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Hey All, I’m back from a fun morning session at Blue mountain the true mountain. I arrived at the lower lot before 820am after a drive where the roads were completely empty. It was in the upper 20s under overcast sky’s. In the house were Atomic Jeff, Toast, BenM, Bethlehem Ford Guy and Charles. First civilian six pack and down the carpet also known as challenge. Woo it was good..not too hard not too soft..just right..yeah mad Goldilocks. I skied that a few more times then hit up razors which had similar conditions. After about three runs it started to sleet, then snow and more sleet. A benefit to masks is that the sleet doesn’t burn when skiing 50mph. I also skied a run on Switchback which was very nice and lower widowmaker to midway also very nice with a skiff of freshies. Was nice having basically ski on chairlifts and experiencing a little bit of winter weather with nice visibility. I skied a total of 8 runs in an hour and ten minutes..no parking lot beers today. Back to work like a dork. JADIP

Skied from 530-745 in 28° light rain. Snow was good and it was empty. We’ve graduated from Valley School to Vista this week and were lapping that until they closed the Vista chair at 7. The kid had no issues on Vista so moved on to Burma with success. Giving Paradise a shot next but Vista felt great instead of the Valley Hill. Didn’t really notice the rain since we were skiing slower. Outer wear was soaked by the end of the session though.

Hard to beat those runs this morning. The grooming was spot on and the snow was fantastic. It’s been a while since both razors and challenge have been lappable like that. Snowflakes for some of the morning made it quite enjoyable.

This might be the opportunity for me to bake some bread to share with you all 🍞🥖

Skied with my neighbor this morning. She not only skis every day, she skins the resort before opening M-F. Let’s just say she is in fantastic shape. She showed me some great little tree stashes that I need to try again. Only took one pic because I had to try and just keep up with her through the trees and bumps. She makes it look effortless. Light real flat again today, tomorrow supposed to be sunny, can’t wait! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would be surprised if Blue posts something about passes already. They seem to be doing quite well and probably don't want to pass up on getting $109 pp so quickly this season.

Blue posted this badass pic on Instagram

I dont see this. I will go on record stating that Blue will never be in the partner pass participant program. I would say we have a waaaay better shot at "coming soon" opening in 5 years.

Nobody I have met here calls it that. Actually nobody in Colorado I have ever talked to calls it that.

You should really stop fooling yourself into thinking this is going to happen. Its not. We know this is what you want, but the chances of that happening are about the same as Sallyant posting content worth reading (see above)

Call them. Tell them you're looking to transfer it to gore. They're owned by the same people. They can probably do it for you

The HWH was the original lodge back in 1959. And yes that's the locals joke. The proper Elk name is the "Picnic Lodge"... Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

I don’t think NY has any Covid travel restrictions. That’s why it seems to be a popular destination for PASRs

I was up in the afternoon as I couldn't do this morning, snow was good, weather is shit. I did about an hour and half and then called it as I was gross wet.

I love how this day is turning out

While I'd normally agree with this, I'm not sure what a "normal" ski season looks like anymore. For passholders at blue, and most PASR members in particular, aside from slightly longer midweek lift lines and not packing chairs, it's been a pretty normal season. The weather in PA is still finicky, everyone still parks in their normal spots, boots up at their cars, and have some beers in the lot after skiing for a few hours in the morning. The wildcard is Epic's reservation system. Does that continue for next year? Epic is definitely appealing because as others have said, there's locations outside of PA that are day-tripable, and even more that are relatively easy weekend trips. Having to reserve days makes it much harder to storm chase, though, which is realistically what interests me most about a multi-mountain pass that's good multiple places in NY/New England. Until the kid is skiing full days and wants to be there, blue is gonna be easiest for me due to proximity to babysitting, so I'm all but locked in there regardless of price. I'm very curious to see what prices end up being for various different options. In a super weird year, blue's done well for their loyal season pass customers while we all hear the endless complaints about vail properties and the epic shitshow associated with some of them, so that's gotta count for something.

It’s way too early to start thinking about next season.

I'll just be watching for any shake ups in terms of mountains going from Epic to Ikon or vice versa and then I'll grab one of those two plus my trusty rusty blue mountain pass of course.

Sugarbush a definite. Maybe Killington

Correct. I bought a ticket at the window. It's the old fashioned sticker ticket with the metal thingy. There were no silly reservations needed when I went.

Who said anything about early April? I'm hoping we push it closer to May!

Thanks been a tough year for skiing with all 3 kids and all of the restrictions. Finally got out with them MLK weekend at JF and BB. BB was a shit show at night. Scary skiing with my little ones and so many bad skiers. It is dangerous.

