Jay Peak, Vermont

Jay Peak gets the most snow of any resort in the Northeastern US and enjoys a healthy cult status among skiers from the region who thrive on powder skiing.

Stats

Real Vertical ?	2,153′, Rank: 60
Size	385 Acres, Rank: 97
Annual Snowfall ?	359″ claimed / 322″ actual, Rank: 37
Lift Pods ?	4, Rank: 72
Distinct Trails ?	76, Rank: 52
Review Date	March 2023
Number of visits	1
Our Rating	★★★
Resort website	https://www.jaypeakresort.com

Jay Peak Review

We skied Jay a few days after a big snowfall cycle, so we didn’t get the great powder conditions that the place has a reputation for. Still, the snow was noticeably better and deeper than anywhere else we skied on that 8-resort trip.  It was pretty close to what we encounter as average conditions in the West.  This is good.

First, a quick disclaimer:  The upper part of the mountain was fogged-in the day we skied Jay, and because of the flat light and lack of visibility we stuck to the main runs.  This review won’t be as complete as most of the others because of that.  We really needed another day there with clear conditions to get the full picture.

From what we could see, the resort has some great terrain, but there are several awkward features that lowered our enthusiasm a bit.  Jay was ground zero for “Vermont’s Scandal of the Century” as the EB-5 immigration fraud case has been called.  It doesn’t look like it has been very well maintained since it went into receivership after April 2016.  Lots of things were closed.  The last significant lift project was the Flyer 24 years ago in 1999. Luckily ownership has been transferred to a new company that runs 5 other ski resorts, so the future is looking up.

We started our day from the Stateside base area.  I couldn’t tell you how or why we ended up there.  We drove in from the south on 242 and it wasn’t particularly well signed.  After ending up at a dead end we backtracked and took the first turn that looked like it was well travelled and luckily ended up at a parking lot and lodge.

Jet Triple chair

There is a pretty significant climb (in ski boots carrying skis) from the Stateside lodge ticket window all the way up to the Bonaventure chair.  That was our first ride, but we decided to ski from left to right so we headed right over to the Jet Triple.  Jet was the only groomed black run on that side of the mountain, but it was our favorite groomer of the day.  We took several on that slow triple and spent a good part of the morning skiing most of the runs there.  The vertical drop in that pod is a decent 1,160 feet so the runs are long enough and aren’t broken up into sections and intersections like most of the mountain is.

Bonaventure quad

The fixed-grip Bonaventure chair (installed in 1987) is one of the 3 main lifts at Jay.  We had fun skiing Can Am and Deliverance from the top, but it was pretty rocky even with the late season average snow depth we experienced.  One thing we didn’t find at Jay was ice though.  This was probably the only Northeastern resort where there simply wasn’t any at all.  Intermediate skiers will take a long circular route that avoids the steep stuff and then loops back, so this chair is really more ideal for advanced skiers because otherwise you are just skiing the same road at the top each run.

The hunt for lunch, part 1

After Bonaventure we headed over to the Tram base for an early lunch.  It looked like there was going to be a lot of choices for lunch over there.  However, we wandered around the mostly closed and shuttered restaurants and empty hotels wondering where everyone was.  This was a weekday, but it was high season.  Strange.  We gave up and just kept skiing.

The Tram

Jay has an old tram that’s a lot like the tram at Cannon.  We aren’t fans of trams because you stand in a long line and pray you can get jammed into the next car.  We didn’t make it.  Still, it’s an adventure so you have to do it at least once.  The day we skied Jay it was completely fogged-in at the top.  Because of that we don’t even know what the chutes at the top look like, but we’ve heard great things.  Next time.

This time we just skied down the main run everyone was taking: Vermonter.  That’s a great run and I’m sure the scenery is fantastic on a clear day.  There is only one other way down from the top that isn’t crazy steep and that’s the Northway run which is the better one if you are going to lap the tram. Vermonter takes you so far away from the tram base that it’s miles of traversing to get back to the lift.

On the way down, we took a peek at Green Beret, and I have to tell you that is scary stuff.  Maybe if it wasn’t foggy I would have gone for it, but not on that day with extremely flat light!

Lunch, part 2

The main place for food at Jay seems to be the Stateside base lodge.  It was actually pretty packed with people.  It’s a nice base lodge, but again the place we really wanted to eat was closed so we settled for the very average cafeteria food.

Flyer Express

After lunch we had to hike back up the hill to Bonaventure to get back over to the tram base and the Flyer Express.  Flyer is the only high-speed lift at Jay other than the Tram.  At 1,620 vertical, it’s also the best chair for longer runs.  There is a lot to ski there and we really enjoyed runs like JFK and Northwest Passage.  Those advanced runs were all bumps, but they did groom most of the intermediate runs.  Blues on this side of the mountain were a little steeper than blues on the other chairs were so were very entertaining.

We only had time for a few quick runs on Flyer.  Given another day we would have spent most of it on that chair.

The good

• The most natural snowfall in the East
• Plenty of challenge, including some really scary stuff at the top
• Not crowded
• Lift ticket and food was reasonably priced for a resort of this quality

The bad

• Shuttered restaurants and facilities were frustrating
• Terrain layout is somewhat awkward with a lot of choke points, intersections, and long traverses and run-outs
• Has a reputation for being very cold and windy

The bottom line

The good and bad really cancel each other out at Jay, leading to a very average rating from us.  The snow quantity and quality are the big selling point.  Hopefully the new owners will improve on the overall experience by upgrading lifts and rethinking the base areas.