Schif

Nope. This is by far the worst year of my life in terms of getting on the snow.

Seems like a good excuse to cut out for a day and drive the 2 hours to Blue.

Hey JLaw, you might know since you seem to be the expert on everything, what's the deal with Farmer's Cabinet? Half the time I go to philly they are open, the other half they are closed due to some health code problem or liquor license violation. Are they open or closed right now?

Monk's Cafe on 16fth for some brews and mussels, cruise old city on foot. Barcade is a good time. last time I went to philly I wound up afternoon bar hopping through Fishtown and the surroundings. Fun to drink good beer and check out the wildlife (patrons). Kraftwerk, Johnny Brendas, Bottle Bar East, Strangeloves, Eulogy, all good spots. If you couldn't tell, I typically drink when I'm in Philly.

So does Montage. which isn't always necessary when you can park literally (not figuratively) next to the lift that you will be using the most.

The fog down here in Harrisburg was unreal last night and even with all the fog and 24 hours of torrential downpours the snowpack remains. Probably down to about a foot or so across the area and the giant piles are holding very strong.

Eventually it'll run, and eventually I'll ride it and have plenty of time to drink an entire bomber bottle and eat a cheese plate while on the 1000 vert ride. Soon enough grasshoppers.

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw that too.

Homeowners and guests only, though they do give out lots of guest passes. Just have to know someone who lives there and you get in for free.

So I went on a limb and decided to cruise down 81 a bit and try out a new mountain today. Kind of a lazy day so I got my gear together and got on the road around noon. Picked up my friend Mike and drove to Hazleton. Nothing says nice ride to a mountain like a quick trip through an Industrial park. So I get to Eagle Rock a bit before 1 and breeze through the security gate after the guy made sure I was on the list and he took my drivers license for some reason. It was my first time to Eagle rock so I drove around a bit and followed signs for the base lodge which took me from the top of the mountain down to the bottom. There were no parking spots down there and the Lodge was closed so I figured I was in the wrong spot. Turned around and called my brother who directed me to the top lodge where I parked and booted up. Headed inside to pick up my lift tickets and I was off. The story of the day was the snow. In the Wyoming Valley and at Montage we got a dusting, maybe 3 inches max, I actually cleared my sidewalks with a leafblower. Well that's not going to fly at Eagle Rock. They got 2.5 feet of snow yesterday and they left a ton of it ungroomed. First run was claw run to Screamin' Eagle. Claw run was a simple little warm up green circle and it finishes up at a spot where you can choose to either get on a double lift that will take you back to the top of the mountain or continue on down a really nice steep headwall with a turn to the right at the bottom. The snow on the right half of the trail was ungroomed and was mostly untouched. Lots of great float in there all day long. Next run was a cruise around Baldy to Screamin' Eagle. The theme of the day was to just go back and forth between all the different green circles and finish with a nice dive down Screamin' Eagle. All the other diamonds were closed. I tried to poach one, but there were clearly some ungroomed whales and icy hunks under the soft snow so I decided against it. Eagle Rock, while a decent amount of trails were closed, skis bigger than it looks. I am looking forward to going there a few more times this year. The views from the slopes are pretty nice too There are some pretty snazzy slopeside houses/condos too. So here's where things get a little crazy. I've been one of the few knuckledraggers on this site since the early days.I love snowboarding, it's truly one of the greatest things ever. But for some reason I decided to try something new. Is that what it looks like? I'm not sure what happened. I think I blacked out for a few minutes. That looks like my mitten in the picture but it surely can't be what it seems. Oh my. That is definitely me and I'm apparently carrying two sticks and I have two tiny snowboards attached to my feet. Well long story short I spent 2 hours in this strange and unnatural state. I went about 300 feet saying "Pizza, French Fry" to myself and then decided that was pretty dumb and I felt more comfortable than I expected and I was able to almost immediately start skiing parallel and actually making/linking turns. I'm a little more comfortable turning to the left, but I'm OK to the right too. I can also hockey stop and make nice slow and deliberate turns. I tried to make nice tight side to side turns and the first time I tried that I caught an edge and fell (also I have no idea how to stand up on these things so I had to take them off) but the second time I got the hang of it and I was doing alright. I wasn't comfortable enough for Screamin' Eagle so I did all the green trails and went to the beginner lift for 2 hours but I must say I felt good and I really enjoyed it. I know it's really late in the season for my first TR but I hope to follow this up with a bunch more. Cheers, Schif

I bet Long Haul will be open this weekend. All the better for drinking beers leisurely on the chair and going top to bottom in the woods is there's enough snow.

Watching the models and the Weather Channel and sipping on a cocktail. Tonight is a good night.

