Tag Archives: Backcountry Skiing

Big Jay Slay

And now for a quick trip to midwinter. Late March brought fairly epic conditions to the North country so I took the opportunity to show Kelly that the powder in VT is every bit as good as that in Utah. Unconvinced? See for yourself…

A quick warm-up lap in The Orchard.

Kelly descends into the saddle on the way to Big Jay.

Surveying the wintry landscape…

Gearing up!

Gettin’ after it!

Some deep slashing…

Hard not to smile!

Raging the pow!

Face shots – just like they have in Utah…

Angulation, baby.

Point ’em and pray!

Comin’ in hot!

Alright, idunno if it was quite as good as Utah, but we didn’t complain either. Till next year, Big Jay…

Big Jay Waylay

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:

Little Jay

This past weekend Mother Nature continued to bless us with a moderate “refresher” snowfall. After lapping it up in the Jay inbounds, Kelly and I decided to mosey over to Little Jay in search of some untracked. With the internet yielding a surprising lack of trip reports concerning our objective, we really were just winging it. From asking around, we determined that we should park at the Big Jay parking lot, cross the street and follow a pretty obvious skin track up the mountain. Armed with this scant intel, we set off in search of pow.

The skin track was well traveled and easy going the entire way up. It brought us within about 50 vertical feet of the summit before dense foliage and steep, deep powder halted us. We took in the view for a bit before descending.

After a good look at the map and our surroundings, we realized that the only real way to screw up is to head too far toward skiers right, or W-SW off of the summit. Such a course would dump you in the wrong drainage, a bit of a hike from the parking area and through who knows what sort of bushwhack.

We decided to trend a bit toward skiers right for a short distance and then push back toward the left of East, toward the two streams which would certainly deliver us back to the parking area. In general I think this was the right idea, but we ended up too far into the stream bed which peters out into a bit of a mellow bushwhack. In hindsight the best skiing would probably have been to skier’s right or West of the the stream bed. The slopes in this region were tracked but plenty soft and getting free refills throughout the weekend.

Kelly, gettin’ deep!

A Christmas Day Skin

Your alarm wakes you up at 8 am. It’s snowing lightly. On another Christmas morning, maybe you head downstairs and open presents, but not this day. You make a quick cup of coffee, and eat some sticky oatmeal. Soon you’re on the road with your favorite tunes playing.

The light winter storm doesn’t slow you down, and the next thing you know, you’re parked and unloading at a familiar place.

You exchange a Merry Christmas with a few families as you gear up and put your skins on. When the ranger at the lodge mentions fresh tracks, your heart jumps.

There are a few groups milling about as you click into your skis and leave the trailhead. You’re immediately greeted by pristine wintry views.

You don’t want to stop, and you don’t have to. Your skin track trails off behind you as you ascend.

You pass others who are of a similar mind this Christmas day, and before you know it, you’ve reached your destination. It’s calm, even here, up higher towards the bowl. You transition, preparing for descent.

As you approach the ski trail, you see your present, just waiting for you. The Sherburne trail is untouched, with several inches of this mornings light snow.

You grin as you ski down, spraying snow with tight turns.

Merry Christmas.

With my family still living in The Netherlands for the holidays, I had Christmas Day to myself. The Sherburne had 4″ of fresh snow, which I think was a pretty good Christmas present, especially on the heels of the 22″ storm we caught at Jay Peak. I still need to get Dynafit bindings, so I was on last years touring set-up. I’m not the fastest at skinning, but for my own personal records, or those who are curious: I made it up to Hojos in 1:20, the first one to set a track since the snow, though not the first one up the trail. 10 minutes later I was refueled, de-skinned, and had de-iced my bindings while chatting with the caretaker.

My curiosity got the best of me and I hiked up into the bowl to the lunch rocks to scope it out. 25 minutes after I left Hermit Lake I was at the lunch rocks, the first person to arrive in the bowl for the day. It was very calm, and quiet. The bowl is shaping up, though I expect it will change as there was more new snow last night.

Though my knowledge of snow science is rudimentary, I dug down to check out the layers. Beneath the new snow there was a variable thickness firm crust, and then 5-6 more crusts beneath that. The layer immediately under the first crust was fairly unconsolidated.

Enjoy the photos of the bowl!