It’s really the damn marketers fault. The expectations we put on vacations and corresponding, though potentially unconscious, notion that we better damn well be creating memories I mean. And those memories better be huge; 65 MPH drop, favorite meal ever, biggest snowstorm in history type huge. It’s what we’ve all come to demand from our vacations-even your friend to the left that simply offers, “I just want to relax.” is really saying “I better remember this as a vacation so relaxing my heart slowed to a full stop” type experience.
Marketers have leveraged the notion of memory making by promising things like, ‘Memories Created Here’ with Cinderella’s Castle as backdrop, ‘The Sea Is Calling’ with an ocean liner the size of a Junior High School, or a Paragliding tour company who send folks over an active Indonesian volcano suggesting, ‘We Can’t Guarantee You Won’t Get Scorched!” as its cutline. Double negatives aside, each Marketing Department is, not-so-subtly, promising you a vacation you won’t forget by trying to create moments so big, you can’t.
If only we were innocent of the charges here at Jay Peak.
On one hand, you can’t fault us. When you add $200,000,000 worth of on and off mountain upgrades ranging from indoor ice arenas, increased snowmaking firepower and gorgeously affordable slope side lodging to Championship golf courses, new Mountain Learning Centers and a massive indoor waterpark-you feel obliged to promise a vacation that will stick with you, somewhere, forever. See, there we go again. We can’t help ourselves.
But this year, we’re betting on the small. On the slow. And the deliberate. We’re betting the memories you’ll make, while spending time with us in the mountains, won’t be judged by their size or speed but by how well they connect you to a place in time. To a moment. To your moment. And then we want you to share them with us.
In some sense, this year’s Jay Magazine will bear out the benefits of anticipating the big while appreciating the slow. You’ll read about The O’Shea’s small, thoughtful corner of the Kingdom and better understand the small bits of Jay that kid’s value (Pg XX). You’ll get insight into a major shot in the arm of our Snowsports School with the addition of our new Mountain Learning Center (Pg XX) and get a whiff of our alarmingly big sandwiches, piled high, and served higher-up in our refurbished Sky Haus Café. You’ll hear our Mtn Planner Walter Elander plan (Pg xx), you’ll get an idea of what’s Raised Jay and what isn’t (Pg XX) and you’ll get a first-frame look at what the most ardent within Raised Jay Nation consider moment-worthy. In between, we’ll show you how affordable it can be to visit, the best times to land, what’s new, what’s better, and what’s what.
And then you can take it from there. What’s always been special about Jay Peak-what separates us from other great vacations, is us; the real belief that the distinction between employee and guest can be very small. Show us what means a lot to you—what you remember and what’s likely to always stay with you. Those moments you’ll share are likely to feel very familiar. To all of Us.
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