Looks Like Southern PA is going to get the brunt of this storm. Maybe I'll have to make a trek over to Roundtop.

Montage, oh the mythical beast that is often discussed and seldom skied. A HSQ would be a terrible idea to replace Long Haul. Think about it, all of a sudden you're putting hundreds of people at the top of Upper Runaway and Fast Track and of course the Glades. From there you could also reasonably access Whistler and maybe switch. These 3-4 trails funnel into Lower Runaway and Fast Track, as well as the possibility to go to Rattler which funnels into Cannonball. So long story short you're talking about 2 decent routes top to bottom that would get you back to the HSQ. Let's also remember that all of this terrain is labeled as intermediate and above. All of a sudden you've got tons of Tom Dick and Harrys all over the damn place. These guys will fall, they will slide, they will scrape, they will get hurt and most importantly they will ski off the only top to bottom routes within 2 hours. Let's also remember that the Glades at Montage are pretty great and they stay untracked for hours and hours if not days if you know where to look. All of that is gone with a HSQ. It will turn into blue mountain where you have to be up there for first chair if you want any chance of getting the goods. Ok so here's my take on why Montage doesn't do the numbers of blue and CB. First of all it's the extra drive. Camelback is a hair over an hour from the GW bridge, throw on another 45 minutes to an hour and New Yorkers don't have time for that. Same with Philly Pholks. An hour and half or so from the Philly area and you're at blue. Gotta go a few extra exits (45 minutes or so) and you're at Montage. Why go farther than you have to especially when you've got kids in tow. Now for the locals, The ones in the relatively close poconos have CB, Frost and Boulder so they are obviously locals to those places. The really close people now come from a really interesting part of the world. The Wyoming Valley which stretches from Scranton to Wilkes-Barre has never really given up on the old ways. These people live in bubbles. People from Pittston go to Wilkes-Barre for their shopping, people from other towns go to Scranton. Even though these places are close together it's really one or the other. You kind of stick to the paths that people around you run in and deal with what you know and not a whole lot outside of that. Wilkes-Barre has 2 major newspapers. Scranton has 2 papers. These cities are 20 minutes apart and admittedly in different counties but if you read these papers the stories are very different. Now on top of this there is another complete bubble in the are known as "The Abingtons" This encompasses Clarks Summit and the surrounding areas. The Abingtons might as well be somewhere in Kansas because people from up there know nothing of the rest of the valley. This area is easily the wealthiest in the entire region. These are the people that overall have an interest in Golf and Skiing. Interestingly enough Clark's Summit lies equidistant to Montage and Elk. If you ask someone from "the summit" where they play golf they say Glen Oak, ask them where they go skiing and they will all say Elk. These people will admit that Elk is too expensive, they will admit that it sucks they don't have a lot of night skiing, and they will all hate the fact that it's out in the middle of nowhere as opposed to Montage which is in the heart of a metropolis. Doesn't matter to them. Their parents went to Elk, their friends go to Elk, so they go to Elk. They almost forget that Montage is even there. They don't even really register the fact that CB or Blue or Frost/boulder exist either. One track mind.

Zee lights are shining at the finest ski resort within a 15 minute trolley ride of Sreamtown national historic site. They are blowing the hell out of switch, whistler, mainline, bunny slope and cannonball.

Anyone know how much tickets are supposed to be at blue and/or camelback?

If they can be open and there is enough snow to warrant a trip I would probably pop in on monday for a few hours. Then finish Christmas shopping at the Crossings across the street

Yikes! At least montage gives us a full hot buffet, live music, door prizes and a drink at the bar for the passholder party.

All this speculation is really rustling my jimmies.

People are still asking me to play golf on the weekends. Weather wise, i'm waking up each morning wondering when Halloween will come because Christmas sure as hell isn't on it's way with these temps.

Montage is running a deal right now where you can buy a 2 pack of lift tickets for $20 for the first Friday that they are open.

First week of March. I figure it'll still pretty much be winter out there.

So after the advice of you guys and poking around a bit I'm leaning towards Snowbird. It seems like a pretty solid mountain and a nice bonus is that it's really close to SLC meaning I could realistically stay in town and just drive to the mountain in the morning which I'm assuming would be more fun than staying there? I don't know much about the area but I'm guessing I'll find more apres ski fun in town and cheaper lodging too.

There were reports of some flakes and an icy road in the higher elevations of the Wyoming Valley this morning. Nothing substantial but it was coming down for a bit.

So I'm strongly considering going out west for the first time this March. My thoughts right now are to go to Utah. Probably fly into SLC and rent a car. What would you guys suggest in terms of which mountain to go to from there?