Joe Desena wants to break you

A recent email reminded me of this fun piece on Vermont's "Death Race," held every June. Yes, the "race" itself is a bit contrived, but the pain and suffering (and mental anguish) is the real deal. I originally wrote the piece for The Boston Globe. The published version can be found here.

Running them into the ground
Vermont’s ‘Death Race’ is a brutal test of the body and the mind

PITTSFIELD, Vt. – A distressed Joe Desena stands under a bright June sun soaking wet, a combination of sweat and a big dose of slimy Vermont mud. He has already crawled through a half-dozen sections of barbed-wire-laden trenches, hacked a thick tree stump out of the ground, run a mile in a slick river bed, split 20 logs into quarters, and hiked up one of the steep hillsides lining Route 100.

And it’s only 10 a.m.

On Desena’s aching back is a tool pack, with the aforementioned stump strapped to it. Slung over his shoulder is a bike frame. In his trembling hands, he’s holding a gnarled piece of paper with 10 names scribbled on it. Desena stares at the names - ostensibly the first 10 presidents of the United States - but he can’t decipher his handwriting.

“Martin?” he says to a Death Race official. “There’s no president named Martin, is there?”

Martin van Buren shouldn’t feel slighted. Clearly, the Death Race, Desena’s creation, is taking a toll on its maker. He’s not the only one. There were 49 lunatic souls who started the race at 4 a.m. Twenty-one hours later, the last of 18 finishers straggled across the finish line. Thirty-one quit. By Death Race standards, that simply means the event was too easy.

“Our goal is to have at least one person finish,” says Dave Darby of Bedford, Mass., a veteran adventure racer and mastermind behind many of the “special tasks” that make up the Death Race. “Then everyone knows they could have finished, that it was possible. If no one finishes, then we screwed up.”

Desena’s Death Race is a brutal combination of the IronMan triathlon, ESPN’s Outdoor Games, and network reality shows like “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race.” Last year’s co-winner, Chris Mitchell, a 41-year-old software engineer from Boston, is on hand to help out, but had no interest in defending his title.

“I looked at a few pictures of myself after last year’s race, and all these memories came rushing back,” says Mitchell. “I looked like hell, covered with chigger bites, one eye swollen shut.”

Mitchell’s co-winner, Stever Bartlett, a Middlebury College ski coach, is nowhere nearby. “He won’t come back to this town,” says Desena, grinning. “He’s got bad memories of Pittsfield.”

Desena hadn’t originally planned on competing in his own event. But last summer, during the second running of the Death Race, he was confronted by several irate competitors who accused him of “putting them through 24 hours of hell.”

“So I had to see for myself if I could do it.”

Looking for adventure
The Death Race is one of many edgy competitions offered by Desena’s Peak Adventures. Upcoming events include the 666 Mountain Bike Race Saturday (with a “King of the Hill” competition the next day), the Funeral Run (featuring 50-mile, 100-mile, and 200-mile ultra-endurance options) in late October, and a Snowshoe Marathon in March. None fit the description of “normal” competition.

Peak Adventures grew out of Desena’s belief that society has become soft. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., who was bitten by the adventure racing bug a decade ago, Desena jumped into his new hobby with the same zeal that made him a successful Wall Street broker.

“For thousands of years, we’ve been creatures that have dealt with this kind of adversity,” says Desena. “It’s only in the past hundred years that we’ve become couch potatoes.”

Desena, 41, has competed in more than 40 adventure races around the globe. He also has the financial wherewithal, thanks to the success and sale of his Burlington Capital Markets firm, to create an adventure racing and training destination in Pittsfield. Situated on Route 100, Vermont’s “ski highway,” the town has gone through several alterations in the past half-century. Established in 1781, Pittsfield was primarily a farming community 50 years ago before Killington changed the landscape. Many farm owners, looking to cash in on the ski craze, opened inns. But when Killington and Pico built on-site lodging, Pittsfield fell on hard times.

