There's a couple of ways you can get there from Ottawa. You can head straight though Montreal and get there via Interstates pretty well the whole way, and takes about 3 or 4 hours, or you can head almost directly south to Cornwall and cross over the US border in New York State which takes about 5 hours. We decided we'd do both, so headed of in a southerly direction to catch some of the picturesque scenery on the way. It was pretty overcast, and by the time we hit Vermont we had passed several frozen lakes and rivers, and it had started to snow. This in itself was fine, except we got stuck behind an older car who was obviously not prepared for the slippery conditions and quickly built up a line of cars behind, as it fishtailed its way up and down the hills. Thankfully they didn't stop completely, or there might have been a few cars stuck where they stopped, us included.
We were headed for the town of Troy, just 10miles south east of Jay Peak, where we were to spend a few days skiing 'real hills'. The difficulty in picking B&B's from the internet is you never know who the hell you're going to end up with as hosts. We arrived at the Riverbend B&B to meet Jim. Jim was a one syllable kind of Vermontian, who only spoke when spoken to and appeared to vehemently object to any conversation outside the necessary. Unfortunately I had to inform him upon our arrival that we were not only here, but the car following us up the driveway had taken it to quick and had ended up in the ditch next to the driveway. This seemed to impress him to no end, but he was polite about it...
Over the course of out 3 night stay in a room adorned with portraits of the US Presidents, I would come to love Jim, once I met Paul that is, the actual owner. We met Paul one night by the fire. Paul was unshaven and fairly uncouth. Initially thinking he was another guest and best to be avoided, he introduced himself as the owner of the place, and asked us our names. Three minutes later he asked our names again, then proceeded to thrust supper on us of his own home made broth complete with chunks of potato and unidentified meat, which I wasn't quite game to identify. Being the polite people that we are, we made the best of it, but this only seemed to encourage his stifling hospitality as he insisted on seconds, despite our protests of a late lunch and no plans at all for dinner. We ended up walking out of the room with full plates in front of us and some excuse about getting up early to hit the slopes. But not before he had asked us for a third time what our names were, which he never muttered anyway through the duration of our stay. Thankfully by breakfast our beloved Jim was back at the helm, and I was able to momentarily way-lay my uncomfortableness, and slight suspicion that there might be eye holes behind some of the ex-presidents.
Jay Peak is a pretty huge hill. It has 2 peaks accommodating 76 trails. Its well known for its glade skiing - you know, the stuff through the trees where the crazy people go. The longest trail is 3 miles, which is pretty tiring when you're freaking out about control like I still am. But that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest part was the reduced visibility to approximately 6-8m. Now for someone like me, that's a little scary. When you can only just make out the chair on the lift in front of you, I'm not all that keen. When the wind picks up as you approach the summit and feels like it's going to pull your skis off your feet as the lift chair dips, I'm not all that keen. When you can only see the black runs as you head up for your first run, I'm not all that keen. But when you hit the powder and its light and fluffy and it doesn't hurt to fall down, I'm in.
Day 1 for me was all about getting used to not being able to see what I was doing. It was windy and foggy, and I just couldn't quite get into it, despite some really nice long blue runs that weren't causing me too many problems. I was even getting used to the even increasing lumps on the runs as the day wore on, and picking the newly exposed sheets of ice from those pesky snowboarder. But we couldn't see clearly off the mountain until late in the afternoon, and even then only for roughly 10 minutes (only during one run really) when the clouds lifted and I actually realised that I had only been skiing about half the width of the run.
Our second day of skiing was much nicer, in some ways. We'd not spotted our eccentric host back at the B&B for another night, and the clouds had lifted enough that we got a really nice view from pretty much anywhere on the mountain. The wind was still blowing so much that it would either hurtle you down the slopes, or prevent you from moving more than snails pace, and was whipping the snow across the ground so fast that it looked as though your feet disappeared almost up to your knees into a layer of dry ice.
It was cold, but not as cold Day 1, or some of nights we've been skiing just outside Ottawa. I was enjoying the nice long chair lift rides - when it was clear you could see the environment changes in the trees below you, from the twiggy trees to the hard core alpine pines caked in snow and ice. You could feel the distinction when you cleared a wind hill about two thirds of the way up on the lifts. I would just sit there and freeze. It did start to snow at one point and I could still feel it hit my face through my mask.
Looks nice? Yeah, check out the minimum gear required: I know its hard to tell, but please note the pine tree in the back ground completely covered in ice. And no, they do not have a snow maker just out of frame - its all natural snow on the summit at Jay! 
Despite the beautiful countryside, Vermont struck me as quite a backwards place. Sure, there's B&B's on every corner, but its not the thriving tourist metropolis that you might expect. Jay Peaks promotional magazine even implies that there's nothing here but ski-runs, and for those who want a vacation with a bit of skiing thrown in, Jay's probably not for them. Its kind of refreshing in a way, until you want a decent coffee... Now without meaning to suggest that Starbucks is a good coffee, I was pleased to hear that there are only 5 of these places in Vermont. I think that endeared the place to me even more, as I continued to scour the 3 buildings constituting towns for a local cafe or bakery. I'd suggest you b.y.o. coffee.
Photos courtesy of Coops - I can't guarantee not falling over yet to enable me to carry a camera...
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