The skiing yesterday was capped off with some dinner, water park time, and then movie watching back in the room to make for a pretty full day. Some of us were up pretty late last night, so fortunately there was no pressing need to get up early this morning. E hadn’t been one of those up late, and she got to sleep in, so that combination was a good way to head into Mother’s Day. Aside from Ty roaming around a bit in the room, there was little activity this morning until a knock at the door signaled the arrival of the pastries and juice. We hung out in the room most of the morning until the Pump House Waterpark opened up, and then E and the boys headed off for one more water session while I took advantage of the quiet room to get some work done.
Once everyone was back from the water park, we checked out of the Tram Haus Lodge and headed over to Jay Peak’s Stateside area for some skiing. The weather was a bit cooler today, and the air had definitely dried out as well. With a breeze at times it felt almost chilly, even though it was in the 60s F. Once we got over to Stateside, it took a little while to orient ourselves due to the massive changes that have taken place. The removal of the old Stateside Lodge and the addition of the new Stateside Hotel and Base Lodge as well as the Mountain Kids Adventure Center have transformed the area. We actually visited the new hotel during our Jay Peak trip in December to eat at Howie’s, but we came by shuttle and it was a dark, frigid, December night with snow and wind; there was no way we were seeing anything. We had to do a bit of walking up and around the hotel via the big staircase on the side, and found some skiers enjoying the deck area. Below that there’s a lot of landscaping in progress so there isn’t currently much in the way of convenient access to the slopes right above the lodge, but eventually we found our way over to the base of the Jet Triple Chair. It’s a couple-minute walk back and forth between the hotel and the base of the chair, but the pathway has crushed rock to mitigate potential issues with mud. We also found that there were a number of cars parked right at the base of the Jet Triple Chair; there appears to be a small parking lot there, and some folks had set up for tailgating festivities.
The options for skiing today at Stateside were The Jet and Haynes/Mont L’Entrepide as the steeper routes back down to the base of the Jet Triple Chair, and then another route down Montrealer and Angel’s Wiggle that would bring you right back to near the base of the Stateside Hotel. Snow on the steeper runs was decent, a little thick in spots and a little scratchy in others, but classic, soft spring snow overall. Dylan really fired up some wild skiing for the camera on one of our runs, and was having a blast catching air along the edge of The Jet. It was fun watching from the chair as everyone skied The Jet, and at first we didn’t see any Telemark skiers, but then we started to spot them and some of them were really rippin’ it up. E and I got in a great workout navigating the steep bumps with Telemark turns, and E was happy to get a chance to work on her turns on steeper terrain – she’s often frustrated if we head into steep trees when she’s on her Tele gear, and it’s just too much at once to really get in much practice, but today’s snow and pitch was nice, and she commented on having some great sections where the turns flowed. I found one of the most challenging spots was at the very top of The Jet, where the trail is a bit narrower because it’s constrained by the ropes closing off the top of the lift line so skier’s don’t collide with the chair. There are a couple of huge bump lines, but if you want to ski those while deviating from the obvious troughs, it’s tricky.
We finished a final run back down Montrealer and Angel’s Wiggle, which were a bit sloppier and softer when it came to the snow, so my legs were definitely cooked by the time we reached the bottom. I burned them as hard as I could holding Tele turns until that last stretch to the lodge. We poked around the Stateside Hotel for a bit until we found a drop box for our room keys/ski passes, and then headed out.
We stopped down in the Village of Jay for some food, and although it was mid afternoon, we were happy to find that the Jay Village Inn & Restaurant was serving all day. It’s great to have places like inns that are serving food all day, because even in Stowe we’ve had trouble finding mid afternoon options for dining. For those days when you finish up skiing in the mid afternoon, or don’t want to try waiting around until 5:00 P.M. to stop in for a bite, inns with restaurants seem to be just the ticket. The Whip at the Green Mountain Inn has come to the rescue for us a number of times in that regard. It was our first time at the Jay Village Inn & Restaurant, and it’s got a nice homey feel being a combination inn/restaurant. There’s a huge couch and table in one of the main dining rooms, and the boys were quickly sucked in and passing out while we were waiting for our order. We knew they weren’t likely to be awake in the car too long on the ride home. The food was great and the portions were huge, which is pretty much the general theme you’ll see if check out the reviews for the restaurant on tripadvisor®. I had the unique “Atlantic Sea Dog”, which turned out to be a piece of cod that was about a foot long, and shaped sort of like a hot dog, on a huge bun. I didn’t quite get the name before it came out, but it was all too obvious once I saw it!
After this weekend, it’s just Killington running their lifts for skiers in Vermont, and it will be interesting to see how long they’ll keep going. In an event, there’s still a lot of snow out there for earning turns.