In 2002, Courtney and Joe Desena were sharing a loft in New York City when they discovered Pittsfield’s Riverside Farm. The couple bought the dilapidated horse farm, renovated it, and held their wedding there in 2003. Today, the Riverside Farm, in addition to being a home to the Desenas and their three children, hosts a number of exclusive weddings each year. The property, with three rebuilt barns, can also accommodate a variety of special events, from corporate retreats to weekend getaways. Over the past few years, the Desenas have expanded their presence in Pittsfield. They now own roughly 400 acres in the 20-square-mile hamlet, including the Original General Store and a Bikram yoga studio. They also helped salvage the nearby Amee Farm. The Amee property, owned primarily by Michael Halovatch, an adventure racing/Wall Street colleague of Desena, is home to an eco-friendly inn, a working farm, and a huge, rough-hewn roadside barn. The barn headquarters Peak Adventures, which hosts races and training camps.

“Joe moved up here to retire, to slow down, but he’s not wired that way,” says his wife with a laugh.

The juxtaposition between high-end weddings and weekend retreats and the Peak Adventures events often proves hilarious. Last year, Courtney intercepted several Death Race competitors who came stumbling out of the woods, like “Dawn of the Dead” zombies, before they reached a Riverside wedding reception. This year, the early- morning tranquility of a yoga retreat at the Amee Farm Inn was broken by a cacophony of axes splitting wood, as Death Race competitors quartered logs in the inn’s driveway.

Physical, mental challenge
The Death Race festivities actually start the day before, at 10 p.m., when organizers host a race meeting atop “Joe’s Hill” behind Riverside Farm. Racers hike up the hill with their bikes, but return only with their frames, leaving the wheels and chains behind. Nervous chatter fills the cool, bug-infested air.

“I’ve done a lot of races, and you get to the point where you want to keep challenging yourself,” says Greg Hartwell, 24-year-old accountant from Andover, Mass. “This seemed like a great opportunity.”

Hartwell cajoled his 30-year-old brother, Thomas Hartwell of Wakefield, into joining him. “He told me it was an arts and crafts weekend with the boys,” says Thomas.

The race starts at 4 in the morning, well before the first rays of sunlight squeeze into this narrow valley. Race director Andy Weinberg, hoisting a sawed-off stump overhead, informs racers they must find their own in a field across the street (identified by their race bib), hack it out of the ground, and carry it with them the entire day. “You guys are a bunch of nut jobs who want to torture yourselves in Pittsfield,” he says, half-taunting, half-encouraging. “The next 24 hours will be the toughest you’ve ever experienced.”

Competitors crawl through a muddy trench, under barbed wire, to and from the stump field. Then they pick up their bike frames and, after snaking through two more barbed-wire sections, jog a mile upstream in the Tweed River. Everyone falls. Repeatedly.

“Running in the river is like a woman going into labor,” says Desena. “You know it’s going to hurt.”

After the river run, racers lug their bikes, stumps, and tools to the wood-chopping station, split 20 logs, then hike a mile uphill to the list of presidents’ names, before returning to the Amee Farm. The next test is a Lego challenge. Racers have to assemble a collection of Legos, using only their memory or notes, to replicate a model provided to them earlier. After six hours, cracks begin to show.

“There are physical challenges in this race, but we’re trying to break them mentally,” says Darby.

Part of the anguish is that racers never know when the race ends. Competitors aren’t given a race itinerary; they’re simply told to go from one task to the next. From the Lego station, racers head back to the Tweed River, and slog a mile south. At the next station, they hustle to the Riverside Farm, find a raw egg, return to the river, create a fire from scratch, boil water, and eat the egg. Only then can they retrieve their bike wheels.

