Haynes and Jet shinning all the way across to Canada
After the previous day’s late start for what I thought was going to be my last day at Mont St-Sauveur and their last weekend of the season; I showed up at 7:30am for a meeting place in Brossard. The One, J’hais le damé durci and I were meeting up for a carpool for Jay Peak’s last day of the season.
An early start for Mother’s Day as some people had early evening plans. Killington was the only other ski area, besides MSS and Jay open this weekend. Each of them had roughly the same amount of runs open.
It was initially announced that Jay Peak would have three trails open this weekend; the normal late season Jet and Haynes on Stateside and the green Interstate serviced by the Metro Quad on the Tramside. As we were driving south towards the border, we could see Haynes and Jet shinning from afar.
We virtually parked in the liftline of the Jet Triple. It was wet and muddy, like a skiers’ Woodstock. The atmosphere of a great day at the hill was building up. People were parking and getting ready for some tailgating, eating, drinking, tanning and some skiing. Very different from a rain on a previous last day a few years ago.
The morning started with a low cloud cover and cool breeze, definitely not the hot Summer t-shirt type weather from the previous day at MSS: snow pants and vest it was. First down Jet then Haynes; the snow was soft corn, unlike the frozen salt snow from MSS the previous day. There was also Montrealer-Angel’s Wiggle that was official open which stopped just short walk from the Bonnie and Stateside Hotel or the Jet triple. The part of the snowpack had collapsed from the running water and melted leaving a giant trench in the middle of the trail. JLDD explored and bushwacked the trees between upper UN and Haynes while I skied and hoped on and between patches on Derrick’s. All on snow on this side were on the snowpiled Haynes and Jet.
Picture by JLDD : Angel’s Wiggle, The One and snowhole
Picture by JLDD : Stateside Action
The advantage of being parked virtual on the side of the trail is that we could drop layers when the sun came out and the temperature became to rise, we also stop to get some fuel (food and drinks). It didn’t take long to get around the open terrain, so next up about a hike up or skin up for The One towards Can-Am; no, we didn’t bother checking Interstate on Tramside. From our vantage point from high above at the top of Can-Am, we saw only one skier slowplowing. The mountain was quite as the action was all on Stateside’s two main trails. In fact there would have a few more skiing options as they were plenty of white all over the mountain. As most previous Jay May Trips, Can-Am was the cream of the corn. Real butter corn, pealing corn on the unskied bumps on continuous snow on the nice steep pitch.
Picture by JLDD : Kitzwood: The Bear is out of his Den
This was a relaxing day as we soaked in the rays from the outdoor tables next to Stateside to eat our lunch drinking beer. The atmosphere was happening when we got back to the Jet. We found a line of snow between the trees in Kitzwood and I skied over dirt connecting the patches on Northway and Hell’s Crossing.
Picture by JLDD : The Jet in full Cornapallooza!!!
Picture by JLDD : Bar service lift
Back under the Jet, the smooth groomed corn had turned into moguls, skiing in shorts, jorts or bikini galore, beer drinking at the top and the bottom at the cars next to the BBQs, on the lift or having beer runs. There were some Famous and not so famous internet skiers from both side of border and various ski forums showed up on this beautiful. This was the day, the Mother of Closing Day Celebration. This wasn’t Woodstock, it was more like Cornapallooza!!!
Picture by JLDD : Skiing with bikini…
Picture by JLDD : The season and people are coming undone at the bottom of The Jet trail side parking
The One and JLDD at the end of the day Beer Lot
It ain’t Alaska, but it was still a great day
Suburbia Life : 7:30am at 10-30 back at 5:30pm
MadPat’s Gallery:
Jay Peak VT – May 11, 2014
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