I'm thinking about heading up late tonight from the lower Hudson Valley. After reading Phineas' post regarding what's going on today, I figure I've got to see what happens tomorrow!!! My plan is to ski Whiteface on Saturday, and then head over to Jay Peak on Sunday. I've never skied at Jay, so my question is ... can anyone tell me realistically how long it will take to drive from Lake Placid to Jay Peak, and what's the best route to take?

Face4Me wrote:

I'm thinking about heading up late tonight from the lower Hudson Valley. After reading Phineas' post regarding what's going on today, I figure I've got to see what happens tomorrow!!! My plan is to ski Whiteface on Saturday, and then head over to Jay Peak on Sunday. I've never skied at Jay, so my question is ... can anyone tell me realistically how long it will take to drive from Lake Placid to Jay Peak, and what's the best route to take?

LP is hopping tonight. there are people everywhere. jay peak is about three hours. i am too lazy to figure out best route though. just mapquest it. i think from LP to Jay, there arent a ton of options. best bet is to go to p'burgh and take ferry across.

either head to saranac lake on 86 and pickup 3 right into plattsburgh where you can grab the ferry out on cumberland head or head down past whiteface on 86, take it to Jay (It does a sharp jog right at the 4 corners in wilmington) where it intersects with 9n. take a left on 9n to ausable forks. follow signs to N-Way. That's exit 34. take it north to exit 39 (cumberland head) that's the exit for the ferry.

Follow Willy's route to northway but consider taking northway to exit 41 I think U would take route 11 through rouse point and over the land bridge in2 Vermont. From there U find 242 I think and that will lead U to Jay.

Its 4sure 3 hours from WF

3 hours ... bummer ... thanks everyone for the help! Mapquest said three hours ... I was just hoping that they were over-stating it!

If you head down to rt 87 from whiteface and head north to plattsburgh its about 45 minutes from the mtn to plattsburgh, then about 20 minutes from plattsburgh to the ferry... 30 minutes from drive on to drive off on the ferry... then its about an hour and a half from there to Jay Peak. So 1+50+45... so a little less than 3 hrs if youre blasting... Its a cool drive cuz you spend a bit of time on the ferry so enjoy the trip! You've got great snow coming sunday at Jay too so enjoy!

Face4Me wrote:

3 hours ... bummer ... thanks everyone for the help! Mapquest said three hours ... I was just hoping that they were over-stating it!

We did the same this a few weeks ago. We went up to Rouses pt and took the land bridge to 242. about 2.5 hours without stopping.

redalienx11 wrote:

We did the same this a few weeks ago. We went up to Rouses pt and took the land bridge to 242. about 2.5 hours without stopping.

Thanks for the update ... that's what I'm going to do ... I was hoping that I could get it down closer to two and a half ...

Final word on the subject, in case anyone is interested for future reference ... it took me about 2 hrs 50 minutes, essentially following the speed limits, on lightly snow-covered roads ... also included a 10 minute Dunkin Donuts stop (coffee essential when leaving at 5 AM!!!) On clear roads and without the stop, 2 and a half hours would have been about right.

U went rouses point and the land bridge right??

how was Jay?

But how was the skiing?

Phineas wrote:

U went rouses point and the land bridge right?? how was Jay?

Yep ... up to exit 42 and across the bridge. It was pretty good ... they had gotten about 6-8 inches overnight Saturday into Sunday morning ... The "trails" were essentially 6 inches of light powder on top of a hard-pack and frozen surface. The trees were really nice ... lots of untracked powder for most of the morning ... by mid-day, a lot of the really fresh stuff had been tracked up, but there was still plenty to be had if you wanted it. Definitely a tree-skier's mountain ... not enough vertical and/or steeps on the regular trails for my tastes, but if you're looking to spend a day in the trees, it's definitely the right place to go!

I'm not that experienced in the glades, just started a year or two ago, and my skis are way too long for it, but I definitely had a good day. It was well worth getting up at 5 AM and driving three hours for, followed by a 6+ hour drive home at the end of the day!!! It was a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to "live" there ... Whiteface will always be my home!

Face4Me wrote:

It was a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to "live" there ... Whiteface will always be my home!

Nice.

Face4Me wrote:

Phineas wrote: U went rouses point and the land bridge right?? how was Jay? It was a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to "live" there ... !

My beautiful girlfriend, after an excellent couple day stint of powder tree skiing at Jay, told me on the way home that if I ever made her relocate to Troy, VT she would sit in the trailer and cry all day! I guess it was too "rural" for her tastes; but man the tree skiing rocks there!