After rolling their bikes to a small pond at Riverside Farm, racers watch as a volunteer tosses their bike chain into the frigid waters. The racers must dive in, find the chain, and reassemble their bikes. After a brief 300-yard pedal, they exchange the bike for a 40-pound bucket of rocks, which they must drag 1,000 feet straight up Joe’s Hill through “the ravine.” Hiking the ravine, says Desena, is “like trying to ski uphill with banana peels on both feet.” At the top of the hill, racers get instructions to hike back down the hill, fill the bucket with water, and bring it back to the summit. Only then are they given the OK to head to the Amee Farm, and the finish line.

Striking a deal
Similar to 2008, the 2009 Death Race had co-winners. Richard Lee, a 27-year-old former British Royal Marine Commander who is hiking the Appalachian Trail to rehab a broken leg and shattered patella, builds a dominating lead early. But Tom Worthington, a 22-year-old freshly minted graduate of Norwich University and a native of West Falmouth, Mass., closes the gap during the last few events.

On a treacherous hillside, heading toward the finish line, Worthington catches Lee, who got lost and is clearly tiring. The two discuss options.

“I told him, ‘We can do this with dignity, and finish together, or we can race, if you want to race,’ “ says Lee. “I know how competitive I am, and I knew how competitive he was.”

Both decide discretion is the better part of valor, in part because the slippery slope is a serious accident waiting to happen, and in part because they’re both running on fumes. So the two, like Mitchell and Bartlett the year before, make a pact to cross the line together, a Marine from the United States and one from the United Kingdom. Their winning time is 11 hours 31 minutes.

A half-hour later, Desena is the fourth racer to finish. Though he has disqualified himself for getting assistance from his support crew with the presidential names and the bike chain, Desena is determined to complete the course.

“Another 12 hours and this would have been a great race,” he says.

Two of Worthington’s Norwich classmates, Chris Prybella of Pennsylvania and Zach Castonguay of Maine, cross the line nine hours after the winners, well after midnight. The two spent more than two hours at the pond looking for Prybella’s bike chain. But neither would quit.

“One volunteer told me to throw in the towel,” says Prybella. “I told him I’d throw him in before I threw in the towel.”

Finished by the end
Stretching out on his barn floor, trying to work out the knots in his back and legs an hour after finishing, Desena mulls a question: Is this his first and last Death Race?

“I think so,” he says. “This is a race very few people want to do multiple times.”

The Hartwell brothers are among those who fail to finish. Greg never found his bike chain at the Riverside pond (“Plus, my toes had turned green, and I draw the line at green toes.”) while Tom failed to make the time cut-off at the same station.

“I’m pretty disappointed I didn’t finish,” says Tom. “I had a lot more will than I gave myself credit for. On top of that, I had more than my brother. Which was nice.”

However, 18 racers proved equal to the 14 tasks.

“No one gets to the finish without earning it,” says Chris Mitchell, watching racers pick their way through the last, gnarly section of razor wire. “There’s no shortcut.”

FINIS

The best night in hockey

Another weekend of outstanding hockey on tap this weekend at the TD Garden in Boston, including the single best night in college hockey, the Hockey East semifinals on Friday. This preview was done for ESPNBoston.com.

Not the same old same old in Hockey East

BOSTON -- Despite all the talk of parity in Hockey East this year, the semifinal pairings for the TD Garden on Friday have a very familiar look, with Boston College, Boston University, and Maine securing a chance to battle for the Lamoriello Trophy. Even the fourth team, Vermont, reached the Frozen Four last year after a Hockey East title-game appearance in 2008.

But a closer look reveals it was not "business as usual" in the league this year. The No. 1 seed, New Hampshire, was knocked out by Vermont, which barely snuck into the playoffs as the eighth seed. The BU Terriers, the defending national champs, needed a gut-check second-half run to secure home ice in the playoffs, which they parlayed into a 2-1 series win over a tenacious Merrimack squad. Maine's Black Bears -- picked eighth in the league's preseason polls -- endured a litany of injuries to gamely finish fourth in Hockey East, edging out UMass Lowell both for home ice and in their quarterfinal matchup. Which got us thinking that maybe all that parity chatter wasn't so farfetched after all.

