Jay Peak Resort
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| Jay Peak Resort | |
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| Location | Orleans County, Vermont |
| Nearest city | Jay, Vermont |
| Coordinates | 44°55′46″N 72°31′56″W / 44.92944°N 72.53222°W |
| Vertical | 2,153 feet (656 m) |
| Top elevation | 3,858 feet (1,176 m) |
| Base elevation | 1,843 feet (562 m) |
| Skiable area | 385 acres (1.56 km2) |
| Runs | 76 |
| Longest run | 4.828 kilometres (3.000 mi) |
| Lift system | 8 (1 Aerial tramway, 5 chairs, 2 surface lifts) |
| Snowfall | 29.6 feet (9.02 m) |
| Web site | Jay Peak Resort |
Jay Peak Resort is an American ski resort located on Jay Peak, outside the village of Jay in the town of Jay, Vermont in the Green Mountains. Its vertical drop of 2,153 feet (656 m) is the eighth largest in New England and the fifth largest in Vermont.[1]
The resort is just 4 miles (6.5 km) south of the Canada–United States border, the province of Quebec. Jay Peak Resort is owned and operated by a group of investors headed by Bill Stenger.[2]
In 2008 the property was valued by the town of Jay at slightly over $12 million.[3]
Although Jay Peak bears the name and is mostly closely associated with the nearby town of Jay, the summit of Jay Peak as well as the Jet Triple Chair area and much of the Big Jay backcountry descent is located in Westfield, Vermont.
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[edit] History
The ski trails were carved into the mountain during the 1950s primarily by its first ski school director/general manager, Walter Foeger,[4] an Austrian and former racer who had previously trained the Spanish Olympic ski team. He arrived in 1956.[5] He developed a method of teaching parallel skiing that avoided first having to teach the student snowplow/stem turns. Instead, students were taught to change direction by means of a slight hop keeping the tips of the skis on the snow, and displacing the back of the skis sideways. He called his ski teaching method "Natur Teknik" (natural technique). The Jay Peak ski school offered a "learn to ski in a week" guarantee. The method was adopted by a number of other ski areas.[citation needed]
In 1955 a T-bar and a ski lift were purchased. In January 1957, the resort was opened for skiing.[5]
In 1968 Weyerhaeuser invested $300,000 in the predecessor organization, Jay Peak, Inc., and loaned it $2.2 million.
In the mid-1970s, a 48-room hotel was built.[6]
In 1978 Mont Saint-Sauveur International bought the resort.[2]
To encourage Canadian tourism, the resort used to accept Canadian money at par. As of 2010, this is still true for lift tickets and the cafeteria.
In 2007, the resort agreed to pay the state $105,000 for violating stormwater rules in polluting a stream while building a new golf course.[7]
Despite a drop in skier visits statewide during the 2006-07 season, Jay Peak saw a record year with skier visits up 7%.[8]
In 2006, the resort employed 550 people in the winter, 100 in the summer.[9] In 2008, it was the second biggest employer in the area.[10]
In 2007-8, the resort reported a record 320,000 skiers for the winter.[11]
In 2008, a group headed by Bill Stenger purchased the resort.[2] Stenger's plan was to invest $100 million in capital improvements for the resort over the next few years.[12]
The new management announced plans for capital improvements. A new 57-room hotel would be added in 2008-9. Then the current 48-room hotel would be demolished in 2009-10 and replaced with a 120-room hotel in 2010-11. It would include a spa, conference center, skating facility, and a 33,000 square feet (3,066 m2) water park. They projected that employment would be 600 year around instead of just in the winter, as it was in 2008.[6][clarification needed]
Management planned to expand the skiing to a third peak for the 2011-2012 season. The new area would be known as the West Bowl and had been marked on trail maps as a Proposed Ski Expansion Area since the 2002-2003 ski season.
The company raised $250 million for improvements in 2009-10, from 250 investors from 43 companies through the incentive of the federal EB-5 visa. Under this visa, every $500,000 invested in the U.S. that results in ten new jobs gains the investor permanent residence.[3][13]
A three-way swap was made with the state in 2010. The state deeded 59.8 acres (24.2 ha) to the resort; the resort relinquished its lease to a 418 acres (169 ha) parcel of nearby undeveloped forest back to the state; and the resort sold 166 acres (67 ha) to the Green Mountain Club to ensure that the nearby 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of Long Trail would have a permanent buffer from ski-area development.[14]
In 2010, $13 million worth of improvements were made including an indoor ice arena, a parking garage, an enclosed beginners lift, and a new RFID ticketing system. The old Hotel Jay was razed and replace with a new 170-room one.[15]
In 2010, Yankee magazine named Jay as the best ski resort in New England.[16]
In 2011, the resort agreed to pay an $80,000 fine to the United States Environmental Protection Agency for filing in 2 acres (0.81 ha) of wetlands to construct a golf course in 2004-6, without a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This was the same event that the resort paid a fine to the state in 2007.[17]
[edit] Trails
Offering off-piste skiing, Jay Peak Resort offers 24 tree-skiing areas, or Glades, covering approximately 100 acres (40 ha), which have been trimmed of small vegetation to allow off-piste skiing. For every six glades that the resort "thins or trims" only one appears on the trailmap. Jay has 76 trails[2] covering 385 acres (155 ha) of skiable terrain.
