HEADS UP IV

14th St- NYC

CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN- WA

A Gold Unlimited Season pass is $949 (you need to go 13 times with ganjula access to break even).  With this purchase you also get 10 days at any of these resorts: The Summit at Snoqualmie (WA), Big Sky (MT), Boyne Highlands (MI), Cypress (Canada), Brighton (UT-), Loon (NH- http://elevatedlocals.blogspot.com/2011/08/heads-up-for-next-season-part-ii.html), Sugarloaf (ME), and Sunday River (ME). There is also a Silver Midweek for $599 and a Bronze unlimited for $699, these passes do not include ganjula rides. Get these deals before 9/30/2011
http://www.crystalmountainresort.com/Tickets-and-Passes/Season-Passes


 JAY PEAK- VT   

book your Jay vacation before 9/23/2011 and save 25%

http://www.jaypeakresort.com/index.php/landing_pages/book_early_save

We love Shéady Acres, though- http://www.sheadyacres.com/ (http://elevatedlocals.blogspot.com/2011/03/elevated-locals-of-jay-peak-oshea.html)

KILLINGTON- VT

K57 ticket deal- If you live around the city you should do this. Killington doesn't really do tickets on Liftopia and you know you're going to go there. $57 tickets until Oct. 20th, 2011. There are some black out days (Dec. 26, 2011 - Jan. 1, 2012; Jan. 14 - 15 and Feb. 18 - 26, 2012) http://www.killington.com/winter/plan/tickets_and_cards/k57

Purchase the Express Card for $86 until Oct. 21st. The Express Card gives you 50% off of tickets midweek and 25% off of tickets on the weekend. http://www.killington.com/winter/plan/tickets_and_cards/express_card  


MT BATCHELOR- OR
I haven't been here in a while, but man did I have fun on this mountain!
 Batchelor's pass deals are good until 9/30/2011. The season pass is $829 (12 times to break even), if you buy this after 9/30 it's $1,039. They have a midweek for $549 (8 to break even). You should probably go ahead and be in between the ages of 19 and 23, then you get a season pass for $379. They also have a 12 day pass for $450 ($37.50 a ticket).
http://www.mtbachelor.com/winter/mountain/tickets/season_passes
Would you like to know more?
http://www.onthesnow.com/news/a/40080/mount-bachelor-runs-september-pass-sale?utm_source=20110915_Nltr&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=W11_OTS_Nltr&utm_content=Feat_story_2&XE_LNK=Newsletter
(thanks onthesnow.com)

  SUN VALLEY- ID
It's $79 for a room and a lift ticket Nov. 23rd- Dec. 20th. You need two people for the deal. Call 800-786-8259

Greek style

ELEVATED LOCALS OF JAY PEAK- THE O'SHEA FAMILY

Introducing the O'Sheas

A truly Elevated Family.
Quinn, their 21 month old little girl runs the show. And then we have Shawna and Eamon. Shawna was raised in CO and learned to ride in Breck. Eamon was raised at Jay Peak; raced as a skier and then began riding in '93. They met at Winter Park in the cafeteria. It's a true ski bum love story. They spent some time in Whitefish, MT and then two phenomenal years in Jackson.
In Jackson they ate off a ping pong table while games were played. They thoughtfully let off fireworks in the house as alarms for their roommates. The second year they spent at Jackson it snowed over 600".

In the summer they would go back to Montgomery, VT. They lived in a tree house on the land that is now Shéady Acres. While they lived in Vermont and Wyoming they built their house at Shéady Acres with the help of friends and family. The O'Sheas kept a stocked cooler of beer and an open tab at the local restaurant, The Belfry (they have banging scallops) to encourage their helpers.



Eamon is a builder who "got bored building vinyl shitbox houses, and wanted to build something creative, functional, and efficient."
Introducing Shéady Acres. Shéady Acres consists of five houses: The Sugar House (Vermont style), The Caribe (Caribbean bungalow), The Tea House (where we stayed! Japanese style), Irish Farm House (Irish without a thatched roof), and The Adobe ( Southwestern style). I heart the tea house.

