EdBacon

577 acres burned now. Was 220 yesterday. Fire remains 25% contained. Looks like the smaller Mosier's Knob fire by Shawnee has stopped updating. Maybe that one is fully contained/out.

Here is the current perimeter of the burned area. Fire is most active on the southern and eastern edges. Not sure how much, if at all it is still expanding.

Looks like weather pattern could shift around the 10th/11th. Maybe we see some rain then. That's still a week away though.

Does PA have those helicopters with the big buckets, or anyone that knows how to do that? Can we get one from California?

The fire is on the other side of the gap from the nature center. Seems to be mostly on the south side of the ridge, on the west side of Little Gap, so hasn't gotten near the ski area yet.

Lifts are still there but would need to be replaced. Lodge was renovated the year before they closed but I heard there were some issues. Electrical or plumbing not done right so they couldn't open the bar that they had installed or something. Not sure what shape the lodge is in now though. Nobody has been there in almost ten years. It was all boarded up a couple of years ago. I imagine people have gotten inside by now.

They sold the whole place for $412k back in 2015ish. PASR could float that. We can all pitch in for the down payment. The owners were bikers who wanted to turn the place into a biker hangout but it never happened. Maybe they're looking to sell.

You can reference a topo map if you want. The bottom by the creek is ~700ft. The "summit" is around 1040ft. I've been there, albeit I didn't see every trail, but it all seemed pretty much the same fall line and didn't really get that steep anywhere. Somebody said like JF but with less vertical and no east mountain. That's about accurate.

Alpine was flat as all get out. Maybe 300 feet of vert and nothing was steeper than an easy blue even by PA standards. It was in the middle of (although not originally) a housing development too so you'd get to the top and there were just suburban houses to look at across a street.

Not since Vail took over. For what its worth, they have the guns on at JF tonight...

BB is done next weekend.

Those are private ski areas. Pocono Ranchlands, The Hideout and Saw Creek both operate 1970s era double chairs on like 100ft of vertical. They're in the middle of vacation home communities. You have to own property there to use the ski area. Not even sure if these still operate currently. I haven't checked their social media in a couple years. I know Hideout and Saw Creek did some upgrades on their chairlifts a few years ago though, so those are probably still active. Sky Top runs a Poma on a couple of beginner runs with like 100ft of vert for hotel guests. They used to have a second poma or t-bar that served more terrain but it no longer operates. Eagle Rock is somehow still operating. They lost their beginner lifts and since their mountain is upside down in arrangement, they have to shuttle skiers back uphill via some weird oversized snowmobile thing as the top to bottom runs all require you to go through their advanced terrain. Given that scenario I'm surprised they're still operating at all but they apparently were open this year. Big Bear at Masthope was also formerly a private ski area, but larger than the aforementioned. It was designed by the same person who designed Pocono Ranchlands and Shawnee. It's public now and a good option if you want some place quiet and not crowded. It's a long drive from anything though. I believe people who own property in the adjacent vacation community still get some kind of perks there like discounted passes, or maybe you get a pass if you own there for a fee or something. Last time I was there lots of the folks had houses there and were from NYC. There were more private ski areas like that. Ski Cove in Hazelton next to Eagle Rock and Winona Lakes outside Stroudsburg were some examples. Tanglewood was never private and actually predates the vacation community around it. It opened as Paper Birch back in the 60s.

It shares towers with what was an older Hall double. It's sort of a franken-lift thing. Parts of it are 60 years old. The rest of their lifts are Halls or Borvigs from the 60s and 70s.

Only for me and I think three or four other people. I mean for real, I love the character of the old fixed grips, but they need either replacement or a complete overhaul. You can run a place with old lifts for the character (see Smuggs) but it's like owning a classic car. You're going to have to rebuild it eventually and need to take maintenance seriously.

If its still for sale ask how much.