Skiing Jay Peak
Saturday, April 18th, 2026
Runs: 14
Distance: 15.69 miles
Elevation: 18,371 feet
Max Speed: 31.7 mph
Avg. Speed: 12.9 mph
Moving Time: 1 hour, 18 minutes, 44 seconds
Total Time: 5 hours, 38 minutes, 48 seconds
One of my favorite days of the year - Ski Patrol Banquet! The theme was "Pirates, Winches, and Sea Creatures." Emma, Sarah, and I were going to be anglerfish, naturally. We were going to spend the night due to a heavily discounted room rate, so we all drove up to the mountain seperately. Last night, we worked on our costumes and I have Emma and Sarah their banquet "thank you for letting me ski for free and being my friends" gifts of gin and anglerfish t-shirts! Per usual, I made it to the mountain before either of them and had some solo time. I was sunny but a little chilly (read as: NOT COLD) and was shaping to be a STUNNING spring day! I made it to the mountain sometime around 9:15, slowly got ready, and was on the snow just before 10!
Snow Report
SATURDAY APRIL 18 AT 8:39AM
Bluebird Pond Skim
7/9 Lifts with the Tram and Stateside Carpet on hold.
Spring lift hours: Lower mountain: 9:00AM-5:00PM. Upper mountain: 9:30AM - 5:00PM.
Bluebird spring day and the pond is ready.
We're set up for Pond Skim today with sunshine, corn snow and a crowd of funky costumed performers ready to try making it across. The event starts at noon on Interstate, with awards at 3 in the Pump House. From there things roll right into the Pump House Beach party from 4 to 7 with live music from The High Breaks, plus games and giveaways.
Enjoy this lovely spring day while it lasts, because a cold front moves in tonight with rain turning to snow and temps up top dropping into the 20s. It seems April hasn't quite turned out the lights just yet. Lower mountain stays closer to freezing Sunday with intermittent snow and a few inches are possible into Monday morning. Next week looks colder than what we've been used to and it's looking like we'll end up with a couple of days of mixed precipitation. TK says it could just as well be all snow here next Tuesday night into Wednesday and Thursday.
Runs 1-4
Run 1: Bonaventure Quad - Goat Run - Queen's Highway
[1.58 miles; 5:52; 1,493 feet; 27.8 mph max; 16.2 mph avg]
Run 2: Flyer Express Quad - Goat Run - Green Mountain Boys - Harmony Lane
[1.52 miles; 6:28; 1,611 feet; 28.7 mph max; 14.1 mph avg]
Run 3: Flyer Express Quad - Goat Run - Lower River Quai - Interstate
[1.56 miles; 6:33; 1,539 feet; 29.0 mph max; 14.3 mph avg]
Run 4: Tram - Vermonter - Montrealer - Northway - Hell's Crossing - Angel's Wiggle - Paradise Meadows
[1.64 miles; 6:47; 1,785 feet; 27.2 mph max; 14.5 mph avg]
My plan of attack for the day was basically to ski anything that was still open! I started in my Outdoor Research microgrid fleece and ski pants and was wonderfully comfortable - I even took the earmuffs off of my helmet! I hopped onto the Bonnie to start my adventure. We're officially at the "nobody is here" part of the season which was a reward I have worked hard for! My first run was down Goat Run all the way, which was in halfway decent shape! The main choke point before the S-Turns was down to about one groomer's width, which made things interesting, but the bumps on the turns were already forming and super soft. From the top of the Taxi, I followed Queen's Highway all the way over to the Flyer.
I took the Flyer back to Goat and then all the way down Green Mountain Boys and Harmony Lane. Green Mountain Boys is fun in the spring! Since Racer and The Flash were closed for the season, Green Mountain Boys was upgraded to a black for it's whole route. Harmony Lane was definitely on it's last life, but I did get a PR on it!
Run #3 was up the Flyer and down Goat to Lower River Quai, which per usual was a dream and right down Interstate, past the pond skimming pond, and right into line for the Tram! I made it on without a wait (aside the wait for the physical Tram!). I shared the Tram with a few patrollers who I knew I'd be seeing later, which made me giggle. I skied down my beloved Vermonter to Northway and Hell's Crossing, but just the upper part because the lower half was closed for the season. Angel's Wiggle and Paradise Meadows were full of snow, but the little spur to the Jet was in rough/scary shape. Skiiable, but scary.
Runs 5-7
Run 5: Jet Triple - Haynes - Mont l'Entrepiede
[0.71 miles; 2:58; 1,073 feet; 25.7 mph max; 14.5 mph avg]
Run 6: Jet Triple - The Jet
[0.70 miles; 2:54; 1,073 feet]
Run 7: Jet Triple - Montrealer - Northway - Purgatory - Angel's Wiggle - Paradise Meadows
[1.11 miles; 4:13; 1,165 feet; 26.0 mph max; 15.8 mph avg]
I knew I wanted to ski both The Jet and Haynes, but The Jet was SWAMPED with people, so Haynes made the most sense! I was about to ride solo when a duo of snowboarders came up behind me and said "sir are you riding by yourself? well not anymore! get over here buddy!" Very kind of them... They said Haynes was super icy, but I only hit one hard spot - it was great! I did have a spectacular sommersault fall where I somehow ended up standing and skiing in the correct direction after... not sure how, but not complaining!