[edit] Snowfall
The summit is at an elevation of 3,858 feet (1,176 m), with a 2,015 foot (614 m) vertical drop.[2] Jay Peak has the largest average annual snowfall (355 inches or 9 metres) of any ski area in Eastern North America, including Mount Washington (which averages 645 cm / 253.9 inches annually on the summit).[18] In 2007-8, the resort reported 419 inches (1,064 cm) of snowfall.[2]
[edit] Lifts
Jay Peak is currently serviced by eight lifts: 1 aerial tramway, 3 quads, 1 triple and 1 double 1 t-bar, and 1 magic carpet. These lifts give the mountain an uphill capacity of approximately 12,000 skiers/hour. The oldest of these lifts, the 60-person aerial tramway, also known as the "tram", is the only one of its type in the state of Vermont. This tramway was originally installed in 1966 by Von Roll, and upgraded in 2000 with new cabins from Swoboda.
In the mid 1980s the resort began to upgrade its lift capacity. In 1985 it purchased the Jet Triple chair from Doppelmayr to replace the Jet T-Bar. This was followed in 1987 with the purchase of the Bonaventure Quad which replaced the old Bonaventure Double. In 1999 the resort removed the Green Mountain Double chair, which had serviced the north side of the mountain for 30 years, and replaced it with the Green Mountain Flyer (dubbed the "Green Mountain Freezer" by skiers because of its notoriously cold ride due to the strong winds blowing on it),[19] the mountain's first high-speed detachable chairlift.
Other lifts that currently serve the mountain are the Metro Quad, the Village Double, the Queen's Highway T-Bar and the Magic Carpet.
To gain access to the lifts, an RFID system scans a chip embedded in a plastic card which is typically held in the skier's pocket.[15]
[edit] Other facilities
There is a league-sized hockey rink, the Ice Haus, with room for 700 spectators, Next to it is a 220 space parking garage, the first in the Northeast Kingdom 80% of the slots are covered.[15]
An 18-hole golf course was constructed in 2011 near the ski area.[citation needed]
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ http://verticalfeet.com/
- ^ a b c d e f McLean, Dan (July 1, 2008). Investors purchase Jay Peak. Burlington Free Press.
- ^ a b Gresser, Joseph (July 2, 2008). Jay expansion projects still on track. the Chronicle.
- ^ Walter Foeger website
- ^ a b Hayes, Lloyd T. (March 2009). "Jay Peak's Beginning". Vermont's Northland Journal 7 (12): 14.
- ^ a b McLean, Dan (July 2, 2008). New Jay Peak owners plan $100 million in upgrades. Burlington Free Press.
- ^ "Jay Peak to pay $105,000 for violating stormwater rules - Boston.com". http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2007/05/10/jay_peak_to_pay_105000_for_violating_stormwater_rules.[dead link]
- ^ Wright, Leslie (June 7, 2007). Resorts log worst winter in 12 years. Burlington Free Press.
- ^ Voters approve sewer expansion - Jay Peak will pay most of local cost. the Chronicle. August 29, 2007.
- ^ Gresser, Joseph (October 22, 2008). After much anticipation, career center expansion opens. the Chronicle.
- ^ Gresser, Joseph (May 14, 2008). Jay Peak president has big plans. the Chronicle.
- ^ "Jay Peak resort sold to president, investors". July 3, 2008. http://www.stowetoday.com/stowereporter/archives/article_594c88bc-6053-5b78-90b3-01d45c70af54.html.
- ^ Williams, Pat (8 July 2010). "Jay Peak launches phase two". Burlington, Vermont: Burlington Free Press. pp. 1C.
- ^ Remsen, Nancy (1 September 2010). "Jay Peak swap OK'd". Burlington, Vermont: Burlington Free Press. pp. 1B. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100901/NEWS01/100831029/Jay-Peak-land-swap-achieved.
- ^ a b c "Jay Peak guests will see $13 million in i mprovements". Barton, Vermont: the Chronicle. 1 September 2010. pp. 29.
- ^ "NEK establishments listed in Yankee's best of NE awards". Barton, Vermont: the Chronicle. 3 February 2010. pp. 7. http://www.yankeemagazine.com/issues/2010-01/interact/10things/readers-choice.
- ^ "Jay Peak pays EPA fine for violation". the Chronicle (Barton, Vermont): pp. 15. October 5, 2011.
- ^ Wheeler, Scott (February 2008). The Man Who Helped Electrify the Jay Peak Ski Area. Northland Journal.
- ^ Guide to Skiing at Jay Peak Resort, Vermont
