Illegal Cutting

I came across a story on Lou D's blog about some locals at Jay Peak who cut a ski trail in the backcounty down Big Jay.

I spent 4 years skiing Jay Peak in the late ’90’s before Big Jay exploded in popularity. Generally you could find fresh tracks 1 week after a storm on Big Jay. What surprises me the most about this story is that the run was perfect and did not need any trimming or cutting. It was a classic Northeast ski run – steep with perfectly spaced trees. Some of my best memories from Jay are skiing this run in neck deep powder with a small group of close friends.

On a side note, I seem to remember in 1999 the Ski Area cut a trail to the top of Big Jay without obtaining proper approval from the group managing the land. If I remember correctly the resort was fined for each tree that was cut down (this was a 1-2 mile - 3 foot wide trail — lots of trees were cut).

Does anyone have a picture of the damage on Big Jay? I hope this does not threaten the open boundary policy at Jay and general backcounty access in Vermont.

Here is a link to a news article covering this topic.