Saturday at Jay

It’s amazing to me what people will do to get their turns in. Jay Peak on Saturday was packed full of people from Canada, New England and New York who had all driven to that remote part of the Northeast Kingdom to take advantage of a fresh eight inches and a sunny, windless day.

With the Flyer lift down (for unknown reasons), lift lines ranged from 20 to 30 minutes. But no one seemed to mind. Views from the top stretched as far as they ever do and happiness seemed to abound.

We ran into friends of friends who woke at their Boston area homes about 4:30 a.m., hit the road at 5 and got to Jay shortly after the lifts opened. At dusk, after a hard-charging day in the glades and backcountry stashes, they loaded up for another four-plus hour ride back home.

That’s almost nine hours in a car for about six hours of skiing and riding. And there was little doubt they were going to make the trip, not after a week of snow squalls deposited more than 30 inches on Jay Peak.

This, to me, is the best indicator that downhill snow sports offer a special kind of thrill/feeling/buzz. There seems to be no limit to the lengths people will go to get a shot of it.

Here are a couple images from the weekend, courtesy of Jay and Sugarbush.

Waist deep available in bounds a full two days after the snow squalls quit.

AND ...

A Classic “Oh Crap!” moment from the races at Sugarbush.