Here's a look at Friday's two semifinal match-ups:

No. 2 Boston College (23-10-3) vs. No. 8 Vermont (17-13-7), 5 p.m.

Don't expect a high-scoring affair in Friday's opener. Vermont, after surrendering seven goals to a high-powered UNH squad last Friday, tightened up behind the stellar goaltending of Rob Madore to pitch back-to-back shutouts against the Wildcats. Boston College, having allowed the fewest goals in league play, similarly put the clamps on a skilled UMass squad, whitewashing the Minutemen in the third period of their series-clinching 5-2 win last Saturday. Translation? Goals will be at a premium.

Vermont coach Kevin Sneddon acknowledged that the road won't get any easier for his Catamounts. "BC's got such a great blend of having tremendous talent and the ability to score goals, but I also think they have a great ability to play team defense," Sneddon said. "They use their speed in a very good way on back pressure, they're very good on transition and their layers of defense are very solid."

In their two-game sweep of UMass, the Eagles displayed lightning-strike capabilities (11 goals in two games) and a lock-down defense when necessary (no goals in the last 19 minutes of Game 1, and none in the third period of Game 2), offsetting some glaring mental lapses. This season, the Eagles lost two of three against Vermont, but the teams haven't met since Nov. 15, prompting both coaches to discount those results.

"We have a pretty good understanding of how Vermont plays," BC's Jerry York said. "Kevin has been there a couple years now, and he is not changing or suddenly putting a different type of product on the ice. He's been pretty consistent over the years. We are going to play a team that has a strong goaltender in Madore and big, hard-nosed defensemen, maybe the biggest in the league. It's difficult for us to play [those types of] teams and get a lot of Grade-A chances against them."

Likewise, Sneddon said the early-season matches meant little now. "They were obviously a completely different team back then," he said. "I remember saying how good I thought they were going to become, with all their young freshman defensemen that obviously were top-end players but needed to gain experience in big games. Obviously they've achieved that going into the second half. They're extremely talented at all positions now, so the youth is not hurting them in any way, shape or form."

While relishing Vermont's role as underdog, Sneddon admitted he's wary of BC's myriad weapons, including the white-hot sophomore Cam Atkinson and junior snipers Joe Whitney and Brian Gibbons. "They have moments where they can open it up and make you look foolish because of their skills and their ability to finish, and then there's other moments when they know to shut it down and play tight team defense," he said.

York was still undecided earlier this week which of his two superb netminders, junior John Muse or freshman Parker Milner, would start. However, Vermont's Madore is a lock, despite a stinging critique by Sneddon after the 7-4 debacle against UNH on Friday. "We had every chance to win that game, but unfortunately some goals went in that just aren't typical for him," Vermont's coach said.

"Rob's probably the most mentally tough student-athlete we have on our team, so as much as it was about trying to spark Rob, it was to spark our team to play better defensively in front of him, and I think the team kind of rallied around him," Sneddon said. "The bottom line is he did the job to turn things around."

Both teams are also looking to upperclassmen to provide a leadership role in Friday's tilt. Last year, Vermont rallied from a quarterfinal loss in the Hockey East playoffs to make a run to the Frozen Four. For BC, redemption is a key theme, after the Eagles followed their 2008 national title campaign with a 2008-09 season that ended in the Hockey East semifinals.

"Our senior class has had a remarkable record in the month of March," York said. "They were 21-3-2 in their four years. They feel good about themselves and they want to make a good run here [in Boston]."

So don't blink. The first mistake could prove costly in this match, and the first goal could be the game-winner.

No. 3 Boston University (18-16-3) vs. No. 4 Maine (18-16-3), 8 p.m.

