Raising Them Jay
At first blush, this year’s marketing direction feels like we’re aiming squarely at parents passing over other eastern resorts to bring their kids up as skiers and riders (as opposed to, say, those that go skiing and riding). And we sure are. But we’re also reaching wider than that. We’re talking to skiers and riders already Raised Jay. Already in the know. Already understanding of the notion that bottom lines, here, are measured differently. We’re talking to those skiers and riders wishing they had been brought up Jay. Rather than having their childhoods inexorably tied to basketball schedules and birthday parties and the sorrow of only skiing half-day on Sundays just to ‘get-back-early.’ Back to what?
We reason that those being Raised Jay not only end up different, but they seem to start out that way. And some of the pictures we’ll show you this year, the stories we’ll tell and the songs we’ll sing, will bear that out. Raised Jay’ers value things that many do not. They honor things that many ignore. And they appreciate things that many seem to take for granted. And those things, which ironically end up not being things at all, are really at the center around which everything else revolves. The skiing and riding, the buildings, the new restaurants and, sure, even the snow ends up taking a back seat to something more important yet less tangible. And when you’re Raised Jay, what’s important is simply being here. Giving up a lot, in order to get more of that something that you only find here. We look forward to discovering more of it, with you, this season.
We’ve been bringing our 2 boys to Jay since they were infants. Both started on skis at the age of 3! Best investment we ever made was SkiWee! Phil and Cathy had the responsibility of keeping up with them! We love to come to Jay and almost feel like it is our own. We take the boys out of school for a week even now that they are 14 and 12. A winter without Jay which happened last year because a concert was smack dab in the middle of our precious week (How dare they!) was miserable. Happy to say all is confirmed for this winter and our two will be in Mountain Explorers with Dave. Everything feels right with the world now. So talk to the Sharrocks who from 1989 have been enjoying the paradise of snow we call Jay!
Well said Madeline. We’re looking forward to seeing you guys this year. Steve.
In college at UMASS Lowell we would take day trips to Jay, passing by Waterville, Loon, Cannon and Burke because of all of what Jay has, and the others do not.
Its been 10 years since my first trip to Jay, and Ive made the trip every year since. Jay is my spot.
lemme tell ya, I wish I was ‘raised Jay’. This will be my 4th year riding here and I wouldn’t go anywhere else.
It’s definitely a great marketing campaign and have loved your recent e-mail promos. I look at them just to check out your new ads or ideas. One sticks out in my mind: the mountain talking. I think a lot of people have a similar image of Jay and what it would say if it could talk (and what it would look like if it were a cartoon). I also love the angry baby picture. Very good
I have been going to Jay since I was 10 (over 20 years ago). Every year I have looked forward to our weekly trip for Febuary vacation or the 6 hour drives for a weekend. Now I am excited to bring my infant daughter to Jay to experience all that it has to offer. I was raised Jay and I have every intention to raise her Jay too!
My mom was the SkiWee director for a few years (Beckie) and my brother, Jens, and I spent our elementary school years everywhere on that mountain. I miss the SkiWee room and the Golden Eagle (where I believe I was one of the few kids allowed in)… I miss skiing the glades and just being at the mountain.
I was “raised Jay” if nothing else… I tell people I grew up on the mountain, because I did… we were there every day after school (the “bus” dropped us off) and every once in awhile I got to run sweep with my mom. Those were the best times to ski, when there was nothing else but the mountain and the sun going down.
Love hearing this stuff. Keep it coming-great stories folks.
My first trip to Jay I was 14. I was skiing in the woods on the side of the Can Am and hit a tree head on. I knocked myself unconscious. Sometime later I woke up very confused and couldn’t figure out why I was lying in a heap in the woods. I finally got up and skied down to the bottom. I knew something was kind of wrong because well, my whole jacket was soaked in blood, so I walked into the Stateside Caf, and asked the closest horrified person where the First Aid was. Luckily a Jay cafeteria person saw me and walked me over to the first aid hut. They patched me up, gave me some pain killers, and said be careful. I skied the next day and the entire rest of the trip.
