Northeast Ski Blogger Summit

In a ridiculous stroke of luck, I somehow stumbled into a "ski blogger summit."  When I woke up this morning, I had no idea what to expect.  It turned out to be one of the best days of the year.  Here's the report:

I woke up earlier than usual.  In fact, the clock in my car hasn't seen this side of 6:00 in a long time:

I drove north.  Way north.

I stopped to take a picture of the Sunrise (!!!) and kept going:

Until I eventually reached this sign:

Hmmm, Hockey and Strippers, or Maple Syrup and Skiing?  Tough choice.  Eventually, I found myself here:

And despite the large number of French speaking Quebecois, I was actually still in Vermont.  Jay Peak, to be exact.

Perhaps I should stop and give some background.  I got an email from "Harvey" at Harvey Road asking if I'd be interested in a blogger's summit in Jay Peak.  To which I responded "Hell Yeah." After a few months and a few emails back and forth, Harvey, Steve (thesnowway.com), Gord (The Real Jay Peak Snow Report), James (Harvey Road and firsttracksonline), and I were headed up to Jay.

Like I said, I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out fantastic: 6-8 inches of fresh snow, solid skiers, and very little stopping (surprisingly little for a bunch of ski bloggers).  We were all over the mountain, ripping trees, blasting through pow, and whooping it up all the way down.  I realize that Jay Peak isn't always like this (I hear it gets a tad cold and windy sometimes), but today, it skied pretty damn well.  And I was so pumped to at a new (to me) mountain, skiing with new (to me) people, and having a new (to me) experience.  I'll let the other guys post their superior pics and video, I just have a couple of pics I thought were cool/instructive.

Jay's trees are a lot more open than the trees I'm used to:

Also, 6-8 inches is enough to get face shots:

And mountain photographs on overcast afternoons look more moody and introspective in black and white:

After the day was over, and we sat around the dinner table, Gord introduced a new (to me) discussion: Everyone at the table would go around and recount their favorite run of the day.  My choice was easy:  We took a trail called River Quai (a steep, rocky shot underneath the tram with a wide open powder field at the bottom), followed by Buckaroo Banzai (an open glade with dips, drops, and fresh pow shots in the second half).  The run was pretty much everything I wanted (and expected) of Jay: Challenge, Trees, and Pow.  It was the perfect run.

To me.