@saltyant you’d like this. The author skied four NY ski areas in four days. https://nyskiblog.com/a-new-york-ski-journey/

Blue doesn't choose to "join" Epic. Sure, there are a few resorts that have agreements with Vail for a few days on an Epic pass, but Blue is not gonna be one of them. Zero incentive on either end for that sort of arrangement here. The only way Blue becomes part of epic pass is if they get bought. It didn't pan out last time there was hype around it; I highly doubt it's gonna happen for next season, especially after such a turbulent year where epic resorts, who make a ton of their money on the retail/hospitality portion of their business, is probably already stretched thin and has seemingly cut quality and services at some of their less prestigious properties to save money. I guess Ikon is a possibility, as they don't have the same "owned by Vail Resorts" operating structure, since Alterra doesn't actually own all the resorts on the Ikon pass. I see the business sense there for Alterra in being able to attract away some of the crowd that jumped ship from local passes to Epic passes for this season and are now pissed off with how things have been going at jfbb. I'm not sure how much it helps blue though. If there was a blue + ikon add on, that'd be pretty sweet and check the boxes for me, since I do like the northeast options it provides a bit better than epic (stowe aside). Just not sure how much it would really benefit blue. Doesn't seem like they've really been hurting for business the past few seasons, honestly.

Yes, a luxury to boot up at the house! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is short term though. Once people can go back to movie theaters and bowing alleys or wherever the majority of people go during the winter the novelty will be gone. I've said it before but this is just a reaction to not having other options and a desire to get the hell out of the house for many people. I don't know what the retention rate is for new skiers to become lifetime skiers but it has to be low and the conversion rate from first timers or occasional skiers to season passholders is probably even lower. I would guess the move would be to keep passes at or just above current prices and advertise the hell out of them at the end of this season. Hopefully they can snag a few people who think that it's a great deal. An ideal situation for Blue would be to sell a decent number of low cost enticing passes to New Yorkers or Philadelphians who think it's a great deal and then it sits in their drawer next year either unused or barely used. Another thing I just thought of that could possibly explain my theory that this is all people who don't care what kind of recreation they do at this point is that we aren't laughing at the nonsense that day trippers typically post on Facebook. Seemingly fewer complaints from people means that they are just happy to be there regardless of what happens.

10/10 conditions for Blue this morning. Challenge was western grooming this morning. No ridges, no holes, just perfectly smooth cord.

Try it sometime.

posted content worth reading.

I miss her posting here. She was a great addition. Hopefully she is enjoying life in Vermont.

I will say I've enjoyed my 3 days of Epic pass use so far. But, when I travel, I'd much rather ski the IKON mountains. I may end up with both again next year.

sounds like it. i'm still in. if there's anything i can bring, let me know.

Or if you’re someone who can’t travel due to kids, work, money, whatever the case, having a pass price increase just to have access to other mountains isn’t that big of an incentive for someone who’s only going to be skiing one place

There are picnic tables set up slopeside in front of Halfway House...

I could pre-cook some things and use the fire to warm them and do a Meaty Monday at vehicles apres if we want to. I’m sure we all don’t want to hang out inside, nice and convenient as those tables are.

From the wonderful odors, the fire is lit. I haven't stopped in all season however.

i sure hope blue doesn't join one of those groups, at least not in the near term. ikon/epic/whatever passes would be a death blow to my skiing.

WHAT...Mixed precipitation is expected. Total snow and sleet accumulations of up to one inch and ice accumulations up to one tenth of an inch.

Sounds like of all the evenings, Monday has been delivering low crowds.

Excellent night sesh conditions this evening! Chalky with minimal slick spots. Excellent night out here. 8 out of 10

University of Delaware requires them while in the rink, but not on the ice surface. I’m expecting that to change before our season starts back up

Salty when I was a kid I had the white book of ski areas which featured hundreds of ski resorts. I also read every book on skiing at the library.

Springs is fun and pretty good and could be a nice weekend but NY would offer a lot more.

its a fuckin hill in palmerton that somehow has the highest vert in PA. dude said today it's been obscene with how many visitors they've gotten this year. current model seems to be working out just fine. stop.

Do the locals still call the place crusty butt?

Thanks for posting quality content worth reading 👍

Reminds me of @SallyCat

I don't wanna put words in anyone's mouths anymore, but in my personal opinion, I believe Ben told me a few times that he's quite content skiing at Blue and isn't really interested in skiing elsewhere.