I have never been here but am constantly checking their website during the season and amazed at the amount of snow they get. I would like to try to get there this year. How long does it take from Philly? Who has been there ? The reason I bing this up is I just watched a pretty cool video on the website , check it out : Jay Peak

I skied Jay Peak a couple times when I was in college..it's a nice mountain with lots of natural snowfall and lots of tree skiing. Because it's only a few miles from the Canadian border, it has an international feel with lots of French speaking skiers and riders from Quebec. From Philly I'm guessing that Jay Peak is about an 8 hour drive..you would take I-95 north through NJ..go across the GW bridge into NY..then in Connecticut take I-91 north through Massachusettes and all the way through VT and Jay Peak is about a half hour from I-91..The best time to visit Jay Peak is late January through March for a deeper snowpack and your best chances for a nice powder dump..PM me if you want to know the best trails/glades to hit..

There is no nightlife in Jay Peak..so bring your own fun..lol

Rode there last year. Wasn't super impressed with the terrain, nothing really that difficult at least in my mind. Would be awesome if you got there in the middle of a storm cycle. When i was there it was icy. It's cheaper then stowe, but i think Stowe is a much better place to go. Terrain is much better.

Ignore this, Stowe has better terrain but not by a whole lot and its mad more $$$. They are also owned by AIG so their getting sold, I bet it just gets more expensive.

The Face is pretty gnar for NE, Big Jay is good too, but its 9-10 hours from Philly, regardless of what Map Quest says the last 60 or so miles are really slow. The best way from philly is what GSS said but the 87 way isn't too bad either.

Two years ago I had a day there with 27", twas good.

I just read an article about this a few weeks ago. I was trying to find it now to post it here, but can no longer find it.

Jay Peak is awesome. Good runs and excellent trees. Certainly worth checking out.
Problem is it can get cold. Real cold.

Last year I went end of the season, and it was pretty much perfect. If your willing to wait, they have these slope side condos which during the regular season cost some ungodly amount of money, but the day late season starts they get dramatically reduced to about the price of a regular motel room. I had an nice long weekend of jumping off my balcony right onto the slopes.

I heard Jay gets real cold but for great snow I will freeze. Stowe is definitely on my short list as well, I want to try to make it there there this year. Jay is more of a long shot but a possibility. Stowe and Mount Snow are two that I definitely want to hit up this year.

I've been going to Jay Peak for the past 2 years. This year will be my third. We go with a bunch of people and stay at the Inglenook Lodge. Its not to expensive, and its uber nice. The food is good, and its only about a 3 minute drive to Jay.

The terrain is really fun for me. I like it. My favorite trails there are The Jet, the trails next to the Jet just cause you can straight line the entire trail and get uber speeds, and I also like the trail from the Tram to Ullr's Dream, and Ullrs dream it self.

It never really gets busy on weekdays, even around Christmas time (when I go), lift lines don't get long at all. The longest lift line I got in last year was 5 minutes. There about 3 high speed quads, a tram, and a few more fixed grips. The farthest quad on the right (if you are looking towards the mountain), can get shut down often if its high winds. The lift gets shut down because of cross winds, and the lift line swings violently. Not fun to be on. But its usually open. They are even planning to expand with 10-12 trails to the right of the mountain, and 2, maybe 3 more HSQ's.

The snow they get is amazing. Very great powder. It snows very often because of the "Jay" cloud. Last year, by Christmas, they had over 7-8 feet of snow. The lodge I stayed in has a deck. The deck door was snowed in cause of the drifted snow. It does indeed get very cold. But just dress in layers, and you'll be set.

I recommend Jay Peak to EVERYONE. Its a hidden gem with plenty of snow, and plenty of skiing. Its great, and I really enjoy going up every year.

I wouldn't say it's a hidden gem anymore...

Well compared to other mountains in Vermont. It is.

what is your familiarity with the rest of the mountains in VT?

I haven't been to any of the other VT mountains, but i know that the other mountains are much more commercialized and have more people living around those mountains.

Jay Peak isn't as commercialized and have less people living around Jay, and the mountain is usually never crowded.

Ever been to Burke or Magic ?

Regardless your mostly right but they are ramping up development at Jay, so go now if you like it the way it is.

They are, thats because its gaining popularity. Maybe its a good thing, so they will have a larger revenue, and expand the mountain.

I don't know what some of these people are talking about, Jay blows stowe away... the whole damn place is woods and you can ski all of it!! And the best part is that even with the better terrain, it is like a solid $30 cheaper a day. Seriously, leave stowe, drive an extra hour or two and go ski jay

You've clearly never explored stowe then.