Both the Terriers and the Black Bears are battle-tested, but it's been a war of attrition. The Terriers took a pounding in their quarterfinal series against Merrimack, and while they gave as well as they got, the list of wounded is a long one. The key injury could be freshman D-man Max Nicastro, who needed 26 stitches to repair a severed artery in his right forearm Saturday. His status is day-to-day. Defensemen Colby Cohen and David Warsofsky are banged up, and Maine is also dealing with injuries to key players such as Jeff Dimmen and Mike Banwell on defense, and forwards Kyle Solomon and Brett Carriere. Further, Maine will continue to soldier on without the services of No. 1 netminder Scott Darling, who remains on indefinite suspension.

However, coach Tim Whitehead can take some solace in the outstanding performance submitted by senior David Wilson in the nets. "I am really proud of David. He has persevered, not just this season, but during his career here," Whitehead said. "He really rose up for our team when we needed him most this weekend in a very pressurized situation. He seemed to get stronger each night."

The Black Bears also got a huge series from sophomore defenseman Will O'Neill (two goals and an assist in Sunday's 3-2 OT win over Lowell) and junior captain Tanner House (an insurance tally Saturday and a series-clinching OT strike Sunday). "A big part of us taking a step this year has been Tanner's leadership, along with the other juniors and seniors. They have really re-established the culture that we want in our Maine Black Bear teams," Whitehead said. "Tanner was key not just in regard to the goals, but he also won some big faceoffs and played well defensively, just all-around gritty, hard-nosed hockey."

Maine will need that grit against a physical Terriers team unafraid to take penalties, though they take too many for their coach's liking. "We have taken a number of stupid penalties all year long," BU coach Jack Parker said. "It has not been a disciplined team."

Fortunately for the Terriers their best penalty killer, sophomore goaltender Kieran Millan, appears to have rediscovered the form that brought BU a national crown last year. Though Millan was quick to credit his team after the Merrimack series, Parker singled out the play of his netminder. "Special teams wound up being the catalyst for us," Parker said. "Kieran held the Merrimack power play to 1-for-18, and they were the third-best power play in the nation."

If there was one weakness Merrimack exposed, it was BU's trouble with a quick-strike counterattack. The Terriers defensive corps, led by captain Kevin Shattenkirk and senior Eric Gryba, will have to contain a group of talented forwards, including House and sophomore sensations Gustav Nyquist and Brian Flynn. "I expect a hard-fought, well-executed game from Maine. They can skate, they've got one of the best first lines in college hockey, they have the best power play in college hockey [clicking at almost 28 percent] and they have great goaltending," said Parker, noting that the loss of Darling isn't devastating. "Wilson played once against us and he was great [34 saves in a 2-2 tie at Maine, Feb. 14, 2009]. I'm not surprised that he stepped up and became the man for them in a crucial series."

Though it's been a season of maddening ups and downs for the Terriers, Parker said he doesn't expect a letdown after BU's quarterfinal victory. "If we have a no-show type of game, our season is over," he said. "I know we have enough competitors and leadership to make sure that we are focused and ready." Whitehead, meanwhile, wants to make sure his Black Bears aren't simply happy to be in Boston for the first time since 2006. "It is a very good step for us, a very important step in our climb back up to where we want to be," he said. "This is a tough match-up for us. They're a strong team, and we respect them. We know what we're up against."

Brion O'Connor is a Boston-based freelance writer.

Northern exposure

I love Jay Peak's unique mix of Old School crustiness and epic powder dumps. The new amenities, such as the ritzy Tram Haus Lodge, aren't bad either! This profile was done for the New England Ski Journal.

Jay Peak rules to roost

We might as well start with the cold, ’cause there’s really no getting around it. If you’re going to travel all the way to Jay Peak, hard by the Canadian border off Route 100, you better be ready for the those arctic temperatures that roll across the Great Lakes and down from Quebec. And while we’re at it, we should mention the wind that brings those frigid blasts across the border. But, as any self-made businessperson knows, great sacrifices often lead to great rewards. Jay Peak in upstate Vermont certainly requires the former but offers plenty of the latter. And that’s all because of one simple entity … the Jay Cloud.