That sums up Jay for me; a place where you are free to explore your own limits, even at the cost of your health. A place where you can experience the excitement of skiing a whole mountain, not just funnel down groomers. A place that opens up your mind to new possibilities, and challenges you to progress what you do in the mountains, whether it be The Face, Big Jay, The Dip, or just ripping run down the JFK. I finally moved to Montreal and this will be the third year in a row I have a season’s pass. I can’t wait for opening day, that first drive down, when you make the turn for Bedford, if it’s a clear day you can just make out the snow covered summit… it feels like coming home
Great stuff Mike. Didn’t know our cafeteria workers were pimping pain meds, but whatever it takes.
I was definitely raised Jay. I don’t even remember how old I was when my family started going up to Jay for our February vacation week. Me and my sister learned to ski through the ski wee program and even my parents took lessons at Jay. As we grew up my family ended up purchasing a slopeside condo and ever since have been going up more frequently until I went to college and then my sister this year. We still make the trip as a family though for a week after New Years and my parents even allow for me and my sister to bring friends for a weekend we choose. I think all the time changed the way I look at skiing a lot especially since I can’t seem to get myself to ski anything closer even though Jay is now 4 hours from me
I am second generation raised Jay. My mother and father even spent their honeymoon at Jay. Once I was born and than my 2 brother’s to follow, we started going to Jay every February. Every year we introduced more and more family friends to “our moutain”. One year our group consisted of about 25 people. We would make first tracks every morning and last tracks every night. I am now 24 years old and time is flying by but whenever I go back to “my mountain” time stands still. We are thinking about having a “reunion” with the giant group of 25+ (now the “children” have significant others). The main point I am trying to make is that being raised Jay is truely a privilege and I want to thank my parents (especially my mother) for raising me Jay.
Awesome Amy. Sounds like something you should get a special rate for. Send me an e-mail and we’ll put something together. Thanks for telling your story. swright@jaypeakresort.com
Our daughter was “Raised Jay”- from the time that I could legitimately bring her to the child care site so I could go ski. She had her first lessons through the ski school because she begged for them after listening to the older kids coming back from their journeys and wanted to “do it too”. From that she graduated to skiwee where she got her first experience with frost bite because she did not want to come in out of the cold- I remember one of the end of the season “awards” get together, she lifts the goggles off her face to find the tell-tale white/red marks on her face. As time went on, she moved from skiwee to JPSC which expanded her “Jay Family”. In talking with her now (24 years old) some of the MANY things she remembers with fondness are “singing on the chairs to forget our toes are cold”, the “chinese downhills from the tram top”, first ventures ionto the woods and how the woods were quyickly part of her ski experience, first time going with her friends and coach to “the pump house”, and, in the spring, laps on the bumps of the Can-Am or under the red chair “till our legs were like jello”. In the meantime, she attended schools locally and had her “school friends” getting engaged in dance, team sports or other things. She very seldom joined in the local actiities when ski season was underway, preferring to be with her Jay family, as was her Mom. From those early years, she moved on to coaching for JPSC and has now moved on to GMVS where she truly makes her living on skis- all thanks to depth and versatility that “raising them Jay” has done for her.
two sons when 11 & 13 remember sleeping in condos with”Deer blankets” (holofill lime green blankets) waking up with snow 8″ more on the window in their romm from night before; hit moonwalk, then bushwacker, took Mountain Adventure with Jason who took them down don’t-tell-anyone-how-to-get-here-trails with dep snow, taught them glades riding, gully hopping. at night did the snowshoe tour with Bridget to see where the bears climb for hickory nuts and rabbits live beneath the bush. Now in their 20’s they compare the mountains in New Zealand to Jay or the plateau in Spain to the ridge going to Newport, but Jay Peak is the measure they treasure, and they want to come back always….
A treasured measure-very nice Bush.
While in my teenage years I made my very first tracks at Jay, hence Raised Jay. I made every trip possible to the mountain. Even took the free trip down the mountain each year on Easter. At 19, my fervent desire to ski there lead to being part of the snow making team in the 80-81 season so I could ski more. It was a blast! I taught my brothers there and have loved the mountain ever since the first day. Now I take my family there at least once a year and would go more, but with a gang of six we often ski where the deals are, sadly. I look forward to seeing you guys at the Boston Ski and Snowboard Expo; we stop by every year!