What's the tuypical snowfall at Christmas? We are looking for somewhere to spend the holiday this year but booking a trip for me guarantees no snow.

No, unless you hike up to the top of mansfield and ski back down to the top of the trails, I stand by my opinion that jay beats stowe... don't get me wong stowe is great and has some awesome woods,drops,etc. But i think jays are just more fun and even though we are arguing about terrain, price always matters!

Your leaving out the whole area of the chin...

I agree, Jay is one of my favorite places on the East Coast but Stowe and the Notch (the area not the resort) have much more gnar gnar terrain. Besides the face Jay doesn't have the terrain like stowe.


Erin808 - Christmas...... go West....occasionally VT is worth traveling for around Christmas but most years things haven't really started cooking yet. 06 I think was almost a total wash out.

Uhh, i would say between 1-3 feet for a week. Snowed every day last winter. About 4 inches per day.

Thats all relevant. If the NE gets stuck in a dry spell it might not snow at all.

Well yeah. Obviously. But usually thats what they get up there. Its called the Jay cloud.

duh Dan. didn't you know that the Jay Cloud makes it snow 1-3 feet per week? there is a J-cloud at Blue... but i think it comes from within the bus.

It must have slipped my mind.

Everything's so expensive at Christmas and its not even that good out West. It's just by the time you know its going to be good, there are NO accomodations in VT. We need to save money anyway...

I hear that its certainly difficult in the NE, if you have a car, watch the weather and just show up the night before. Most places in VT have cheap nearby accommodations that don't get too full on the non holiday weekends. Additionally, you can always just stay in Burlington and VT is known for lots of B&B's not my thing but some are reasonable.

Killy - Happy Bear/Rutvegas hotels
Jay - Grampa Grunts
Stowe - Stowe Motel - GSS is this the one out by the church where S. Main meets 108 ? I sleep in the parking lot a lot but can't remember the name
Burke - Fairbanks Inn
Mt. Snow - Alpenhaus

Utah is by far the most consistent on early season snow, for almost 10 years now my retarded family has made a Christmas trip there and we've never gotten skunked. Probably 50% of the time we get truly epic snowfall.

CO and UT are probably the cheapest you can do a trip for, CO is just as fantastic as UT but I feel they get a little more spotty early season snow. MT can be cheap too and has great snowfall but probably the sharpest rocks in the history of skiing personally I would wait for better coverage....if all else fails......Xanadu ?

did that open yet?

As far as I know no and everything I've heard says it may never. Now is not the time to try to pick up millions for a very shaky project.

The Stowe Motel is on 108 right past Piecasso(next to the Shed) right near the shortcut to 100-south..that travels through Moscow..I always get good rates at the Town and Country motel..$60-$65 a night for spring skiing...I paid $50 a night at the Alpenhouse which is pretty sparten but it came with a Kitchenette..as long as there's a TV..I can watch Saved By the Bell reruns before a steezy ski day...and pound a couple cans of Sugar Free Redbull for stoke..

Jay Peak can be really good or really bad..they don't have a very good snowmaking system and almost all the interesting runs are natural snow trails..One thing I don't like about Jay Peak is most of the tree runs are on the trailmap..I like to ski fresh or lightly tracked powder in the woods not bumps..and the woods at Jay Peak get alot of traffic. The Face chutes are awesome with a real west coast feel..I've only skied them in March..and I have some spectacular pictures that I should scan from a Bluebird day after a 4 day storm dumped over 60".

Jay Peak has a real International feel because it's almost spitting distance from the Canadian border..that means lots of French speaking people and body odor...You can get a 24 ounce Labatt Blue or Molson in the cafeteria along with poutine..a popular fast-food staple in Quebec consisting of french fries, brown gravy and cheese curds..

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was up at jay this past January over MLK. Glades are super nice best skiing on the east coast, but terrain park sucks.
Just like out west with how much pow they get. best runs are unmarked through da trees, i would suggest u get a nice wide-waist ski, atleast 86 or higher to enjoy it. It gets extremely cold up at Jay with the winds. Some days are icy some are not, but they do close lifts alot due to weather.

Overall definately take the trip I enjoyed it, we hit up Sugarbush while we were there and Jay was 100x better.

huh?

poutine is the best food of any ski resort hands down!!

My bad what i was sayin was the terrain park sucks.
And they get alot of powder jus like they do out west.
I wasnt connecting the two together