Schif

Lights were great tonight, very bright, and really made the place shine. Much better than the old ones. They are also blowing snow absolutely everywhere. The firepower is pretty impressive right now, we should have some new terrain open by the weekend. White Lightning was crazy deep with whales, and was being blasted the whole time I was there.

Flurries Just started outside my office window in Wilkes-Barre. Schools and some businesses have already been closed for hours in anticipation of this Winter Storm of death. One to Two inches projected for up here. All I'm hoping for tonight at Montage is quiet snow, not the normal earsplitting sound of scraping and cutting through ice.

The lighting looks great from the base area, and it's super bright from the highway, but I haven't gotten a chance to ride under it yet.

They posted the trail map on their facebook today, as far as I know it's not on the website yet.

Just got back from my first day on the snow this year. I pulled into the lot at 9:55 Conditions were overall pretty good considering the rain last night. Nice grippy snow with a few ruts and a pretty small amount of cookies. Open trails included Mainline, Whistler (with terrain park features), the bunny slope, Cannonball, and Boomer. Cannonball was definitely the run of the day and I lapped it 3 times. The first time I was going to go down Cannonball, ski patrol stopped me and a few others at the top of the trail while a groomer came up the trail pulling a wheeled trailer. Kind of odd, but right behind it was another groomer laying down fresh cord behind it. Needless to say when they gave the all clear I moved ahead of the older lady who was chatting it up with ski patrol, and bombed this 20 foot wide strip of heaven, at the bottom I had to ask if there was a fire extinguisher in the lift shack because my hair caught on fire during the run I was going so fast. The park was set up pretty nice, with 2 decent sized jumps and a nice collection of rails and boxes, but on day 1 I wasn't quite ready to hit them yet. Not too many people out there today, mostly ski patrol guys doing training and getting their first day of turns in. Overall the mood was a pretty happy one from everyone there. There were probably 150 cars in the lot when I pulled in, and only about 170 when I left at noon, so it wasn't an overly crowded day, but it's still early season. I grabbed a swig of moonshine from a big mason jar, because I forgot to pack any beer, and cruised on home. Happy Ski Season Everyone!

Any PASRs going to be at Montage this weekend?

So I went up to grab my pass from Montage last night and poke around at some of the new improvements. I must say I was pretty impressed overall, these guys sank some serious cash into the place, and it wasn't just a coat of paint here and there. We'll see how the trails are tonight or tomorrow, but here is what I found last night First of all when you pull into the lot, the first thing you hit is a brand new traffic circle/dropoff area, which is actually pretty nice. The Soccer Moms dropping off their little park rats after school are going to love this, rather than the dirt and stone parking lot of old. There is a pretty cool wire sculpture in the middle which I'll assume is from the same local artist who did the ones of the guys rappelling down the side of a building in downtown Wilkes-Barre, and the ones stacked up on each other/ hanging from a building in Pittston, with banners strung between the two pieces. As you head down the brand new steps you encounter a totally redone area, with the new rental/retail building on the left, and the lodge on the right, and a big fire pit in the center. The smell of drywall and spackle filled the air as the doors of the rental side opened up, but the ski shop looked well stocked and ready to sell people from new jersey the gloves they forgot to pack. I turned around and looked at the lodge, the biggest difference I noticed was a severe lack of MS paint images of a particular moose, almost sad to see that little guy and his triangular blue mountains go. In his stead was a new awning sporting a nice logo, and a gigantic window that was never there before, showing off chandeliers. So I cruised into the lodge and stepped into a whole new world. Gone was the smell of teenagers, french fries and wet socks, instead it was a freshly carpeted floor, new paint, and nice wood accents that made the place seem like a pretty cool place to hang out, rather than a big box store with ski clubs running around. The customer service area is beautiful, but since I didn't want to get labeled as a creep on the first day I was there, I refrained from taking pictures of it due to the nice girls behind the counter. Instead of that little office, customer service is a big counter set into a big nook, very much like a hotel front desk. So I snagged my pass and snapped some pictures of the most visible thing in the entire lodge and/or county. These Chandeliers/art pieces/lights/scrap/American Pickers' dreams come true are actually pretty awesome. Clearly cell phone pictures don't do it justice, and I wasn't going to work on getting a good shot while contractors/staff were running around finishing stuff, but they are pretty cool. Here is a side view of them, there are actually 4 individual pieces up there. They are made of old chairlift chairs, the old lights from around the mountain, sleds, scooters, neons, big bulbs, bumper boats, toboggans, and whatever else the guy could get his hands on. Swanky. I poked my head into the new bar area, and it looks nice, beautiful new bar, cool lights hanging, and new carpets/tables. I didn't get any pictures in here, because it seemed like they were having a meeting. The food selection seems to have been stepped up this year too, above the big cafeteria area there are signs for a pizza place, Starbucks Johnny Rockets, and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. A TR about the fries will have to come from someone else, because I usually just cruise down to the Shoppes at Montage for a burrito from Panchero's instead of hitting up the lodge, but maybe I'll sample some of the food this year. So I decided to continue the tour and head out onto the patio by the snow, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, a lazy effing river surrounded by snow. I don't know what's up with that, but here is another angle to show you that I'm not making it up. Overall, the place looks great, I know they tuned up all the lifts, and long haul is 100% ready to run this year. New Groomer, and a diamond and a double diamond for opening day makes me a happy camper. For the first week or so I'm sure there will be some bugs to work out, but overall it seems pretty awesome, and as long as no lawyers get a look at that snowy death trap that is the lazy river, I think we are in for a quality first week.

