Ski2Live Live2Ski

Gonna be up at Shawnee this Sat hosting a snow tubing birthday party for my twins. Will ski in the afternoon after the party, from 230 to 5

West side was not enjoyable. Wind and snow was blowing too hard from that direction (you barely moved even going down steeps if you stood all the way up) and they closed it part way through the day, and lower K27 was closed all day with a sign saying it was too icy, so it wasn't the best day for the trip to Hunter by a long shot. Best runs (all protected from the wind) were Cliff, Hellgate, Minye, Upper K27, ESD, Milkyway, Cross Over, Broadway and Kennedy.

Could well be, but I do like making the trip up there at times for the longer and more diverse and challenging runs. I like finishing a run not wishing it would go on.

Hunter is still in great shape too, getting snow showers most of the day, though the brisk winds from the west made any of the trails on that side of the mountain pretty unbearable today (and they closed it part of the day). Racer's Edge was a bit icy, but most other things had nice soft cover. 42nd street was bumped up but I didn't try it as I was told they were real hard.

How do you all think the crowds will be at Blue tomorrow. Usually avoid it on peak weekends, not being eligible for the VIP line.

Glad I got out with the kids yesterday. Conditions at Shawnee were amazing. All the soft lightly groomed spring snow let them rip down all the black diamonds with ease. And there was still enough natural cover for me to ski the trees alongside the trails they skied. Warm weather, no lines. Really a perfect day. Their 16th day on skis and their best yet. Doubt there will be another day that good in eastern PA this season after today.

Sounds awesome. If it stops snowing here soon I may head out there for some evening turns. Still snowing there?

At Camelback you can usually at least avoid lines by sticking to the non high speed lifts like Cleopatra and Marc Antony so I tend to choose it over Blue on crowded days. If you are going to focus on less advanced terrain you may want to consider Shawnee which has more of that and smaller lines

Big crowds today at all lifts except cleopatra and mark antony - even singles lines were packed. Everything was opened and groomed except lower cleopatra had hard bumps. There was snow coverage in trees which were skiable in a few places. Margie was pretty scraped but conditions were pretty good elsewhere.

You don't have to live in NJ to join the Princeton Ski Club. You just send them a 30 dollar check. I will post about it again next fall when the word about the cards comes out.

There may have been. I just don't remember it personally.

Skied little gap many times in the early to mid 80s but don't recall a tbar.

I like the variety of skiing different places each time, which works well as I don't ski enough to warrant a pass. Rivershot has the most beautiful view of any trail in eastern PA IMO

May do both

Shawnee is a great place to ski with kids. Been there 6 times with them. Nice that there are trees you can ski through alongside the runs the kids are doing. Hosting a snow tubing bday party for them in a few weeks, and they will ski with those of their friends who ski after the party. The top half is pretty flat other than Renegade but the bottom has some steepness and they let Tecumseh bump up. And on weekends the lines are much smaller than Blue.

Yeah I had to buy a $30 club membership in addition to the $55 per card I spent so my total was $195 for 3 cards. Even if I only used Blue Camel and JFBB that would be under $22 for each lift ticket. Shawnee is the best deal actually cause my kids are under 46" (and therefore ski free with paying adult) so all 3 of us can ski 3x with 3 cards. So if I hit Big Bear too I will wind up getting 24 lift tickets total for $195 or roughly $8 per ticket. Can't really beat that even with a season pass unless you ski daily, and I would get bored going to the same place all skison

Thanks trackbiker, will check it out then "Obscure Mountains" include Blue Camelback JFBB and Shawnee. Not bad to ski those 4 for $55 total even if you don't bother with Alpine and Big Bear. It is called the PA Ski and Ride Card and is available to ski club members.

$55 card for ski club members good for a day at each at Blue Camel JFBB Shawnee Alpine Big Bear good any day after Jan 5. I posted about them in November when they went on sale. Unbeatable deal. I got 3.

Yeah, it is awesome that they have gotten to this level. They are now better than their mom was when she gave it up in the late 90s.

Also see that Alpine isn't even even listed as a Mt on the stats page, so I selected Alpine Meadows CA instead

Anyone ski there? What are your thoughts? Have a free pass on the PASR card and might check it out with the kids as a result. It's a haul though and trail map looks pretty small. How does its degree of challenge compare to Alpine (which was too tame to challenge my kids) or Shawnee (where some of the black diamonds and the blue square lower Delaware cause them some trepidation).

Hit Alpine with the kids today largely due to it being free with the PASR card. Overall verdict is I won't bother driving close to two hours to ski there again, even with kids and a free pass. The positives: No lines or crowds, parked within 30 yards of the lift, several inches of fresh snow, beautiful warm weather. Also relatively untracked ingroomed fresh snow was skiable on either side of the groomed area on most trails, and that was a treat for the kids to try as they had never experienced that before. But, there really is no challenge here, even for 7 year olds on their second season on skis. They have done most of their skiing this year at Shawnee, where the blacks aren't exactly White Lightning, but they were laguhing at what passed for black diamond terrain at Alpine. OK there was a short headwall at the bottom of rollercoaster which caused one of them to proceed with caution making wide terns and sitting back on her skis counterproductively (the other one bombed down even the headwall). Only one lift to the top was operating, and it was really proceeding at a crawl. Also a lot of the safety bars needed serious lubrication and required a lot of strength to pull up and down, which is not a good thing at a beginner hill. We had fun nonetheless, and any day on skis beats a day not on skis. But next time for that level of ski experience we will just hit up Spring Mt at half the drive. PASR also gives a free pass to Big Bear which is a further drive. Anyone have any thoughts on if that is worth the trip for free?

Cool heading up to Alpine with kids tomorrow

Getting snow in the mountains still or turning to sleet like it is in montco?

I do need to update stats. There have been other things that kept me off the slopes some weekends this season, but this is the first time this season I had a day free and planned to ski and was just not going out cause it was too frigging cold.