EdBacon

No brainer for me. Blue + Camelback as local mountains and the vacation covered beats the pants off JF/BB. I won't end up using more than the 14 days locally + a couple vacations anyway. And abandoned areas are always free when it snows.

The Biggest Little Mountain in the Catskills! Somebody tried to run a hotel out of the lodge but that folded a few years ago. I think somebody might be living in the lodge now.

Anyone want to guess for the next one?

Been a while since I've been up to this. Also I've visited pretty much everything in a day's driving distance. Got up to MA last fall and checked out what remains of Mt. Tom.

The main problem with siting the trails on the east side of the mountain is that the bottom is mostly floodplain. The original ski area had issues where the ground at the base of the tows wouldn't freeze and you'd be stuck walking through a swamp. It's a big reason why they moved the operations further west down the mountain. Also, on the occasion there's adequate snowfall: skiers right of Nile Mile, right around the first left switchback turn if you duck into the woods you'll come out onto a woods trail that proceeds steeply down towards the old railroad grade. This wasn't a Big Pocono ski trail but it does cross into the old ski area. From there you have to skin or hike back to Nile Mile. No water slide, but imo something better. Check this out:

The old trails would have been skiers right of Nile Mile. The longest tow went about 2/3rds of the way up the mountain. The top of the Stevenson quad would be in the top right of this old photo. I don't think this is part of the state park. At least not all of it. The top of the mountain is state park land but it doesn't extend all the way to the bottom on the north side.

No. Fiancee and I are moving into a new place so I'm looking for a dining room table this weekend.

There was also a ski area operating on Camelback Mountain before the extant Camelback was opened in the 60s. Big Pocono Ski area opened for the 1950/51 season and closed in 1955 before ski operations moved slightly west down the mountain and the ski area's investors opened the current Camelback. The old pickup truck used to power the original rope tow is still in the woods off Nile Mile. I know they're not counting that in the date but you gave me an opening to talk about ski area history.

The beginner lift broke down last week at JF. So they will only be offering whatever advanced and intermediate terrain they have remaining at JF until closing. I think their last accessible beginner terrain was at BB which closed over the weekend. There hasn't been an announcement on closing yet but I can't imagine they'll push things beyond this weekend without a working beginner lift.

Switching to a Blue pass. I tried Indy this year but the distance of Montage or Shawnee as local hills didn't make sense. It's a shame because it's probably the only multi pass I'd ever use.

I had a pair of rollerblades when I was 10.

Hey all, I think next year I'm gonna hop over to try skiing from snowboarding. I still want to snowboard but I'd like to be proficient at both and eventually transition to skiing most of the mountain outside of the terrain park. Have any PASRs done that transition before? What was it like? What are some good tips for starting out? Also, I'm looking at what a good pair of intro sticks would be. I'm like 6 foot, 150lbs. Size 11 shoe. I'd like something I could grow into skill-wise and keep for years. Like to be an all-mountain, all-condition kind of thing. I have a Lib-Tech Attack Banana snowboard that kind of fits that role: groomers, bumps, jumps, rough chop, trees. Any and all advice is appreciated. I already listen to Ween so I have that down. Thanks.

Because BB was their higher traffic mountain when the parks were open, especially late season. Not hard to get park rats out as long as there's a park.

I won't give money to Vail and tried splitting time between Shawnee and Montage this year to see if it would be worth getting a pass at one and then hopping on the Indie Pass for travel options. But both are too far from the Philly suburbs and it wouldn't be worth the drive. Leaning towards getting this and then the Indie Pass as it's a fairly cheap add-on for travel options.

Dornoy Pork.

White lightning got scratchy otherwise conditions were fine. A little sugary but the weather hasn't been great.

Maybe they'll open for 2023.

It's just depressing.

I'm plantin some trees right now, if you know what I mean.

What remains of the oldest ski area in New Jersey. Craigmeur opened in 1937 and offered Jersey skiers a place to learn for sixty years before closing in 1997. Some cool relics remain including an old snowcat, rope tows and a very 70s looking sign in the woods. This was one of the last small beginner operations in the region to close.

Read the comments of that post. Everyone is pissed at Vail and doesn't care about lift improvements. Especially since some of those will reduce total uphill capacity, but cut down on staffing (replacing a double triple with a quad, for instance).

Also, they took down the sign for "Risk It". Haven't checked on any of the other signage like Happyland or Mark's Way.

Looks like tubing is out at JF. They never set up any guns there. One Park is still in opening day mode. Just a handful of rails. Still no jumps up. Conditions were bad last weekend. Icy and scratchy. With BB park and Freedom both officially gone, along with the plaza, this looks to be the real end of the BB parks era. Question now is can Vail run JF/BB as tiny family hills. It's somehow still more crowded than I've ever seen it. Although that might just be bad lift management. Usually one or more lifts aren't spinning, even on busy weekends.

I think they ran the snowmaking pipe up the old t-bar line there.

I remember those two old Hall double lifts. The one with the drive house was loud as heck.