Thanks for the memories!
My family has skied at Jay since 1966 (1st year of the tram). My father (Bill Haberern, he’s the one who started all of us on this odyssey) remembers Walter Foeger skiing and making comments in that Austrian accent—“Knees together!” as he skied. Jay was our February vacation, staying at the Jay Barn Inn, Sitz Mark, Hotel Jay, Slopeside, and Village. From these times we have great memories of the ski school parties in the Barrel Room and Charter Jay complete with Alp horns, “milk runs,” the Jet T lifting an eight-year old a foot off the ground (it was like going up a bobsled run; if you made it up, you probably could make it down), trying to ski the Long Trail, eating at Zach-on-the-Rocks and the Belfry, and just hanging out with family and friends. Now it’s my kids’ turns. So from three generations of skiers and riders, thank you Jay.
I taught myself to ride during the course of 3 day trips 6 years ago in NH. I remember “scorpioning” myself so hard that my snowboard hit me in the back of the head, and subsequently walking down the mountain by the end of the day. I had no idea what “good” conditions were so early in my snowboarding history, so I would have been much more comforted to know what I do now-that was literally the iciest day I’ve ever seen up to this point in my life.
It was probably all for the better because until I visited Jay, I lived a normal existence during the fall, instead of visiting JayPeakResort.com every night after work and watching shaky Youtube videos of “Johnson Family Jay Peak Trip 2007!”, etc. until I fell asleep, trying to feed my addiction.
After learning how to ride on ice that year, I took about 6 years off from snowboarding (not much snow in TX or Florida) until I moved back to Boston and subsequently took a day trip with Boston Ski and Sports club to VT 3 years ago. I knew that the area had gotten a good deal of snow the morning of our trip, (I had no idea what “a good deal” really was) but when we got to the mountain, I began to understand what I had gotten myself into-with LITERALLY 6 days of riding under my belt. Everyone on the bus was SO stoked the entire trip, and it dawned on me that they all realized they were about to get the serious goods-until then I just thought I’d been left out of some big joke.
I geared up at the rental shop, and when I made my way onto the tram, I remembered my heart jumping to 1000bpm…it was go time for the day…and my first 7 minutes on the snow my mind was blown.
I’ve been so long-winded already, so let me wrap it up by saying that I happened to show up to Jay Peak during a 1-Day 28-inch dump. I didn’t know if this is what snowboarding was always like, I didn’t know how to ride powder, I didn’t know ANYTHING, except that I spent the day by myself…in what I know now is a true blessing in my life…an epic powder dump. I remember taking “Face shots” before I even knew what they were, I remember going into snow in the trees so deep It took me more than 30 minutes at one point to dig myself out. I remember taking the Flyer BY MYSELF in 35mph winds strong enough to tweak my knee and somehow…I began to love it all. I was cold, wet and tired, but I fell in love.
That was 3 years ago. I went riding more times that next year than I had in the previous 6, and I’m an admitted fiend now- and I have Jay to thank for it. I can’t wait for this year to begin, so I can keep myself broke by buying Jay Peak tickets and staying at the new, beautiful hotel. I can’t imagine what first tracks are like at such a great mountain, and I’ve already committed myself to finding out this year. I guess you could say I “Raised Myself Jay.” I bleeping love this place.
FYI: If you see a late 20’s, strikingly handsome and “steezy” black guy on a Burton Canyon 165 or a Burton Bullet 163, with Burton custom bindings and white boots wearing a yellow ACG jacket and White goggles bombing through the trees or stomping some airs, Say hi. I’m not hard to spot at ANY mountain, and I’m really friendly.
This was great Brandon-thanks for sharing it with us.
We have been coming to Jay for the last 3 thanksgivings with my Family and friends and I tell you it is the best way to spend time with friends and Family….
