Jay Peak doesn’t look like this right now, but that’s okay. There’s still skiing left, and other great activities on the horizon like climbing and surfing.
On my last day up there Rob and I took Brett over to Big Jay, this time for some touring as well.
Go get some spring skiing!
Soundtrack:
Don’t worry, Winter is still here. Due to some constraints and the rain up north last week, Catherine and I spent the day hiking instead, while I wait for Mt. Washington to recover.
Catherine showed me a side of Cape Cod I wasn’t familiar with, including some trails outside of the tourist trap, left especially empty since it’s so early in the season. It was a great day for a low-key adventure without the crowds.
First we checked out a trail down one of the prominent sand deposition features down the Cape. We saw plenty of wildlife and soaked up the views while skipping stones as we walked down the shore.
We wandered through scraggly trees and found our way back to the shore.
Next we went down the street to an entirely different locale, almost like something out of fiction.
I couldn’t believe there was so much variety packed into such a small area of the Cape. Hopefully our trip doesn’t usher in the warm weather yet though, I haven’t nearly gotten my fill of touring, and spring skiing has barely begun!
If anyone is interested in repeating this hike, I’ll update with some clues, but I don’t want to give it all away without a bit of googling.
Sweeney and I often talk about how little you see of the education side of mountain travel. Snow science and avalanche assessments are not the coolest content to be cramming into three minute clips of slaying lines or getting lost in powder. Nevertheless last season I began to realize the importance of avalanche education. This season I set myself down the path of learning about it, culminating in the completion of an Avy Level 1 NSP course , a course which Rob and Sweeney took last year.
Jonathan discussing a snowpit’s results
There are a number of courses, yes, even on the East Coast, that offer instruction and in the field learning, and I can say I definitely learned great deal during the final portion of the course three weeks ago. The course itself was a fair bit of work, requiring more effort than many of my college courses, though well worth it. Our instructors, Jonathan and Mark had well though out lessons both in the classroom last fall and in the field, and I high recommend their course for anyone interested in backcountry skiing, which is what Sweeney said to me about the course last year.
Our route plan took us up above Great Gulf, into Huntington and back down the Sherburne the first day, a extensive ski tour. The second day we went into Gulf of Slides to dig a snow pit and across to Hermit Lake before doing rescue practice to wrap up the weekend.
I took only a few photos of the weekend, although there’s a few of our course on Mt. Washington Auto Road’s FB page.
Our first ski leg off the Auto Road
At the base of GOS
Looking at the summit
It was one year to the day since I’d first skied Big Jay, and now we were back for more. On such an anniversary day, we couldn’t let the opportunity pass us by. In fact, it was the first day Rob and I met Jen, and we’d skied it together. Rob, Jen and I got to the top of the line early in the day, and figured we’d take our time getting down and snap some footage. I think our efforts paid off.
Some kind stranger snapped our photo, and didn’t snap up our line.
Someone told us it was all tracked. Lucky for us that wasn’t the case.
In fact, it was fresh and deep.
We switched off camera roles so we all had a chance to play.
One of my favorite things about leaving the resort is that it feels like you’ve suddenly been transported to a winter wonderland.
And when we were done we caught a ride back…
