Schif

This place has gotten pretty wild lately. Remember all the times that long threads were about skiing? It's almost september and all that there is going on here is infighting and goofy shit. Preseason bar nights, weekends at the beach, different wax types, favorite runs, hell even talking about your favorite stickers to put on your gear bag would be more interesting and fun than all of this. P.S. If the bird is so damn sick, take it to the vet.

I haven't been up there in a while, but from what I've heard, its all pretty swanky now. They are renovating all over the place and I know a lot of people who have been going on adult swim nights on Thursday and loving the place.

Mid 40s in upstate new york over the weekend when I was camping. Where did that come from?

Woah, that's a major bummer Kyle, what happened?

Didn't expect to go up, but my girlfriend's family was in for her graduation and they wanted to go to the Celtic Festival, since I'm Irish myself I didn't mind and we went up on Sunday afternoon. It was a decent time. Some pretty fun bands played, and it was more fun than I expected. Honestly, it was a lot smaller festival than it had been in the past (we went a lot to it when it was held in wilkes-barre) and also, I wasn't really sure why Pirates were involved in certain booths. I ended up getting prodded by my girlfriend's nearly 70 year old aunt to go on the zip line with her, and I must say it was awesome. I was skeptical at first, but that thing is a blast. Also, the fact that it's 10 bucks a ride, as opposed to 30 at Camelback is a great selling point. When you watch people zipping down from the base area it doesn't look like they are going that fast, but that's because they are just in the runout portion before the springs that stop you. The top of the line has got some serious speed to it. Definitely worth a trip up just for the price alone for any PASR's looking for summer fun. The water park looked a hair small to me, but I guess I'm used to camelbeach. Also, they painted over almost everything that said "Sno" thankfully, and are doing a ton of work to make the place look great.

Glad to see some progress being made, especially with the old trailer getting out of there, it really made the place look cheap.

That's fantastic news. Maybe I'll come up and hit the water park in a few weeks when it gets warmer. I've never been there, but for as close to my house as it is, it's probably worth a few hours to splash around.

This is exciting, but it's going to be a long road ahead. I'll be there next year with a pass again, but you've got to convince a whole lot of other people to head up to the place too.

Hey KC, what is going on with the zip line? At the end of the winter it looked so abandoned the steps were broken on it in one spot.

How are the new F20s? That is the boot I"m on now, but I haven't seen a pair around. Are they still a low profile style?

I know it's a long shot, since hardly anyone on here rides anymore, but my boots have finally gone belly up, I'll probably be able to salvage one or two more rides on them for this weekend, (so sad to see them go) but I'm going to need new ones. What do you guys think of BOA vs. other speed lacing systems? I have Salomon boots from about 4 years ago with a quick lacing system, and it seems like a lot of bots are now doing a variant of that, or simply BOA, Pros and cons of each? Other Criteria: Size 12, stiff flex,

That's a pretty awesome TR, it really looks like an epic kind of trip. Thanks for posting!

Definitely a Saturday trip for me. Gotta keep the dream alive for one more day.

Another thing I found a little odd about Camelback now, since I haven't been there in a few years, was how small the mountain skied. From an acreage point of view, the place is massive, but once you get out there, there just aren't that many ways down the mountain. Runs get repetitive pretty quickly there. Also, the system they have for the terrain parks is absolutely ridiculous. The entire middle section of the mountain is now a series of 5 different parks which have been fenced off from all the other trails! Not that I'm a park rat, but I like to cruise and hit a nice jump line or a rail or two sometimes. Can't do it at Camelback. In order to get into the parks, you need to ride a lift that services them directly, but you can't get on that lift without a park pass, which costs $10! Just another reason it feels like an amusement park, they let you in after you pay a ton of money, but then there are certain extras that they hit you up for once you're in. That's crazy to me, especially since they seem to have gotten the concept right by building small, medium and large parks. I can understand the concept of a park pass (If it's free) to get into a big park, that makes sense, but to keep me (a wily veteran) out of even the small and medium ones is just garbage.

I was up there all day, got in around 10:30 am and just got home now. I probably passed you at some point and didn't even know it Ridge Racer. Snow was great in the morning, but then got pretty sloppy after about 1 or 2. Definitely the kind of day that takes a lot out of your legs, but it was awesome under bright blue skies. I agree that it feels like an amusement park up there. There is something going on everywhere from music to the mountain coaster, to the zip lines. It feels like the skiing is just another attraction at a big park.

Didn't they used to have a moose costume? Maybe I can pick that up for dirt cheap and have a sweet halloween outfit for next year

I'll be up there tomorrow morning. Anyone else going to be around?

