Jay Peak Summit: March 4th-5th TR
March 4th, 2006
The day started early. By 6:45 we were putting Montreal in the rear-view mirror and heading down increasingly slippery roads. Excitement was high. We knew there’d be snow, but didn’t know how much. No worries: the details could work themselves out later.
Unfortunately the day also ended early. A Mazda slips and slides beside us and is soon skidding perpendicular in front. With nowhere to go, we tap their driver’s side door and then play follow the leader into the ditch. All humans emerge unscathed, but the Subaru has suffered for it’s foray into the pipe. Tow trucks, police, insurance – I’m sure too many of you know the drill.
Four and a half hours later we’re heading back to Montreal in a rental mini-van, not willing to push our luck any further.
Upon our return we gaze at threads like this and know that we have to try again tomorrow. A quick call to shmerham confirms that the day was epic – Tram and Flyer on wind-hold = almost exclusive rights to an entire side of the mountain for the price of a five minute hike.
I’ll let those who were there tell the tale and share the pics (if they ever stopped to take any).
March 5th, 2006
There are days when certain lines, shots and stashes can be put off and saved for later. Days when you work your way down the popularity ladder, reaping fresh turns all along the way.
With the parking lot filling fast at 8:30, with the line at the Flyer overflowing, and with the palpable energy in the air, it was deemed that today would be no such day.
It was a day for getting while the getting was good.
And it was good.
Maggots by the names of Vinman, shmerham, Schuss, Tuckerman, Core Shot, Raps, and Franz Klammer were there for the feast and helped throw the universe out of balance by combining for four pairs of Bros at one east coast resort.
Three runs through edge-deep powder served to render one stash suitably plundered (with much aid from Mit and Rap’s bombholes). Unfortunately, on the second of those runs Vinman broke an inch-and-a-half diameter branch with his already hurting shin and, to add insult to injury, got deposited in a tree-well as a result. He gamely stayed with it and was with the crew as we moved on from our vanquished plot of land.
The next item on the menu consisted of slightly tighter shots through various trees and such. The maggots fanned out and danced down, each one enjoying the powder of their own private line. To be fair, sometimes it was pre-chopped, but by turning to a slightly different rhythm, the fresh could still be had and the smiles were large as we popped back onto the run full of stories of snow washing over our second boot buckles.
By afternoon, the hype and resulting clientele had pretty much had their way with most of the hill. Grins carried us through some blurry runs to the pizza that awaited at the end (thanks Core Shot!).
And that’s about all I have to say about that right now.
There are a few pictures that should find their way into the posts below, but on this day we were skiers first and maggot trip-reporters a very distant second. As such, the quantity and quality of pics may suffer. We shall see.
In the meantime, here's a picture of a midget crouching from the Jay site's photo of the day:
http://www.jaypeakresort.com/files/J...5/apod1169.jpg
In short: Good times, good times.
Sick and ashamed and happy (and ended the day proper by driving into Montreal rockin’ the old school Bon Jovi),
d.