I have been coming to Jay for 15 years now. The greatest years were when my kids started riding with me at 3+ 5 yrs old. Early mornings over at the village was all it took. For the first couple years having two Christmas’s (Santa always brings snowboard gear to our Jay house) was the greatest. Now they are 15 + 17
and don’t know any other way than the Jay Peak way. My kids will soon be out to college but they both keep talking about how they can get to Jay each weekend to ride. My wife and I will always look back how our kids were RAISED JAY and will always closer to thier parents because of it. Thanks Bill S.
We all think of you as our friend, and part of our family.
Love this. With 7mth old twins we’re already planning to get them on skis asap and scheming ways to get us all out skiing/riding as much as possible. Hope to hear our kids plotting their Jay weekends as part of their university experience when the time comes.
I was raised Jay - put on skis and pulled around by the ski school slope at 2 years. Rode up the T bar between my dad’s knees and getting off at Tower 5 until I was old enough for Moose to help me get started with a friend (it took awhile to make it all the way up). Had my first “date” at Jay in when I was 8, getting a piece of pizza with a boy from my ski school class. Dana, Franz, and others taught me everything I know about skiing - which I in turn taught my husband or else the relationship was off! Luckily he learned, caught the love of Jay, asked my dad for my hand at Jay, and scheduled a triumphant return to Jay last February for a 10 year anniversary of our last trip. Of course, I broke my arm the weekend before, so was confined to the lodge with a book. It was still great to be back. This Christmas, we’ll be there with our 9 year old son who has been anxiously awaiting his first trip to Jay - along with my two “raised Jay” sisters, their families and my folks, who proudly raised us Jay. This will be the first time we have all been there together in probably 25 years! I look forward to experiencing the changes that are in store, getting reacquainted with the mountain, and getting my son hooked. Bring on the snow!
I was raised Jay, it is a part of me that I can never forget. I laughed out loud as I read that Kathryn would get off at tower 5, my sister and I would do the same. When we were finally old enough to take the Jet T-Bar and get lifted into the air for the first time, we felt so mature, that was 35 years ago. I am retunring once again for Christmas with my family and my children think Jay is a magical place and I have to agree with them.
I was not fortunate enough to be raised Jay, but my two skinut sons have been. I actually discovered Jay quite by accident. My son and I were on a trip to Stowe and we were reading a Skiing magazine in the lodge and read a piece about Jay. We saw that it wasn’t that far away and decided to make the trip up. Needless to say we have never been back to Stowe…..or any place else in the East. My youngest ( 9 yrs old)made his first trip to Jay last winter and he loved it! He ripped up Vertigo and Timbuktu like he was born there. Unfortunately, we live in Michigan and Jay is pretty far away; but we still manage to make it there at least twice a year. There is no place on earth like Jay to turn your kids into true skiers and boarders.
I was raised Jay, because it was part of my middle school curriculm. Growing up at the foot of Jay, in Newport Center, we used to have monthly ski days where we were “required” (didn’t have to twist my arm) to go up and ski all day. I remember that for lift passes, rentals, and a lesson it was $5 (and this was only about 15 years ago). The bus would take us both ways and the school provided a bag lunch. It was a GREAT way to spend the day once a month.
Once we hit high school we got free seasons passes if we got straight A’s for the first and second quarter. I never got to partake in that deal, but most of us worked at the mountain anyway so we got plenty of free skiing!
I now live in Mass., but I am coming home this Christmas, and taking my family for their first ski trip at Jay. Can’t wait to come home!
1976/77 was the the first year of being raised Jay for me and my siblings. 33 years later and 3 generations of memories of countless great ski days, beloved friendships and witnessing Jay grow up as well has been a unique experience we have shared as a family.
