Skiing Jay Peak
December 21st, 2024
Runs: 16
Distance: 18.66 miles
Elevation: 17,812 feet
Max Speed: 34.3 mph
Avg. Speed: 12.9 mph
Moving Time: 1 hour, 27 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours, 25 minutes, 12 seconds
First Jay day this winter! Also the winter solstice, which was just a bit fun. ALSO the first day of the season for Tram and Village Double - more fun! I drove up the night before through a surprising amount of snow and met Emma and a few others in Burlington to see a comedian. When we got to the venue I saw a poster for a comedian that I knew from TikTok - apparently she was the one we were seeing! Ashley Gavin - she was as hysterical as I had hoped! The next morning Emma decided to sleep in and only do a half day patroling, but I still wanted to get up there, so I left just after 7:00am (I just wanted the sun to be up). The drive was sketchy as usual, but I was at the Tramside Lodge just after 8:30 and skiing not too much later! I parked at Tramside becuase of Jay Peak's Winter Shine event, which promised live holiday music, a Christmas-light-decorated tram, and fireworks! I decided I'd take the Tram up for my first run of the day - which was bold of me, but I got in line and waited for about 15-20 minutes.
Snow Report: Saturday December 21st at 6:39am. The former Saturday Night Live character Stefon (played by Bill Hader) gave the scoop on New York's club and party sceen as the Weekend Update's city correspondent: instead of naming 'New York's hottest club,' I think he would definitely say that Vermont's hottest ski hill is Jay Peak, because the mountain has everything. The Tram, which runs for the first time today and opens up access to the summit. Upwards of 50 trails thanks to amazing snowmaking and another 2-4" of natural snow since yesterday. Vermonter. Valhalla. Green Beret. Poma. JFK. Wedelmaster. Beaver Pond, Andres. This mountain has them all. 2.5k acres of groomed and open Nordic Trails. Fireworks, s'mores, and thousands of lights at the third instrallation of WinterShine tonight at Alce's Table patio beginning at 6pm. Holiday tunes at the apres spot, the Tower Bar from 4-7p. No velvet ropes. No bouncers. No girls crying in the bathroom. Everyone's welcome at this club.
It's going to be cold today and even colder tomorrow, and snow will keep us company for a few more days. As we head into the holiday week, check out our blog for an operations update on what we have to look forward to for the rest of December. More trails, more lifts, more snow, and more fun. With the addition of the Flyer lift on Monday, we'll be at 9/9 lifts before Christmas.
Runs 1-4:
Run 1: Tram - Upper Northway - Angel's Wiggle - Paradise Meadows
[2.02 mi; 8:02; 2,028 ft; 24.3 mph max; 15.1 mph avg]
Run 2: Jet Triple - Haynes - Mont L'Entrepide
[0.76 mi; 4:58; 1,237 ft; 22.2 mph max; 9.2 mph avg]
Run 3: Jet Triple - Montrealer - Angel's Wiggle - Paradise Meadows
[1.24 mi; 5:56; 1,237 ft; 24.9 mph max; 12.6 mph avg]
Run 4: Taxi Quad - Queen's Highway
[0.81 mi; 4:09; 597 ft; 25.6 mph max; 11.7 mph avg]
The Tram Ride up was super exciting - the second or third one of the season for Jay, so the energy was abundant. Only down side was that I was directly next to someone with an "I <3 Trump" sticker on her helmet... which... I just don't get. Regardless of political alignment, why bring it into skiing? ANYWAY. I wanted to check out the Vermonter, since I had only every done it once when there was basically no snow, but I decided for my first run of the day I'd stick to one I've done before. The Upper Northway was in excellent condition, as was Angel's Wiggle and Paradise Meadows. I did have a few minutes of feeling like I had never skied before, but I slowly regained my legs. For December, the snow felt fantastic, and MUCH better than Waterville Valley just a few days ago!
Up next was a ride on the Jet to Haynes, my designated black run for the day. I will say, after dealing with Waterville Valley, The Jet and Haynes seemed less steep! I slowly wiggled my way down Haynes and sped up for Mont L'Entrepide. A goal of mine for the season is to get more comfortable going faster down the steeps. I know the technique, and I'm executing the technique medium-well on the blue runs, so I think I just need to get comfy with being scared.
Next run was the Jet down the Montrealer, Angel's Wiggle, and Paradise Meadows, which was just a great run. I was COLD though - so my final run for this first stretch was the Taxi to Queen's Highway, followed by a break in the Tramside lodge. I sat for a bit, hydrated, and read some of the book that I broght ("Death on Mount Washington").
Runs 5-8:
Run 5: Metro Quad - Perry Merril Ave - Grammy Jay
[0.95 mi; 3:55; 587; 27.4 mph max; 14.5 mph avg]
Run 6: Village Double - Chalet Meadows
[0.23 mi; 1:13; 151 ft; 18.7 mph max; 11.1 mph avg]
Run 7: Bonaventure Quad - Northway - Angel's Wiggle - Hell's Crossing - Sweetheart
[1.44 mi; 5:12; 1,532 ft; 30.8 mph max; 16.6 mph avg]
Run 8: Jet Triple - Montrealer - Angel's Wiggle - Paradise Meadows
[1.30 mi; 6:14; 1,276 ft; 29.5 mph max; 12.5 mph avg]
Once I regained feeling in my toes, it was time for my second bunch of runs for the day. At this point, Emma had officially arrived to the mountain and she was doing patrol duties. I was hoping to stalk her location and eventually meet up (spoiler alert: I was mostly unsuccessful). I took the Metro over to Perry Merril and the first run of the season down my favorite trail - the Grammy Jay! My toes were quickly losing feeling again on the Village Chair, but I rallied for a few more runs before warming up again.