Considered by some to be the stuff of legend, the Jay Cloud is actually a meteorological phenomenon that, while not specific to Jay per se, still manages to produce more snow here than anyplace else in the Green Mountain State. The technical term for the cloud is an orthographic uplift, which means those westerly winds, carrying precipitation from the Great Lakes, run smack into Jay, rise and then stall, typically producing snow. Lots of snow.

In short, Jay, thanks to prevailing weather patterns, is New England skiing’s version of the old real estate mantra: Location, location, location. When every place else has nothing, Jay’s got something. And when other areas get a dusting, Jay gets dumped on. The result is an outrageous annual snowfall that routinely threatens the 400-inch plateau (and was close to 200 inches by mid-February this season).

“The snow is the attraction,” says Scott Bumpus, a longtime Jay fan from Boston’s North Shore, with the conviction of a true disciple. “It’s as simple as that. They get snow when no one else does. Not Quebec, not Mont St. Anne.

“I probably got 40 days of powder last year,” he says. “It’s totally addicting. I can’t even ride groomers anymore because of Jay. If it’s not powder like Jay, it’s not worth it.”

Bumpus is not alone in his high praise of Jay Peak. The resort attracts a loyal following of skiers and riders from both sides of the border. The fact that it’s not the easiest drive (especially if the Jay Cloud is working its magic) is further testament to Jay’s appeal. Bring a few extra layers — including sock liners, glove liners, and balaclava — and leave the wimpy attitude at home. If you make the effort, Jay will repay you, in spades. This is not ski country for the timid or frail. It’s ski country, period. It’s what you make of it, and if you bring the right gear and the right mindset, you should have a blast.

The resort, with a top elevation of 3,968 feet and 2,153 feet of vertical, now boasts roughly 50 miles of skiable terrain — 78 trails, glades and chutes, plus four terrain parks — over two peaks (some 15-20 more trails and glades are currently under consideration to the west). There are eight lifts, ranging from Vermont’s only aerial tramway and the Jet triple on Stateside to a moving carpet and a good, old-fashioned T-bar, which combined can carry more than 12,000 skiers up the hill each hour. The variety of terrain is mighty impressive, with runs that can satisfy the hard-core skiers and riders as well as novices. Taken all together, the trail breakdown is 20 percent novice, 40 percent intermediate and 40 percent advanced, in addition to Jay’s four terrain parks. If you hear someone mention that Jay has something for everyone, take that comment to the bank.

The Jay snow crew does an admirable job keeping much of that natural snow on the trails, but invariably a good portion of Mother Nature’s bounty collects in the trees, due to the aforementioned winds. That’s when Jay’s glades shine. The chutes and glades off Jay’s summit are some of the best anywhere on the East Coast. Ripping first tracks on the Face Chutes or Tuckerman’s Chute after a fresh snowfall is one of life’s great hair-raising pleasures. The same holds true for Beaver Pond Glade and Andre’s Paradise off Ullr’s Dream (which my wife and kids, who aren’t big tree-ski fans, can use to scoot around the glades and reconnect with me) by the West Basin, and Vertigo, Buckeroo Bonzai, Deliverance and Canyon Land as they angle toward the Bonaventure Chair.

“My first years at Jay, I spent many nights in my Volkswagen van in the parking lot,” says Bumpus. “When I’d wake up, there were two or three other VW vans, and usually fresh snow. And those first shots were just so deep and so fluffy. There’s nothing like it.”