Jay will always be a place of gathering for this family and while most of our memories and experiences have been tremendous there have been recent ones of our father, grandfather Andre that we particularly cherish We know that his love of Jay and desire to make it a better place to enjoy lives on through his many friends and grandchildren that recount his spirit and zest for life as they work their way through Andre’s Paradise
For those who don’t know, Andre welcomed guests on Monday nights in the hotel’s gathering room. He’d breakdown the trails by difficulty, told us to take Kokomo to avoid the long walk back on Ullr’s Dream, not to stray OOB or face disaster. He’d do this in English, then French for those who wished, and then answer question, as a volunteer. That was about 12 years ago. Great intro to Jay for us. Deserved to have Beyond Beaver Pond Glades named for him. Thanks Cimons
How can you promote the Skiers and Riders at Jay, say that they are cut from a different cloth, and yet at the same time, instead of expanding the ski area, plan on building a water park. How exactly is that paying respect to the Skiers and Riders loyal to Jay? wouldn’t it be a better investment to invest in those loyal to Jay and give us an even better variety of wooded skiing and riding than trying to copy Smuggler’s Notch? Why doesn’t Jay stick to it’s strength’s and get things
Thanks Chris. I think your message got cut but I get the gist, and it’s definitely a balancing act. All the development/dough in the world isn’t going to get us ‘a better variety of wooded skiing’, but it certainly could, and will improve our lift infrastructure, our snowmaking and other direct skier and rider related improvements. The water park you mention will largely be in play during summer when, frankly, it’s a ghost town here. If we can normalize our business cycle a bit, we’ll have an easier time getting funding for those winter amenities we’re all looking for. Thanks for your thoughts-staying true to our brand is definitely something we’re trying to stay vigilant to. Have a good season.
I grew up in Montgomery and at Jay. I went to SkiWee every Saturday morning, and then when I was old enough Jeff Ward organized it so our school could go up to the mountain on Fridays for wicked cheap. I remember in about 3rd grade (so 1997/98) you could go for the afternoon, get a lesson and rentals for $11! It was always a bit more for snowboarding, but when I graduated it might have $24 for all that…still a total steal. It worked to, I’ve gotten a Jay pass every year since I left Montgomery Elementary, and I bring all my friends down from where I go to university in the townships of Quebec there. It holds a special place in my heart, where I get some of the best riding but the best people too. My good memories from there are infinite and I can’t wait to bring my kids to Jay someday.
I was raised Jay as an adult. I learned to ski there on our yearly excursions through our work ski club. We came 11 years in a row and stayed at the condos, some of the best memories of our lives. We have an album for almost every year. We now have children who are learning to ski and can’t wait to bring them up to our cherished mountain.
I was in NYC for business in March of 2008. I extended the trip for two reasons. I wanted to visit the Burton factory in Burlington and to ride Jay Peak. As a west coaster, I had heard and read nothing but the best. Unfortunately, the day I was to ride Jay it was the coldest, windiest day I had ever encountered and Jay was CLOSED. The trees were entombed in ice, something I had NEVER seen before. I bought $200 worth of T-Shirts at the gift shop for friends back here in AZ. My road trip through Vermont was unbelievably beautiful and I can’t wait to bring my family back. Jay is truly that one of a kind place.
Born & Raised JAY… unlike ^^^. Being a LOCAL is where it’s at. Kinda wierd seeing people calling them selves “Raised Jay”, comeing from 200-400 miles away, a couple times a year.
My parents first took me to Jay when I was ten years old and I had never seen skis! My first head plants, and total “garage sales” as my Mother called them, my lack of coordination resulting in a scene close to that of an abominable snowman were all filmed on the T bar tram side. I learned quickly and still wanted more… a few years later my Father signed me up for an apprentice program with the Ski Patrol, I had the time of my life! The year after I was teaching Ski Wee. I met my first boyfriend who was a fellow instructor, and of course both of us being total ski bums he asked me out riding up the Green Chair. We also attended Prom together which was held up at the mountain. Everyone who skis at Jay knows Rocky and Rhonda, well that was us at least for a couple of years! Frost bite was not an option! I have now moved away, far away and miss Jay but there will always be a special place in my heart for the mountain.
Our jay experience started in1991 when we sought out options to the frenzy of Mont Orford and sedateness of Owls Head , our CDN ski neighbors to the north.We met tons of intershackers who themselves had been “raised jay” without actually knowing, it from the 70’s and 80’s.Then something happened to Anne,myself and our three girls.We got hooked on this wild magical mountain.Was it the place, the people, the snow,the escape across the border on a Friday night…maybe it was a combination of all of the above.Steve by you coining it “Raise’em Jay” ,you’ve finally helped a great many of us to figure it out.
What do you think about the heat that has swept across Europe? This is just an anomaly, so the heat was 30 years old.
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