Maybe they are waiting on a shipment of barrels? They seem to have done everything else right, so I can't imagine they would blow it by pushing snow into the lazy river.

There aren't any open trails serviced by long haul yet.

2 northface trails open for today, the weirdest thing about the snow up there is that as of last night, half the lazy river is still exposed in the base area. It cuts off the Mainline/highball trails and the shuttle lift off from everything else by a chasom of concrete. I had a little report all done up last night, but my pictures wouldn't work, so I'll have to redo it when I get a chance today

This weather is a little iffy. If I can find a few dry hours maybe I'll poke around up there for a bit, but I'm not counting on being on the snow until tomorrow at this point.

I was going to head up there tonight, but I got caught up putting up Christmas Lights, and I figured the party wouldn't involve getting my pass picture done anyway so I skipped it. Glad to hear it's looking good up there. I'll snap some pictures tomorrow when I run up to get my pass.

I put the Christmas lights up just now sans jacket. I hope this Arctic air gets here soon so they can blow some more snow.

Nothing but rain going on up in the Scranton area. All the white that we had last night is gone. Good luck to anyone going out tonight, it's going to be a mess of black ice and DUI check points.

Date has officially been announced on facebook: December 6th.

Beer and food is always free out of my tailgate, which is conveniently parked next to the top of the Phoebe Snow lift most days. In the off chance I feel ritzy I will cruise down to the Shoppes at Montage and grab a burrito from Panchero's and eat it up at the mountain.

Light's on and snow flying at Le Mount Tage tonight, as visible from the parking lot of my gym.

I guess I better get up there and get my pass picture done sooner than later.

Eagle Rock doesn't make any money at all off of the ski area. It operates at a loss each year, but they keep it going to add to the appeal of the resort. It gets funded by other aspects of the operation.

It has seemed to me for the past few years, and this really confirms it, that ski areas here in PA (with the exception of a few) are run like amusement parks. Shuttle them in, keep them there long enough to buy an expensive lunch and grab some rental charges, and then ship them back to the city.

Flurried for most of the afternoon here in the Wyoming Valley

Some serious stoke to see someone getting at it. Can't wait until the cold makes its way down here.

So I guess that means that the $200 off peak pass is off the table. I guess I'll snag a regular one today on the end of the discount period.

Foliage was a little on the downswing, but still pretty nice. Running both doubles was a must. The lifts were running at a snails pace and they were only loading every other chair on the way up, and every 4th on the way down. Lines were long in both directions. The place got pretty crowded, all of the lots were full and the elk wagon was running. The most crowded spot was the bar in the mid afternoon, everyone was in there grabbing some pumpkin brews. I never really thought of it before at Elk, but it doesn't really have any sort of patio or deck to hang out on. People were just kind of crowding on the little boardwalks and in the grass outside the bar to hang out and drink. I probably would have stayed longer if there was somewhere to sit outside, but a little plastic table in the bar, even with the windows open, wasn't appealing.