Do not be deceived, Q is not bigger than the Tea House

 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2vw0yEi0_8)
Three of the units sleep two and two of the units sleep four. The least expensive time to stay is in Nov. And April. And the best deal works out if you stay 4-7 nights. Sometimes they will have home-brewed beer waiting for you (Eamon's best is his Obama brew) or sometimes they might give you cereal.
People are welcome to tune their equipment in the O'Shea's garage, but the O'Sheas' recommend First Trax- a local shop in Montgomery. That is if you need a tune in all that powder.

Obama Brew

The O'Sheas play hockey- it's like a law when you live so close to Canada. Shawna plays in the first women's hockey league to play at the Jay Peak Ice Haus.

Eamon also designed and built a disc golf course on their property and in the summer they have crazy tournaments. He writes the variety show in the spring that is a fundraiser for the town. I've heard this is an insane event that should not be missed. The people of Montgomery are really what make Jay Peak such a magical place.

On our last day at Jay I watched wistfully as Shawna and Eamon began the hike for some epic turns on Big Jay. One might say, this family gets it.

JAY PEAK- DISCOUNTS

Me- "Oh, I didn't see you there"

The Ride & Ski card (http://www.rideandskine.com/Home.html) comes with a book of coupons; four of those coupons were buy one get one free at Jay Peak.
The card itself gets you $10 off at Jay.

Shéady Acres (http://sheadyacres.com/index.html) has discounted tickets for their guests.

MR SQUEAKERS

 
  Liftopia (http://www.liftopia.com/) has 14%-32% off for the rest of the season.

 


We booked our package for Jay in November (http://www.jaypeakresort.com/). The best deals at most resorts are                  pre-season. Sometimes Jay also has powder deals or Mardi Gras deals.   When you stay with them they send you coupons for lessons, restaurants, and shops.

giant jazz hands

JAY PEAK- MOVING ON UP

Q, doing stuff

Jay Peak is located in the Green Mountains and Jay National Forest, 5 miles from Canada in Vermont. The elevation is 3,858'. It used to be higher, but they cut off the top to make stuff. It has a vert of 2,153'.

Jay is gangsta; it can have brutal temps and wind. I only saw the sun a few times in six days. The rest of our trip was Jay gray. The weather can keep the faint of heart away, which equals more snow for me. Jay has more powder than anywhere in the east. They have gotten 248" this year! In comparison, Killington got 189" this year and stupid Vail got 346" (whatever Vail- we all know you're great). There are six lifts and an old school tram. So no rest for you on the tram- you just stand there. The tram holds 60 people and takes 8 min. to get to the top of the resort. In the morning of a powder day it can be like the 6 train, everyone jammed in a box breathing each other's air, but instead of going to stupid work, you are going for freshies.

me

We got perfect conditions. It snowed four ft in the week that we were there. We shared this powder with like 100 people. Unbelievable. It was cold with temps of 5 and 10 with the windchill blowing below zero. 
But none of that matters in the trees. You go to Jay for the trees. More than half of the mountain is glades. My second run, Jesse (who i met on the lift) took me hiking out of bounds off of the Flyer (I am bad at remembering names of runs). I fell in love with Jay at that first turn. 


We originally booked a package with Jay Peak earlier on in the year, but it was snowing so much that we decided to leave the city early. Q found this amazing place, Shéady Acres and booked the Tea House (more on Shéady Acres and the O'Sheas in future posts). The tram had been closed our first day because of high winds, so the O'sheas had hiked up the peak and got the face. Eamon told me it would behove me to be on the first tram and follow their example. The next morning I choked on Face shots in the Face Chute. Soooo good. 

Face and Tuckerman chutes

It might have been best to have a guide, though; for these chutes. Three out of the four times that I did the Face or Tuckermans I ended up fighting my way out the trees right above the flyer, which is wrong. Later on Q heard some seven year olds on the tram talking about the face and tuckman chutes, "stupid people go there"- said one while pointing to my line.

On the fifth day, the sun came out and I decided to pay someone to take me to places I couldn't find on my own. I had also been spending a lot of time in the trees by myself, which isn't the smartest thing ever. I took a lesson, it was everything I dreamed of. Calla took me to many secrets. We giggled through the stashes of powder. 

happy land

I can't even explain how epic this trip was. I cried when we left.