Next was my first trip up the Bonnie for the season, with a great ride down Northway to Sweetheart. I had another nice moment of reflection on how my confidence and skill has improvied with this silly activity - Northway and Angel's Wiggle used to scare me, but they're just fun now! I remembered Emma told me a story about "boulders" on Sweetheart - large bits of gravel the groomers dug up - and they were still present, which added a fun excitement to an otherwise beautiful run.
The last run of this bunch was another lap of the Jet/Montrealer, which brought me to the Bullwheel in the Stateside lodge for a hard cider to help warm me back up! Naturally, at this point, Emma was on Tramside.
Run 9:
Run 9: Bonaventure Quad - Northway - Angel's Wiggle - Taxi - Lower Can Am - Queen's Highway
[1.99 mi; 10:06; 1,683 ft; 31.8 mph max; 11.8 mph avg]
After my cider, I hopped back on the Bonnie for a longer route to Tramside. Taxi was closed at the beginning of the day, but it had since opened up with an upgrade to a black trail, which I thought was insteresting, but it would make a nice connection! Northway was still skiing delightfully and then I started the slow trip down Taxi, until... Turns out Taxi wasn't fully open, and it was upgraded to black because it stops at the top of Lower Can Am, which is ungroomed and BUMPY. I sighed, regretted my life choices, and made it down somehow successfully! After a deep breath, I was back on Queen's Highway for another warming break. Emma was no longer at the lodge, and was on the Tram heading to the top...
Runs 10-13:
Run 10: Tram - Vermonter - Angel's Wiggle - Paradise Meadows
[1.77 mi; 7:59; 2,034 ft; 27.5 mph max; 13.3 mph avg]
Run 11: Jet Triple - Montrealer - Angel's Wiggle - Hell's Crossing - Paradise Meadows
[1.24 mi; 4:36; 1,254 ft; 28.2 mph max; 16.2 mph avg]
Run 12: Jet Triple - Montrealer - Angel's Wiggle - Paradise Meadows
[1.23 mi; 4:47; 1,296 ft; 34.3 mph max; 15.4 mph avg]
Run 13: Taxi Quad - Queen's Highway
[0.95 mi; 7:16; 646 ft; 25.3 mph max; 7.9 mph avg]
My penultimate bunch of runs accepted that I may never see Emma again. I did follow her lead and take the Tram up, which took about three runs before I was able to get on. I was surrounded by some loud French Canadians who could best be described as having the personalities of high school football players that think they're a better team than they actually are... anyway... I took the Vermonter down which was DELIGHTFUL. MUCH nicer than last time!
Next were a couple of laps on Montrealer - which had some views for the first time all day! I was skiing well and skiing fast at this point, which felt good.
Soon enough, though, I was an icicle again! I took Taxi to Queen's Highway back to Tramside Lodge for some more reading and some lunch (chicken tenders, fantastic!).
Runs 14-16:
Run 14: Metro Quad - Perry Merril Ave - Chalet Meadows
[0.69 mi; 3:21; 394 ft; 27.3 mph max; 12.4 mph avg]
Run 15: Jet Triple - Montrealer - Angel's Wiggle - Hell's Crossing - Paradise Meadows
[1.24 mi; 6:22; 1,247 ft; 26.9 mph max; 11.7 mph avg]
Run 16: Taxi Quad - Queen's Highway
[0.79 mi; 3:15; 610 ft; 26.4 mph max; 14.7 mph avg]
I wasn't sure if I was going to back out after lunch, but I rallied for just a bit longer. Emma requested I bring her a rice ball, but I simply could not fathom waiting outside for them, so I decided to bring her a Reece's instead. The painfully slow Metro was... painfully slow. Then I went up the Jet and joined Emma and her two patroller friends in the patrol shack to deliver the goods (also warm up) (also also to watch them play bananagrams).
I took Montrealer down and had my one and only fall of the day! No idea how, but likely because my legs were DEMOLISHED and I was probably sitting back. Oh well! Final final run was Queen's Highway back to the Tramside lodge to warm up. My legs were rightfully sore, because as it turns out, this was my biggest day ever! I skied over a mile further than my previous longest day, descended over 2000 feet more, and was moving for just about 10 more minutes. Not that I'm making it a goal necessarily, but it would be sweet to hit a 20 runs/20 miles/20,000 feet day sometime this season...
The rest of my evening was quite lovely. I packed everything up, did a COLD run to the car, broke in my new apres crocs, sat in the Hotel Jay lobby on a couch to read some more, and then met Emma and her patroller friend Sarah at the Tower Bar for some dinner and apres drinks. We got to listen to some live Christmas music inside and watch the WinterShine fireworks!
(Not updated for 2024-2025)
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