Low Expectations (Jay Peak 12/05)

[gincognito]

As implied, we were not expecting much. A couple groomers off the Jet, maybe some sketchy turns in the trees. The website was down so we arrived at Jay with no preconceived notions.

It's a beautiful thing to be so pleasantly surprised. Loose snow abounded on the main runs and untouched goodness waited in the trees. Ducking into Timbuktu rewarded us with close to a foot of freshness over the alien early-season terrain. Dips and rolls were enunciated and dropping the knee before them resulted in the occasional light face shot. Creeks and shurbs were in abundance but, if you didn't mind the occasional caught tip, the goods were there.

Hiking towards the closed Bonaventure chair yielded similar results in the woods of Canyonland were minimal base gave these familiar shots a look from another world. Two laps of this and then a further hike to the top of Can-Am and lines ripe for the picking. Dodging loosely covered rocks at the top before dropping into a rhythm that bounded us through fresh feet on unfresh legs. The run of the day by far.

Finally, the season is underway for us East Coasters. So where did you all take it in?

Sick and ashamed and happy (and gonna beat Mit to it: I should've brought my camera),
d.

[CantDog]

Good to hear Gin, you planning on going to the tele fest this weekend? I'm thinking of heading over, looks like there are some storms shaping up just in time...

H-man and I skied the loaf yesterday, had a blast. Lift problems delayed the opening of the quad(its always something here), but plenty of loose snow on the sides of trails and a nice dusting on top from some snowfall the evening before. Good times, and great to meet new mags.

[basom]

stowe was not so sweet. but i did actually ski for real for the fisrt time in nine months. and the flipper felt surprisingly good. much stronger than expected. made some fun turns at speed. finaly met skijunky.

did you see aaron, john and christine?

[gincognito]

Hey, basom. congrats on getting that first day under your belt! Glad to hear it felt strong and you were able to get some speed into your day. Confidence will build and you'll be ready to rip in Jackson for sure. I did bump into Aaron in Timbuktu, though it took me awhile to clue in to the fact that it was him. I horrible with names and faces...

And yeah, Cantdog, will be there for at least one of the tele-fest days. Don't know which one yet but will keep you posted.

Sick and ashamed and happy (and gonna try to mine December for all it's worth),
d.

[365wp]

Sounds like Jay was nice...Sat at Killington was free Dynastar demo day, tried the Legend 8800s...fun... Wasn't planning on skiing, just picking up the pass, but free demos = changing in the car. Sunday was colder, weather rolling in, not really feeling it, bailed after a few hours.

[milton]

werd, thanks for the upbeat EC TR. So there is hope! Can't believe you guys were able to hit the trees already...even up there. I've had some reports from early MRG hikers who say it's pretty good up top but no-no in the trees so far. I've been skiing the bush, not too bad but nothing exceptional to report, yet. We'll see what mothernature has in store for us this week....[/anitjinx]

[Mit]

werd, thanks for the upbeat EC TR. So there is hope! Can't believe you guys were able to hit the trees already...even up there.

Yeah Gin and I were pretty surprised how nice it was when we got into Canyon Land.. the only real difficultires were that some of the streams were exposed, which gin enjoyed skiing through.

I really wish I had a camera.

[gincognito]

the only real difficultires were that some of the streams were exposed, which gin enjoyed skiing through.

Bastard.

(thanks for scraping the ice of my bases)

Sick and ashamed and happy (and nobody tell Mit how to post pics),
d.

[basom]

ha, pm me about posting pics mit. now that i'm not at jay every weekend, someone else will have to step up and post gin's spread twister spreads and mad whispy goatee steeze.

[Vinman]

Smuggs is finally getting up to speed as well. After taking a few laps on the groomer (singular) sequoiashan (TGR lurker and Smuggs regular) hiked Madonna. (They have since oped up a few more trails). We were surprised to find a very good base with about 4-6 inches of fluff on top to play in. It was still kind of sketchy in places with larger exposed rocks and brambles in places on FIS. But over all it was awesome to get some pow turns while the rest of the masses fought it out on the ribbon.

I have a couple pics of this but are on the camera at home.

The woods around Smuggs might be ready soon, but there is still alot of shise sticking up and it would make it a bit too dicey to go out there yet.