On Stateside, I’m a sucker for the crisp turns to be had on The Jet, U.N., Haynes, Mont L’Entrepide, and Kitzbuehel, but I’ll wander off to the trees at Timbuktu, Kitz Woods and Hell’s Woods if I need a fiber fix. Tramside, the steeps on JFK, Green Beret and Upper River Quai are almost intoxicating first thing in the morning, while my girls (including a teenager and a 'tweener) are more likely to opt for intermediate trails such as Alligator Alley, Northway, and Upper Goat Run and Green Mountain Boys until their legs get acclimated. In reality, though, trying to rate the runs at Jay is something of a silly exercise — when the snow is flying here they’re all good. Period.

Concerned about traveling with the kids? Don’t be. First of all, if you’re staying on property, there are great deals and programs for the youngsters, such as kids 14 and under ski and stay for free (non-holidays only), kids under 6 eat free, and parents with children ages 2-7 have access to free day care (subject to availability). But, to be perfectly honest, you don’t want the youngsters in day care. Jay has a well-deserved reputation for nurturing the next generation of rambunctious little grommets, precisely because it’s not a mountain that pampers anyone. Dave Hoke, program supervisor for Jay’s Mountain Adventure Camp, epitomizes that attitude. “Jay Peak is a family ski hill,” he says. “Everything is small and personal while the mountain itself skis huge.”

“Modern world kids are treated like drones — told how to think and when to think,” says Hoke, “Snow sports are nothing really fantastic. They’re about learning how to function on a different planet, a new relationship with gravity. Everything you’re doing intuitively is backwards. Kids need the opportunity to figure this out on their own. Under the right circumstances, any kid can get it.”

To make sure everyone, including every child, has that opportunity to “get it,” Jay offers a dizzying menu of lessons and clinics for skiers and boarders of all ages (starting as early as 3 years old), and every ability level, from two-hour sessions to five-day packages. As befits Jay’s diverse terrain, the resort also offers specialty sessions, such as glade, powder, backcountry and women’s clinics. The resort even has set aside 80 acres — called The Zone — that is earmarked for beginners, serviced by four dedicated lifts.

Of course, once you learn a few new tricks, you’ll want to try them out. The trails and glades that criss-cross the resort between the two peaks are a veritable cornucopia of conditions spread judiciously over 385 acres. The traditional long run-outs to the lodge — Harmony Lane and Interstate — not only are perfect for first-timers, but a great cool-down for more advanced skiers and riders who have fried their thighs on Jay’s upper reaches. If you’re feeling daring, and capable, the backwoods await. Jay takes a remarkably refreshing approach toward skiing on the 100-plus acres of off-piste terrain. Simply, they don’t condone it, and they don’t prohibit it. The decision is up to you.

However, there are a few caveats that you should know if you head to the backcountry. Keep an eye out for hazards; helmets are strongly recommended. Travel in groups of three, so if someone gets hurt, he or she won’t be left alone while someone else gets help. Remember, though, you and your compadres are on your own. Jay’s ski patrol members sweep on-property glades at 3 p.m., but they don’t sweep backcountry.

Still, Jay today is shedding some of its reputation as a rough-and-tumble Old School mountain (for example, Verizon customers will love the reception they get on their cell phones, thanks to a Verizon antenna at the summit, allowing them to keep in touch with friends and family members around the hill). Granted, the peaks and trails are as burly as ever, as is the delightfully dumpy old main lodge and the welcoming, hands-on approach of resort president Bill Stenger. But Jay also is getting up to speed with the demand for modern conveniences, providing all the essentials that a ski family is looking for in a full-service resort. “The important distinction,” says Jay fan and writer Jocko Weyland, “is that those essentials haven’t become overbearing and overly grandiose distractions.”

Weyland might want to rethink that statement after he gets a good look at Jay’s new state-of-the-art Tram Haus Lodge, which just opened earlier this year. The lodge, with 57 suites, a new restaurant, coffee shop and a bar featuring views of the mountain, is the first of several upcoming facelifts at the resort. But even this beautiful new structure takes a back seat to the skiing and riding at Jay Peak. And that’s how it should be.

FINIS