Run #6 was down The Jet, which was in wonderful shape! I was definitely starting to heat up, though. I had to open my vents for Run #7, which was down Montrealer and Purgatory to the Wiggle and Meadows. Overall, a great set of runs! Now, Emma and Sarah were almost at the mountain, so I went into the lodge, changed into my anglerfish t-shirt and SHORTS, grabbed a Citizen's Cider Dirty Mayor, and sat outside in the sun while I waited for them. Many others were waiting too, it was a spring skiing DREAM!
Runs 8-9
Run 8: Jet Triple - Montrealer - Northway - Hell's Crossing - Angel's Wiggle - Paradise Meadows
[0.93 miles; 3:56; 1,083 feet; 26.0 mph max; 14.1 mph avg]
Run 9: Bonaventure Quad - Goat Run - Green Mountain Boys - Harmony Lane
[1.52 miles; 13:05; 1,499 feet; 31.7 mph max; 7.0 mph avg]
I found Emma and Sarah and we walked over to the Jet (it's officially walking season...) - to my delight they were also in their Anglerfish t-shirts! Emma also proudly debuted her discoball helmet and sparkly boots (I'm so jealous). We got our family photo on top of the Jet and skied down Montrealer to the Meadows before getting on the Bonnie for another lap down Goat and Green Mountain Boys. So much fun skiing! There were a few uphillers trying to navigate the bumps on Green Mountain Boys, which looked awful and borderline impossible, but both Emma and Sarah were thrilled to not be patrolling so it wasn't their problem. We took a break to grab a drink, get some free Dermatone samples at Tramside base, and start decorating for the banquet!
Runs 10-14
Run 10: Flyer Express Quad - Northway - Paradise Meadows
[1.50 miles; 6:49; 1,506 feet; 28.9 mph max; 13.2 mph avg]
Run 11: Jet Triple - U.N. - Lower Jet
[0.73 miles; 6:22; 1,102 feet; 30.9 mph max; 6.9 mph avg]
Run 12: Jet Triple - Haynes - Mont l'Entrepiede
[0.72 miles; 3:55; 1,112 feet; 23.4 mph max; 11.0 mph avg]
Run 13: Jet Triple - The Jet
[0.71 miles; 3:31; 1,165 feet; 28.4 mph max; 12.1 mph avg]
Run 14: Jet Triple - Montrealer - Angel's Wiggle - Paradise Meadows
[1.23 miles; 5:19; 1,165 feet; 25.9 mph max; 13.8 mph avg]
After a good hour of decorating, I wanted to get a few more runs in. Emma and Sarah had to grab something from Stateside Base before a few more patrol chores (and grabbing another drink), so I went solo for my next ones! Run #10 was up the flywer and down the Northway all the way - the new cut was skiing good! I carefully got back to the Jet, where patrol had opened U.N. The bumps were volxwagen-sized, which I did not ski well, but I made it! Lower down, more and more rocks began to appear and I fell a few more times only by poorly dodging the rocks. Oh well, at least I tried! I finished out the run on the Jet.
Run #12 was back down Haynes, which was even better after baking in the sun, and Run #13 was down the Jet, which was even better yet! I kept thinking I was done, but then I'd do a run and think "wow I want to do another one."
I did decide to cally my two more skip the last because I wanted time to get ready before the banquet - so Run #14 brought me back down Montrealer. I hadn't skied the upper half of Angel's Wiggle yet, so that was my goal! Earlier, I saw there was an opening in the fence allowing (or at least not discouraging) folks to get to the Wiggle from the main Montrealer chute/headwall/whatever it is. Unfortunately, a bunch of bundled up netting was hiding behind the lip (it was NOT there before!) and I fully crashed into it. I had to take my skis off to get untangled, and got a nice bit of road rash - nice! The rest of my run was easy peasy and soon enough I was debooting at my car and driving over.
Our day was FAR from over, though! We all made it to the room around the same time and got tangled up in HOURS of arts and crafts trying to get our little anglerfish lights. Mine worked the best, since I hot-glued it to a hat. Emma and Sarah had a harder time, as we ended up just wrapping their hair with pipe clearner and crafting wire and hoping it would hold (spoiler: it did not hold). Either way, we had a great time! We pregammed with Bonne, Kim, and Kim's friend, and eventually made our way down to the banquet.
The dinner was wonderful and I alawys love the awards. The dancing definitely had peaks and valleys, but was such a fun time! We had one feelings time with Emma, but she got snapped out of it once she got dancing again. The after-party-"party" was just a bunch of us, drunk as skunks, hanging out in different permutations bouncing between rooms on the third floor of the Hotel Jay. Everyone's details are a little fuzzy, but it was very silly. I ended the night with two French Canadian patrollers who I hardly knew speaking French at each other...
The next morning shockingly was not as awful as it could have been! We got up and out by 10am and got brunch at the JVI along with at least a dozen other patrollers, comically. I wanted to go for a hangover hike on the way home, but it was cold and rainy and windy (Jay ended up getting 6" of snow, which is ridiculous). I am definitely starting to feel the end-of-season emotions, but I have at least two more weekends left! Next Friday is Linnea's 30th birthday at Jay, and of course closing day!
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