Unit 4094 of the Golf & Mountain Cottages at Jay Peak.
2 bedrooms, a kitchenette, and a family room. From here Charlie (7), Alexis (10), Sarah, and I will live, work, go to school, and ski. At least that’s the plan.
You know of course that not much has gone according to plan in 2020. At the end of July when Jay Peak first offered the Relocation Vacation package, a lot was still up in the air. How many days would the kids be in school? Would I be back at work? How far in the rearview mirror would the worst of COVID be?
The answers today are None, No, and Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear.
But in July, uncertainty reigned.
Even--especially!--during the hottest days of summer, my mind is never far from skiing. And with an unexpected end to our previous season in mid-February, I was determined to make up for lost days in the coming winter. As a family, we’d been skiing on the Ikon Pass for two seasons while keeping a furtive eye on the Jay Peak sales situation, hoping Alterra would eventually add our favorite mountain to our favorite mega pass. We’d already re-upped for the full Ikon Pass and by May had begun looking around for seasonal rentals around Sugarbush and Sugarloaf. COVID was continuing to make decision making difficult. And we’d added another variable. Oreo.
COVID: We knew the pandemic would at least be lingering, but were just unsure of its impact on skiing moving forward. Mountains were already committed to opening, and so we knew we’d be skiing. Would we spend the money on a third consecutive trip out West? Would we get our days in at eastern Ikon resorts? No one liked the idea of getting on a plane. Staying local seemed preferable. But the seasonal rental market was already heating up, and once committed, we were unsure of whether we’d be able to back out if circumstances made making use of the place impossible.
Oreo: We did the pandemic thing and rescued a dog in May. Quickly after doing that we realized how difficult having a dog makes going away. We missed out on summer VRBO rentals because most places don’t accept four legged friends. And as we poked around the seasonal market, we realized how limited our options would be.
Jay’s Relocation Vacation package quelled the uncertainty to a degree, and I’m sure answered some questions for the resort too, like where the hell is the revenue gonna come from? It wasn’t cheap, but it was an on-mountain unit that could be cancelled at any time prior to November, that would offer money-back if travel restrictions made use of the condo impossible, and did allow for dogs. That’s not all that’s unique about the arrangement, and I’ll ruminate on that in future posts, but even in July, it was very attractive.
At this point in the summer, Alterra still hadn’t made the very prudent, no-brainer decision to purchase Jay. But they had signaled their intent to allow the deferment of already-purchased passes until the 2021/22 season. We weighed our options: Cross Our Fingers and Hope For the Best vs Near Sure Thing at Jay.
Near Sure Thing at Jay it is. And here we are.
