A tale of two mountains: Natural vs. manmade snow

It’s hard to imagine two ski resorts being any more different in than the two I visited one rainy week last February.

Different locations, different attitudes toward snowmaking and grooming, different layouts, different amenities.

Yet both offered what I would call acceptably good snow conditions, especially considering Mother Nature’s generosity with unwanted rain and stinginess with natural snowfall this year.

Jay Peak - A Natural Snow Haven

Jay Peak (800-451-4449; www.jaypeakresort.com  ) in Jay, Vermont sits all alone in northern Vermont, a stone’s throw from the Canadian border.

Other than some beautiful ski-in, ski-out condos, a small slopeside hotel, and a couple of on-mountain restaurants, there’s nothing there but one terrific mountain to ski and ride.

Jay is the natural snow capital of the east. They simply wring more snow from (almost) every passing weather system large and small than any other resort, averaging a little over 350 inches of snow annually.

Of course, Jay also makes snow and grooms it on most of their trails. But, though they have some wonderful trails for all ability levels, experts flock to Jay for its skiing and riding in the glades (off trails, among the trees), and that only happens when the snow falls from the sky.

Sunday River - Mega-snowmaking

Sunday River (207-824-3000; www.sundayriver.com  ) in Newry, Maine, on the other hand, is a huge resort that stretches something like seven miles from on side to the other. It spans eight different peaks along the same ridgeline, is bracketed by two huge hotels, has a plethora of lodging, dining and nightlife options.

Sunday River really started today’s mega-snowmaking trend. They were the first of the great “if we make it, they will come” resorts. When they flip the switch on their snowmaking system – which they do whenever temperatures allow – they can bury the place in snow in just a few nights.

This week’s cold snap will mean freshly made, perfectly groomed snow all over the resort. Of course Sunday River also gets natural snow, something on the order of 150 inches in an average year.

But the real draw at Sunday River is the man-made and groomed snow on a huge system of trails for all ability levels.

And the winner is ...

So, we have one resort that relies heavily on natural snow for its major draw, and one that’s more focused on the man-made snow.

Which one offered better skiing and riding?

Though it may sound like I’m equivocating, the answer is neither. Both resorts had less-than-absolutely-perfect conditions, but both offered far better snow surfaces than we have any right to expect given the weather when I visited them.

Both Jay and Sunday River faced exactly the same problem – a hard-packed, frozen underlayer of snow left behind by a cycle of warm rains and re-freezes.

Jay had received almost two feet of light snow in the days before we arrived, they’d also been making snow on some of their trails. As a result, the glades were skiable if you knew how to handle soft bumps with thin, hard snow between. But the best conditions were on the groomed trails early in the day, before traffic began scraping the snow off the steeper spots. As the day progressed, the steeper trails got less forgiving while the easier trails, especially on the lower mountain remained in prime condition.

At Sunday River, conditions were somewhat the same, though there was not enough snow to ski on in the woods and on trails where they don’t make snow. On the groomed trails, there was no bare ground or blue ice showing and the mornings started out with corduroy. By late afternoon, the steeper trails were showing signs of wear and tear – skier and boarder traffic scraped off the uniform layer of softer snow, leaving hardpack beneath. And again, the less aggressive trails stayed in better condition throughout the day.

So, both Jay and Sunday River had snow, some man-made, some natural. Only the proportions varied. And the snow conditions weren’t epic, but everyone was smiling, sliding and having a wonderful time.

And nothing else can compare with that.