Ski the East: Powder Like Utah

"Ski the East" is a series of articles created by founder, Gina Bégin, as she tours from maritime Canada to the northeast US in a quest to uncover the culture and vibe of the ski community and areas of eastern North America. This is part IV in this series. For more about this project, check out "Uncovering the Mystery."

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Returning for more

An enigma. A fabled land. A tiny corner of the Northeast Kingdom that Vermonters held sacred in their snowy reaches.

It was Jay Peak and it had been haunting my imagination ever since I happened upon a tiny write up in a worn magazine years ago. The description claimed that the weather patterns there dropped the driest snow in the east, comparable to the feathery powder of the western US mountains.

This struck me as impossible. My experience with eastern snow was that it stuck to every surface it touched and then promptly turned into a sheet of ice. My one run down a Pennsylvania hill solidified this idea; having ice skates strapped to my feet, rather than skis, would have been more appropriate in that instance. If any weather pattern could mix up a dry concoction of frozen H2O in the eastern states it would have to be through some sort of voodooistic phenomenon.

Perhaps there was some magic behind this far away mountain as the name “Jay Peak” could not be shaken from my mind. Through the years I tried to find out more about it, questioning skiers from the east about the ski area, asking if they knew anything about it. A great majority returned my questions with a shrug. Some said they had never gone because it was just too far to reach; too backwoods, too in the middle of nowhere. There were a select few, though, whose eyes misted over with a dream-like glaze and nodded as they spoke in tales of powder deeper and softer than any eastern mountain could provide.

The more I questioned, the deeper the mountain haunted me.  I had to go.
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Is the legend true? Find out on Outdoor Women's Alliance, where the story unfolds.