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Ok so what I saw was only about buddy tickets I guess, now that I look into it again, it says passes purchased before 9/17 get buddy tickets But I didn't actually say any dates or anything about price increases so what I said before is kind of fake news. I guess it is possible that prices would go up that same day? but I have no clue

That would definitely make the situation interesting. The deadline for the low epic price isn't until late September so there is definitely time to see what is going on with these other passes.

I am waiting for Indy Pass info to drop this summer before buying any pass, although epic northeast $335 student price is very tempting with roundtop being the closest ski area to me at just under 1hr away. Might even do both (for less than the cost of Blue!). Issue is that epic areas will all likely continue to be zoos on weekends, and I also have a vendetta against Vail for taking over and screwing up good old Ski Roundtop. If by some miracle it turns out I can get more than 4-6 days trips out of Indy, without having to do insane day trip drives to the out-of-state places, that is what I will do. Currently only Shawnee, which largely lacks challenge, and Blue Knob, which usually lacks snow, are easily day trip-able for me. $199 was last year's price, which could likely go up, but, while inexpensive, would only be worth it if I used it up North a good bit. If any, and I really mean literally any (even Spring or Sawmill), of the other currently unaffiliated areas in PA get added to Indy that would make the decision easy for me to get it. Or Plattekill. Platty would definitely make it worth it.

A lot of people only ski 1-2 times per year/every few years, throw in a bunch of kids learning, and when you offer $35 ticket/rental/lesson its a good portion of the people there. Tried to go down to lower mountain on a rented snowboard there which was a bad idea lol that last drop is steeper than it looks and thanks for the welcome! I have been lurking here for a while, decided I should make an account.

There are two runs that are blue on upper half and black on lower half, and the final drop down they make by the long haul lift is a little bit steep for a blue run in PA. They shouldn't be encouraging PA intermediates to go to the lower mountain unless there is a way to grade a new trail down there. And yeah the $40 midweek ski for all/$35 college day tickets are fantastic, 9am-9pm ticket + rental + group lesson (pre 'rona) at one of the largest ski areas in the state. Used to be $25 before they upped it. Sadly that upward trend will likely continue. Montage seemed to be busier than expected this year which is good news for infrastructure improvements/its continued existence but bad news for mega cheap uncrowded big time PA skiing. College day vibe at Montage is definitely a time. Flyers jerseys jeans and beanies, parking lot full of beaters, heckling from the lifts, lots of spectacular wipeouts. good times.

If they could figure out how to cut a green or blue trail to the bottom I could see a high speed long haul be justified Maybe they can do something like the Greek Peak "express" where they have a loading carpet and crank up the speed of a fixed grip if they can't get the skier traffic down there to justify a proper detachable. But yeah for having 1000ft vert there it is pretty hard to lap all of it given how long flat and slow the long haul liftline is. I do hope that their cheap $35/$40 ski for all stays around for a while though, it is a great place to bring people who need rentals, but of course they will charge what the market says they can once they get a hotel in - not sure what the effect would be on skier traffic. It does seem like a fair number of people from further south take Montage/Elk overnights, I guess if Montage had a slopeside hotel they would get more of that vacation $$$ seeing as they seem to have a hard time attracting Philly/NY crowd

Well I guess the view could be good from there but as you said, pretty radical spot to cram a hotel/ski tunnel. Certainly would change the vibe of phoebe snow pod. Good for them though I guess, they definitely could use the skier traffic if this will generate some. More skier traffic=better lifts, better snowmaking, less probability of going bankrupt every few years

montage turning into dang camelback amusement park

Blue's Comet lift is pretty much the same age 1994 except Poma. Challenge is 2006 Poma and Tomahawk at Shawnee is 2010 Doppelmayer. I would expect Camelback to only run fixed grips for the rest of the season considering Stevenson is essentially the same lift one year older. FWIW Shawnee's high speed lift seems to be in much better condition (smoother, cleaner, faster, newer, and more reliable) than any of the others around here. I am wondering why Camelback runs this lift all summer rather than one of the parallel and easier to maintain fixed grips. Edit: oh hi btw long time lurker first time poster