Image: Skier Mike Hayes drops into the goods at Jay Peak, Vermont
With a season snowfall total of 357 inches, Jay Peak, Vermont received more snow than any other ski resort in the continental United States. That’s more snow than Mammoth Mountain (138″), Squaw Valley (201″), Vail (270″), Snowbird (315″), or Jackson Hole (316″) received this season. In fact, that is more snow than Sun Valley (124″) and Stevens Pass (198″) received combined!
The sad thing is that Jay Peak is having a below average to average season. “We typically receive about 380 inches a season, so it’s going to wind up being close to just an average year,” Jay Peak spokesman JJ Tolland said in a statement. “But we received close to 200 inches of our total between January and February so it got deep quickly. Plus, the cold kept the snow light and dry, which made for some exceptional powder days.”
The only ski resort in the United States to receive more snow than Jay this season was Alyeska, Alaska with 440 inches of snowfall. But even mighty Alyeska was off their seasonal snowfall average of 650 inches.
There is no two ways about it, this season simply did not deliver. Many resorts in the PNW have been closed for weeks, Tahoe had it’s worst season since 1950 and in the east the storms that were dominating the news stayed along the coast and had little impact on the mountains of New York and New England.