My friend, Jarrod McBay, came to visit me from Denver for a week and I wanted to take him to my favorite mountains, while he was here. The day before he left we made our way up to Jay Peak. The night before they gained several inches of fresh powder on top of their already plentiful snow conditions.
All Upper Mountain Lifts on Ice Hold!
We put on our gear at the Tram Side Lodge and headed towards the Flyer lift. It turned out that Flyer would be closed the whole day and ALL the other upper mountain lifts were on hold because of icing. We spent the first hour and half just playing around on the lower mountain until Jet was opened. I had issues from the start with my goggles fogging over and they never cleared up for the rest of the day.
De-Iced Lifts Are Ready to Spin
The first lift to be de-iced was Jet. While on the lift we could see all the untouched powder had a thin coat of ice over it. We made our way down UN and instantly started breaking through the ice on the moguls. It really wasn’t that much fun to be breaking ice nonstop, so we cut into the woods in between Jet and UN. The glade was full of non-crusty fluffy powder that made me feel like I was in a dream state.
We Ran Into Another Blader!
At the bottom we ran my friend, Gus Noffke, who is also a fellow blader and works over at Loon Mountain. We rode up to the the summit and went into Timbuktu with him. Gus is excellent snowboarder and was just ripping through the glades, while Jarrod and I were lagging behind, trying to figure our lines.
Jarrod Didn’t Like The Trees
Living in Denver, Jarrod prefers the “steep and deep” runs and isn’t too keen on glades. We spent the rest of the day mainly hitting groomers, but I did manage to trick him into a few more trees and moguls. I also made a few solo glade runs, while he would take his occasional pit stops in the bar in the Stateside Lodge. Throughout the day, it became extremely foggy, with only about 20 feet of visibility. The conditions in the trees were excellent, but the groomers themselves were hard, with blown off snow and plenty of exposed ice. We lasted till about 2 before calling it a day.
Links
- Check out Stoked! Jan’s Ski Blog for more of his skating off-season adventures.
- Visit jaypeakresort.com for more information.
- You can also follow Jay Peak on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- Follow Jan Welch, Gus Noffke and Jarrod McBay on Instagram.
About “Stoked! Jan’s Ski Blog”
I’ve spent my entire life living in cities, where I was able to urban, distance and aggressive skate all year long. In December of 2017 I moved to rural Vermont and found myself in the dead of winter, with snow all around me. Winters in Vermont are long and harsh, making skating nearly impossible 4-5 months out of the year. I live 2.5 hours from the nearest city and an hour from the nearest trails, making skating even in the summer much less frequent then I was used to.
Something needed to supplement my skating during the off season, so I took up skiing on January 2nd of 2019. From the moment I put on skis, I was hooked! Skiing gives me the exact same feeling I get from urban skating. Through skiing I am able to replicate the feel of carving around on city streets and playing on whatever obstacles catch your eye. This blog chronicles my stoke on skiing during my skating off season.
– Jan Eric Welch (Founder of bigwheelblading.com)
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