trackbiker

Skied Bear Creek last night 4:30-7:15 on the Indy Pass. Conditions were pretty much as described. Nice snow on hardpack. Everything carve-able. Snowed the whole time I was there so the surface got a good inch or so to keep things nice. Lines weren't bad. They opened Lift A in addition to B around 6:30. No race team on Timberline which was pretty empty due to the flat traverse to get to it. Nothing too hard there but not bad for a midweek after work session to stay in shape for bigger mountains.

This has always been the problem at Blue. They turn the guns off and immediately push the piles out. They're a cookie factory. They have the worst grooming in PA. If they waited a day to push them out the conditions would be much better.

They have snowmaking but it's not a great system unless they've upgraded it a lot recently.

Sometime when the natural snow is good, you should check out Blue Knob. It's still a ways past Carlisle but worth it when the snow is good.

After the Epic lift lines last year and even long time Philly weather person Cecily Tynan posting about the crowds, people are avoiding the place this year. Fail doesn't understand the Pocono Market. The Pocono Market includes a lot of families who do a once year trip to the mountains to ski. They're not Epic pass buyers. With the super high day ticket prices, they either skipped the winter weekend trip, went somewhere else, or did other activities. Fails pass sales went down this year even though they started including pre-purchased day tickets in their sales numbers to make the numbers look good for their shareholders.

Montage was ski on most of the day with a few chair wait at times. 100% open and conditions held up all day.

Bubble lifts are actually less susceptible to wind. They're heavier and the bubble actually helps with aerodynamics.

I don't do FB. I wonder if they count the Indy Pass. Some other areas do.

Where did you see this $35 deal? I don't see it anywhere on their website.

Hasn't been changed on the county parcel map yet. Just the bolder type and size of "Altera" on the Name line make it look suspicious. Plus they likely would make a new corporation for the ski area and it wouldn't be under "Altera". Altera would be the holding company.

No. That's a Maine thing, bub.

Blue is 4 season resort with mountain biking, glamping, and weddings which are a huge profit maker. Elk is only open for skiing so I don't see near the same price for Elk. I don't see a lot of space for real-estate development so I'm not sure someone would be buying it to build condos but I could be wrong about that.

West Mountain is worth hitting on the way up or back from central/northern Vermont or Gore or Whiteface. When it's 100% open it has a lot of fun runs. Especially on the Northwest side. Skis bigger than it looks. Lines never get too long even on weekends.

They did do a good with the lodge renovation. They really only had one moderately steep short trail at the bottom.