Actually, for the most part this year, they only ran 3 lifts at any given time. The bunny, Iron Horse (servicing the top of the mountain on the Blues) and Phoebe Snow (Northface Lift)

It would shock me. I can't imagine anyone making capital improvements in the place until it makes back the cash they already put into it so they know it's worth it.

Glad to hear that someone bought the old girl, and hopefully we get back into the swing of things up there. I was just getting into the new name too! Damn these guys and their sensibility with renaming the place. Maybe if I'm lucky I can score some of the old Sno Mountain signs.

I'm not mad that they closed, I'm mad that they closed in this manner. I left last Sunday saying "I'm not going to push it at the end of the day, I'll be back in 2 days max."

Well as per their Facebook this morning, Snö mountain is officially closed for the season. I'm not upset that they are closed, the past few weekends have been dismal in terms of guests, most of whom were passholders, but to close via Facebook midweek with no warning is a classless move. I had every intention to go for a RAW session tonight, guess that's not happening now. I have no problem with the fact that things are tough for them money wise, but if you have any intention on ever continuing in this entertainment/service based industry, moves like this, and the other small ones I've noticed in the past few weeks are more detrimental than the loss of capital. Close during the week, and push for one or two extra weekends, push them, throw parties, market the last few days, it doesn't matter, but the way it looks right now is that the accountant said close so its all over. Put up a facade of good fortune, that's all it takes to inspire confidence. The bad position looks a lot worse now than it actually does on the books. I'm not saying you should really care about the image, but at least pretend to in front of the customers. Guess I'll be seeing you guys at blue this weekend.

I didn't see anything on their website. Which is why I'll probably be at Camelback next Saturday.

It's a soaker out there today. I'm lowering the flag to half mast in honor of the snow that's left.

3-9-13 and 3-10-13 With this kind of weather, everyone was all atwitter about the upcoming weekend and the Scranton parade. I had two options, either go downtown, push through crowds of filthy revelers in the morning, not actually see the parade and pay $5 for a can of Coors light from a trough, or I could head up to the big mountain that overlooks that mess. Clearly I took the latter. I lazed about in the morning, which is not ever a big deal at Sno Mountain, and cruised into the lot around 10am. I booted up beneath beautiful blue skies and right next to the bottle of Bell's Pale ale. I loaded up my pockets with some Budweiser and cruised on off and headed up the Iron Horse lift. The snow was beautiful. Soft, smooth, hardly rutted up and no slick spots to speak of. The M.O. of the day was big slashes and buttering around under blue skies. After a few top to bottom runs I went back to the car and dropped my lightweight jacket and helmet, in favor of an Adidas soccer jacket and a pair of sunglasses. At this point I took in a few glasses of Rare Vos by Ommegang, and continued to enjoy the fact that I wasn't jockeying for position at a dirty bar. I put some cans of Blue Point Toasted Lager in my pockets and headed down Cannonball. The headwalls were just perfect for jumping and one of the highlights of the day was launching the second one along with a few ski patrolers, and unlike Blue where they clip your ticket, they gave me props and followed suit. More cruisers, more rippers on the northface, and the snow was still holding up pefectly. By 2:30 or so there were some brown spots poking through in heavily traveled connectors, but other than that the snow was awesome. I took a break at this point and cruised into the lodge. The end is near, as they only have a few domestic brews left, most of the tap handles are gone. I ordered a buffalo chicken paninni and a side of fries for $12. Not a bad deal, and the sandwich was actually very good, super fresh bleu cheese and nice sauce. Back at it for another 7 runs after that, as I was getting a tad tired. Mostly top to bottoms and enjoying basking in the sun up top. I got home about 7pm after dropping my friend off, and immediately took a nap, while realizing I got sunburned. Sunday was a super lazy day for me. Rolled out of bed and went to Church, and only got up to the mountain at 1. Again, it's Sno mountain so that's not a problem. Soft snow, not quite as warm thanks to some clouds but still an awesome day. I actually spent a lot of time lapping the park. The jumps were in great shape and were really fun to hit, even for someone who doesn't do it much. Beers for the day included a bomber of Stone Arrogant Bastard, Stella Artois, and Labatt Blue. Lunch was a run down to the Shoppes at Montage for a burrito at Panchero's. Snow was just as good as Saturday, the connector from Phoebe Snow to Cannonball was a little brown, but not too bad. Overall it was easily the most fun weekend of the year, and I was on the mountain for back to back nearly 7 hour sessions. Epic weekend. Though some spots were getting thin, it was not nearly bad enough to warrant closing any trails yet. Good times to be had by all.