SKIING TREES IN VERMONT IN MID-APRIL
It may be mid-April, but I had a full on tree day at Jay Peak today. Most of the mountain was open, with 69 of 83 runs and glades available for skiing. Yeah, the base is slowly melting away, and there were some bare spots in the trees, but the skiing was pretty dang good for April 12.
Riding the Jet Triple.
Andre’s Paradise.
Canyonland.
It was warm enough today that I didn’t need a face mask or glove lingers for my gloves. It was also warm enough that the snow was nice and soft on everything that I skied, including in the trees. The mountain wasn’t busy at all and I ended up riding every lift, including The Flyer, by myself.
Coverage on most of the open groomed runs was decent to pretty good I’d say, especially up high, though I didn’t really ski any of that except to get to and from the glades, so that could be skewing my thoughts. There were some groomed runs that were pretty rough, though, such as Upper Goat Run. It had a large bare spot on it, and there were also areas where there was some rock poking through.
Haynes.
Riding The Flyer.
Canyonland.
Timbuktu.
With the weather forecast this week looking warm and rainy, I made sure to spend all of my time in the woods, as today may have been it for a lot of glades. Coverage varied from glade to glade. For instance, Canyonland had a number of large bare spots. You could easily find a path around them, but they were there. Meanwhile, over in Timbuktu, coverage was a lot better. I also thought Andre’s Paradise, Expo Glade and North Glade were relatively good coverage wise.
North Glade.
Andre’s Paradise.
Bonaventure Glade.
Hell’s Woods.
Glades that are a little lower on the mountain, like Bonaventure Glade and Show-Off Glade, had substantial bare spots, but you could find a path around them, so they were still worth skiing. I’d say Hell’s Woods was probably in the best shape of this bunch. Despite the bare spots in some of the glades, rocks, etc. weren’t really an issue where there was snow. I mean, you definitely could find something poking through here and there, but it wasn’t something I was personally worried about often.
Whiteface announced today that they won’t be open Monday-Thursday this week, and since I ski there during the week after work, that means today marks the end of consistent daily skiing for me this season. I still have the option to ski at Jay Peak and Sugarbush during the week, and I will likely do that, but it won’t be every day. Rather, it’ll be once or twice mid-week until they close. That said, I’ll definitely be skiing on the weekends for as long as my passes allow me to. It may be winding down, but ski season isn’t over just yet!
Never Quit Skiing,
Lincoln