Peakbagger.com
Peak Lists	Climbers	Ranges	Geography	Help	Search	Log In

Ascent of Big Jay on 2011-04-16

Climber: Dan Quinlan

Date:

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Ascent Type:

Successful Summit Attained

Peak:

Big Jay

Location:

USA-Vermont

Elevation:

3786 ft / 1153 m

Ascent Trip Report

Gudi and I set out on this somewhat windy and chilly April day.
Started at the Long Trail as it crosses Route 242 and headed north.
Snow is very hard, certainly no melting today. I used snowshoes, Gudi had on micro spikes. I think she made the better choice.

Once in the woods we could hear the wind but is wasn't so bad until we broke out onto the ski trail. Although Jay Peak is open for skiing, the Gondola was closed due to high winds - so we got to make 'first tracks' on the newly groomed ski trails.

The wind was howling on the ski trail, but it was even worse on the last bit at I just about crawled to the summit of Jay Peak on the open rocks. Didn't bother with pictures, just took a waypoint with the GPSr and carefully retreated to the ski trail (my guess is 50+ MPH winds up there)

Gudi decided she had reached her goal for the day and decided to skip the trek to Big Jay. I headed north down the ski trail until I found the opening (and several warning signs) in the fence that led to the trail to Big Jay.
Although I didn't see any marking along the trail, there were ski tracks / snowshoe tracks every where. I pretty much stuck to the ridge line and it worked very well.

Found Big Jay's summit jar just about a foot above the snow line. Quickly signed in and took some pictures before heading back.

It was a pretty good hike with added adventure provide by the very high winds today.

Summary Total Data

Quality:

7 (on a subjective 1-10 scale)

Route Conditions: