The following is from Jerry Davis, Senior Project Engineer at DEW Construction.  He’s our GC on all of our construction projects and improvements and he took time out of his busy schedule to pen a few thoughts as to how things are going and what’s still ahead.  Thank you Jerry.

As far the still-unnamed Waterpark goes, if you’ve been following the picture updates across jayeakresort.com and various social sites, you’ve seen some big things in motion.  The entire South Wall (backside and mountainside) concrete pour is done and the Waterpark Mezzanine (where some cool things are being planned) are also poured.  The West Wall facing Tramside is poured as well.  Next week is big as the OpenAire roof structure will start being assembled (and then installed ‘round the first week of October).  Ride drawings are currently being reviewed with Senior Management for approval and fabrication of those rides will begin next month.  For those of you bored enough to follow my exploits across the center of the country last week, suffice to say that the AquaLoop will not only change your purview of waterparks (if you have deep thoughts on such things) but it will keep you coming back to this place in the summer.  Wow.

New Hotel Jay (yup, that’s her new name; same as the old name.) The West Wing area concrete has started and is roughly half done already.  The Lobby/Elevator area concrete has started and is roughly 1/3rd of the way finished.  And the Commissary, Dry Storage and basement areas have also begun to be poured.  Any of you possessing any sort of unnatural inclination toward all things concrete, this is your place and this is definitely your time.

In terms of sitework, the main tanks for the project stormwater system are installed and backfilled and the Upper to Lower Parking Lot retaining wall, something that will, from this point forward, be referred to as the Upper to Lower Parking Lot retaining wall unless we come up with something wonderfuller, will start next week.

Dry?  Yes, but that’s my world.  I’ll be back with more as the weeks move on.  Contain yourselves until then.

Last week, we (Jerry and Sara from our construction company DEW, Tyler (Jay Peak Construction & Development) and myself) had the opportunity to slip away and visit the Wisconsin Dells. Why? Because it’s there.

The “it”  in this case is the first U.S. installation of Whitewater’s “Aqualoop” waterslide – aka The Scorpion’s Tail at Noah’s Ark. The Aqualoop will be the flagship ride of our waterpark - the second one installed indoors in the world. We picked the Aqualoop because we thought it aligned well with the unique and at times extreme nature of our ski experience. We wanted to put our collective minds at ease that we had chosen well, in addition to learning any and all tricks to installing and operating the slide.

The Aqualoop is unique in that it offers a near-vertical 360 degree loop – think of the helicopter scene in Blue Thunder. The starting point is an enclosed launch capsule approximately 55 feet above the main floor. After a moment of contemplation and mild claustrophobia, there is a countdown, and the floor drops out from under you. Freefall, acceleration and g-forces ensue as you shoot up and around the loop.

This pic to the left shows the approach to the tree fort  Noah’s Ark used for their Aqualoop tower. The waterslide has a dramatic physical presence, and the translucent fiberglass allows you to see the riders shooting by as you climb the tower.

This pic shows the waterslide from the tower deck, and if you look (very) carefully, you can see Jerry Davis  making his way down the second vertical section. Jerry is smiling . . .  I feel compelled to acknowledge that he discovered the Aqualoop at our first waterpark trade show, and if it was anything short of outstanding, we had a plan to leave him in Wisconsin.

In addition to generally all things waterpark and hotel, we were in Wisconsin to see how themes other than ours have been realized – the successes and failures. Having a great idea is one thing – having it end up well inside a space can be another. More on this later, but suffice to say we are putting a lot of thought into it, if only to reduce Steve’s general consternation and occasional palsies that have been traced back to our Dells visit in April. Rest assured – ours will be good.

The rooms at the Great Escape Lodge are, by any definition, standard but clean. Bathroom, small sitting area and two Queen Beds. My wife and I start out in the same one and finish separated by our daughters who get up in the middle of the night, apparently, and rearrange themselves.

5:30am lands and I’m up before everyone, make coffee and showering with the subtlety of a freight train and wake up the entire room after a few fitful hours of air-conditionless sleep. I’m immediately out the door, leaving my wife to tend with slightly disoriented, humid children on completely empty stomachs. For this indiscretion, I will later pay.

I am scheduled to meet Ken Ellis, owner of ADG (Aquatics Development Group-they make the very cool FlowRider Standing surf wave), co-owner of the Great Escape Lodge and owner of Camelback Ski Resort. 8am sharp rolls around as does Ken and he leads me immediately into the park area which is still an hour away from opening. Lifeguards are buzzing around doing drills, lubing whistles and doing whatever it is that lifeguards do when the owner of the park walks in on whatever they were doing previous. A guy, roughly 30 years old and tipping dangerously close to several hundred pounds, is using the Flowrider and having a seemingly easy time of it. Ken says that it’s the most popular feature in the park and remarks that we’re lucky to have ordered a double at Jay Peak. Flowrider that is.

He continues, being more than generous with his time and giving me more detail than I a. was able to fully comprehend and b. I will most likely ever remember given that my pen ran out of ink right after the question, ‘so what do you call this theme exactly.’?

In truth, the building feels open and bright-thanks to the patented Texlon roof they integrated. In the Jay Peak Park, we’ve actually opted to go with an egregiously expensive Open Aire design roof which is fully retractable and able to be fully open to the outside. When closed it even allows enough UV in to nourish plants and burn skin. Our profit centers will be stocked with both sunblock and commemorative Ficus trees no doubt.

Our friend Steve spent a couple of days exploring waterparks with his wife (Brooke) and kids (Dehlia and Maeve).  More than just a family vacation, he set up meetings with various water park owners/managers to get their thoughts on what works, what doesn’t, and how to avoid theming (or at least bad theming).  Here’s the first of a few journal entries:

“I am driving along Route 242, heading over to the NY Thruway so I can pick my way down to The Great Escape Lodge and Splashwater Indoor Water park.  Or something to that effect.  It is 8:45pm and my car is filled with daughters, my wife and various foodstuffs to keep us occupied across the roughly 4 hr trip.  My dashboard tells me it is 68 degrees outside and I confirm this by leaving my window down for as long as my wife will allow.  The air feels good after consecutive days (and days) of 90 degree weather.  The sunset is every bit as wonderful as you’d expect a midsummer Vermont sunset to be, and I think myself the fool for leaving it, headed down into the bosom of Lake George and its vacationalia.  But I am doing so with purpose.  I will look at various waterparks and see what makes them tick.  How they run.  What they’re about and, God help me, how they theme themselves.  We are building a waterpark at Jay Peak and for as much as the thought of theming makes the bile rise in all of us, I figure it my duty to at least explore.

My youngest daughter, Maeve, breaks the soft peace a bit when she demands to know why she can’t have a 3rd ice cream (after successive trips after lunch and dinner to the Pick and Shovel, our trusty neighborhood ice cream, hardware and bait shop), and threatens to throw a fit if not for a few more scoops.  I ignore her and she, eventually, falls off into a typically angry sleep.

It’s creeping in on 2am and my meeting with the Hotel owner is roughly 6 hours away.  The only one awake for the last 2 hours, I enjoy the dark roads leading into the Lake George region listening to Hank Williams and wondering how the hell to theme a Jay Peak waterpark.  As we pull into the Hotel parking area, I have come up with exactly nothing.”

For those Raised Jay it certainly comes as no secret that we’re growing and getting, if not bigger, wider. All along, we’ve tried to stay as focused on the little things (keeping prices more than affordable, making sure locals and locals at heart have access to discounts every day of the season, making sure you can stay with us for less money than you’d expect and, in general, including our guests and their thoughts before making any big decisions.), as we are the big things. But big things take planning and it’s scary, even for us, to go too far down the planning road without asking more specific questions about the sorts of things you’re interested in.

Our kinda theming.

