Laszlo at Jay...

For all those Platty fans, Laszlo goes on vacation. To ski at Jay. And blogs. Here's a preview... but you can find the rest on the NY Ski Blog here...

The kids were up at 6, ready to go. You'd think that with a season of real early mornings and real late nights, a guy in the ski industry could sleep in because someone else is taking care of everything, but not in this family — it's time for first tracks.

Midwinter conditions and snow at Jay today. Very windy, all high-speed lifts were closed including the tram. We all stepped out of the condo and yarned back on the bridal as the sub freezing temps hit us like a ton of bricks. We layered up and prepared ourselves for a mid-winter day. We skied down to the base lodge alongside the magic carpet.

Trail Map Competition Winners!

We have 2 – well 2.5 winners. The .5 is an honorable mention and not actually allowed to win as he is the owners’ son.

All this came about because I’m obsessed with Platty’s hand-drawn map in the bar as well as James Niehues who has monopoly on the trail map market. He’s done 75% of the large resorts – and spends about “80% of his time on trees….”

Not to be outdrawn are our two winners Cynthia and John – who both could offer Niehues a tip or two on trees. John Stewart seems to be anticipating spring with his bold use of brown and green (colors unseen on the hill in February when his map was drawn). While Cynthia wins in the over-14 (aka “Adult”) category for her bold renaming of Blockbuster as “Netflix.” There’s 21st century thinking for you… And, we heartily agree with her sentiment about loving helmets particularly since her map notes exactly where she fell two years ago. Clearly a memorable fall. Nick Vajytay gets an honorable mention with his abstract lateral thinking in his map. His is a

cross between an info diagram Edward Tufte would approve of and Rem Koolhaas’s SMLXL (See below. And Nick, you have a future as a designer or architect. Keep it up) Our two winners each get a pair of lift tix to Platty for next season…

More lovely hand-drawn maps can be found thanks to the Hand Drawn Map Association – though I don’t think they’ve tackled trail maps yet….