Well, that was certainly an experience! I missed the opening rush, but I saw some photos of the line from earlier and I don't regret sleeping in. I was lucky that the remaining snow was still continuous since most other years you have to walk between patches toward the bottom of the trail. Still went super cautiously because I kinda want to use these skis again in the future. This was certainly a cool experience and a nice novelty, but I think it's safe to say I won't be doing this again any time soon.
The headwall was obviously a bust as it has on previous closing days, but this was the first time I've noticed them add an alternative way down. Snowcats are usually perched at the top of the headwall with ropes to help climb down, but there was also an alternative, less steep hike to "skier's" right off the lift via Nivis Walk and Launchpad, though it's only a tad shorter than a half a mile so I wouldn't recommend it. Plus, the rope climb is almost like a rite of passage!
Advice: The ropes are quite handy when climbing down to the snow, but I'd recommend going a little further down the snow to a flatter part before attempting to put skis on.
Overall Difficulty: 5/10
Relative Difficulty (Diamond): 5/10
Accessibility Rating: 2/10 (No snow at the top or bottom, requires nasty hike down the headwall or long walk around via Nivis Walk/Launchpad)
Open Trail Index: 10/10 (Jay Peak doesn't even have any snow left dude what do you think)
Enjoyment Rating: 7/10
23 авг 2024