Recently, we’ve had the opportunity to talk with outfits known as ‘themers’ (folks that come in and try to create a waterpark’s personality) which, to be honest, the concept behind makes us all a little ill; we have no shortage of personality up this way already. Theming suggests something that, although we can’t quite put a finger on it, doesn’t feel much like us. To that end, we’re looking to you for suggestions on what does. Feel like us that is. We’re building an indoor waterpark with a retractable roof. That’s happening. What happens on the inside, though, is still largely up to us. And by us, we mean you.

So let us have it. What have you seen that’s interesting? What can you live without? What kind of food are you looking for on the inside? What sort of, God help us, theme would be interesting (even if your answer is, ‘no theme please.’) We’re interested in your thoughts so let us have them.

You heard it here first - we’re honoring the old relic by passing on the name to the new Hotel II.  It’ll be a reinvented version of Jay Peak charm - just like the old Hotel Jay without the dated furnishings and questionable hot tubs.

Help us celebrate this latest step forward this Wednesday, July 7th (tomorrow).  We, with the help of Senator Leahy, will ‘officially’ break ground on the Hotel 2 + Waterpark projects.  Following the ceremony we’ll host a small reception at the Tram Haus Lodge on the outdoor patio with food and refreshments from local vendors.  The groundbreaking will take place from 11:30am to noon and the reception will run from noon to 1pm.  Just another piece of Jay Peak history you might want to be a part of…

Curious - how many folks out there are interested in the creation of a lift ticket product that would allow you to purchase in advance, at a discount, then go directly to a lift? We’re looking at the integration of RFID technology as a precursor to putting in a new lift for the 2011-2012 season and we’re interested in feedback. Let us know your thoughts.

Until now, whenever someone at the office has mentioned the water park they’ve used phrases like “it’ll be a great way to insulated the shoulder seasons” and “perfect evening activity for families”.  I started thinking of it as an aside - not even a secondary (that would be the Ice Haus) but a tertiary offering.  Or maybe it’s just that I wanted to think of it as a distant third (or, better yet, not think of it at all).  When I had to (think of it, that is) I was a bit hateful and more than just a little bit afraid of what adding a water park would do to our credibility.  Difficult to convince people who enjoy The Face that a meandering down a lazy river is a good way to cap the day.  Then I started to hear more about the types of elements that would be included and the strict no-theme approach.  It turns out it might not be total crap.

Yes, there will likely be a lazy river (to thrill the 3 year olds) but the main elements will include stuff like this.  This is an outdoor version but essentially the same as what we’ll be including indoors.  Ours will be shorter at 279 feet but will still require us to blow out the roof a bit to make room.  Note the author uses words like “exhilarating”, “terrifying”, “free-falling”, and “large steel and acrylic coffin”. So no, it’s nothing like The Face, which could seriously hurt someone who doesn’t have the skill to ski/ride it, but it’s not water-parks-for-wussies either.

Next up in water park news: how things are progressing on the Flow Rider (and why I don’t think I’ll hate that either).  Stay tuned.

Some major work going on here at the mountain.  Not much new there, the difference this time being we’re pulling things down rather than raising ‘em up.  In one of the first (visible) steps toward getting Hotel II underway, we’ve started to raze the old Hotel Jay.  We knew it was coming and still, we’ve had some mixed feelings here about the deconstruction – sad to see the old relic go whilst simultaneously looking forward to the new construction.

Several thousand words in the form of pics, HERE.

Center ice at the Jay Peak Ice Haus.

We may have gone a *little* over the top planning the Ice Haus opening weekend (Memorial Day Weekend - May 28-29).  Plenty going on at the mountain that weekend from all-you-can-eat BBQ and Brunch at Alice’s Table to, of course, plenty of skating in the Ice Haus.  Plus a little face painting, some (free) Ben & Jerry’s and a Tram ride to round out the day.  Click through for a full listing of events.  And if you want a sneak peek there’s a good chance we’ll be open for skating as of May 21st - stay tuned for updates.