with limited terrain to explore.Groomers were so icy that they were treacherous to ride. We got a couple of hours in on the same glades we hit the day before, but ultimately called it early. Icy terrain and crowded lift lines = no fun. Conclusion: a waste of a day. Thank goodness for beer.

Sunday: Day 3

It was snowing when we woke up; it turned out it had been snowing most of the night. This, combined with the fact the entire mountain was open, led to a phenomenal day. Jay has a top-to-bottom glade run named Everglade that was absolutely phenomenal, as it hadn’t been touched all weekend (it was serviced by the closed lift and tram). We ended up hitting this glade all day long, over and over. Each time was a different experience with untouched snow. It was phenomenal! I don’t think we did a groomed run the entire day.

It seems like every time I visit an east coast resort like Jay Peak or Mont Tremblant, the weather wreaks havoc with the conditions. This weekend was no exception. But the last day, which was simply full of powder, made up for it. My knee held up fine, and I practiced stomping a lot of jumps off small booters and some of the smaller terrain park jumps. I wish I had a few more months to keep practicing as my knee gets stronger, but the season is quickly coming to a close here in the east. Here’s hoping I can get one more trip in.

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