trackbiker

EVERYONE calls it K-Mart. More so the good skiers/riders than the gapers. Closing the lower Skye Ship gondi mid-week is a BIG mistake IMHO. Yeah, Great Eastern is considered "lame" by the hardcore crowd, but if you know the alternate routes, it's a great LONG cruiser trail! I bet the new management rethinks closing the lower Skye Ship next year due to lost business. Most of the people taking a mid-week ski vacation are looking for long cruisers. That would make me rethink a trip to K-mart. I want to take my son there. But not when lower Skye Ship is closed. And we aren't going on a weekend!

Anymore, I always get my skis "quicktuned" (sharpen and hot wax) at the slopes. Saves the time and trouble of dropping them off at a ski shop and then picking them up. Takes about a 1/2hr. You just have to do it at a time that is not busy. The best time is the middle of a session after the rentals are out and before they come back. I just drop them off while taking a break and pick them up a 1/2hr later. Weekdays and nights are best. Just had mine quicktuned last Fri. night at Bear Creek. I've also done it at Blue. The best was Jack Frost on a weekday while having lunch. The retired guy there did a great job on my and my sons skis. He even did some P-Tex at no extra charge. Usually costs about $5.00 more than a shop, but the convenience is worth it. (Plus, I aways give a $5.00 tip so the guy remembers me and they usually do a really good job the next time.)

If your board is perpendicular to the fall line, as opposed to parallel to the fall line, most of the time; you're on a slope above your abilities. ANYONE can side-slip down a steep hill. But when you do that, you are scraping the snow off the hill and doing more damage than 100 snowplowing skiers. When you stand there perpendicular to the hill, thinking you look gnarly, skiers AND BOARDERS who actually know how to CARVE a turn, look at you and say, "A$$ Hole!!!" There's a reason that boards have a parabolic shape on the sides. If you don't why, or what "fall line" means, do everyone a favor and stay in the park! You don't have the edges to CARVE a turn anyway. Oh, and don't sit in the middle of the of trail when it is too tough for you to ride all the way to the bottom. Stop on the side of the trail.

The only discounts I know of are the vouchers sold by the town or borough recreation departments. Weekends: $47.00 Weekdays: $34.00

IIRC they are only open on Fri, Sat, Sun., and holidays. Sounds like a good option anytime for making laps without crowds. Have you skied there before? Do they only sell tickets at the top lodge? Thanks for posting the trail map.

Nice report. I've been wanting to check Eagle Rock out. Did they have all of the trails open?

ski, you're the biggest promoter/defender of Sno! Never mind the $6.00 chicken tenders, they should give you a free season pass for all of the free marketing they get from your post! They've sold a lot of tickets to people from the other PA ski areas who you convinced to give Sno a try. If anything, to be honest, I find your posts to be a little too defensive sometimes. But I understand where you are coming from and it's almost always just a difference of opinion. I have never found any "facts" in your posts not to be true. Hey, you don't always have to agree with your customer's, but you should listen to them. If they think that throwing in a High Speed lift and some new trails next year will bring hoards of skiers to Sno next year, they haven't seen the loyalty of skiers/boarders to their home mountains. All you need to do is read the threads on this sight to see that. Are they really listening?

I think they might have more people if they had the east side open. When people who haven't been there look at a conditions report and see those trails not open, they think that there is more to ski at other places. Most of them wouldn't be taking too many of those 11 minute rides on Long Haul more than once anyway, but they don't know that because they've never been there. Sno is really like 2 ski areas. The Upper Mountain and the North Face. Every other area has a higher percentage of terrain open. I know they blew those huge piles for the park, but like GSS said a while back, maybe they need to refocus their snowmaking. Maybe they're plan is to sandbag on the east side this year, and wait until they have a new lift, some new top-to-bottom trails, and better lighting next year, and then put out a big marketing campaign?

2 Days in a row!?.............................Sorry, fell out of my seat! Let's see ....He's not sick, isn't at Stowe or Jackson Hole........hmm, must be a woman involved here The Blue Mountain personnel must have sent out a search party after not seeing you for two days in a row!

So i'm assuming they made snow last night? How about the upper mountain? Switch is still listed as being closed. Temps should be good for snowmaking tonight and hopefully some real stuff tomorrow night!

GSS, No trip report for 1-11-08?! I'm going into withdrawal! It was Camelback that was closed tonight, not Blue! Hopefully you had a date tonight with a gorgeous ski babe. For that we will give you a pass. Regardless, we will be expecting you to be there for first chair on Satuday, 1-12-08. With a report to follow!

Likely to save the conditions for when it gets cold again. Skiers/boarders on wet snow packs it down and makes ice when it gets cold. Believe it or not, the ra!n will drain through the snow if it isn't packed down. They can then groom it out. Not powder, but not ice either. I'd rather they close a trail for a day or two to save the conditions for the next week or two. Mad River Glen and Magic closed in VT today for this same reason. They do need to get those 193 new guns cranking when it gets cold again!

Great first report Melissa! It's really nice to have an objective review of the conditions. For this part, "Upper mountain was SLUSH. Bare patches and puddles", most mountains would have reported, "Upper mountain is WET PACKED POWDER. A few thin spots with some non-frozen snow." And for this part, "Snow on the Northface was soft but not slush and base looked fine."... Snow on the Northface is PACKED POWDER with a ONE GAZILLION INCH BASE." All-in-all, a great first report from Camelot (err, I mean Sno) Mountain! Not quite up to GSS's standards for reports from Blue; but only because you didn't tell us what you had to eat on the way home. But all-in-all a great report! Please keep posting reports! We need an objective review. Otherwise we could just go to the ski area Conditions Report. P.S. To beat out GSS as best PASkiandRide reporter, all you need to do is, if you buy shampoo on the way home; tell us what brand. (Before anyone gets their panties in a wad, I love Doug's reports. In fact I want to know which place in A-town has the wing special on Mon. nights)

Did they cut down more trees between Switch and Spike? Riding the Iron Horse on a cold, windy day would not be fun on that lift. It is really exposed. There is a line of poles there already which would make it easy to put up some more lighting for the park. I have to revise one of my Pros; The trash barrel is not under the Phoebe lift this year. I always thought that the barrel helped cut down on the litter under the lift. (Not that I ever used it, I do all my drinking apres ski. ) I'll add a Pro; the lifts seem to have been PM'd well over the summer. The sheeve trains are quiet and the Phoebe seemed to be running a little faster. Not sure because I didn't time it.

Was up Sunday night. Conditions were still great!

Thanks for the report, Rummy! Looking to get to ELK soon.

Thanks for the update. We all know they had their hands full with the water park project this past summer. But it's still good to hear what's going on with the ski area improvements. A few lights here and there to eliminate some dark spots should still make a noticable improvement on some trails until they update the whole lighting system.

Pros: Best snowmaking system in PA. (Why aren't they 100% open yet?) No crowds even on holiday weekends. Nice black diamonds separate from the rest of the mountain. Nice variety of terrain. The trash barrel under the Phoebe lift. Cons: No High Speed lift. High lift ticket prices. No deals or special days for seniors, college kids, Sun. night skiing or for ANYTHING. Smallest discount in the PRPS program with no night ticket offered. $3.00 lockers. Poor lodge location. Bad lighting. Tried to make the pros = cons, but I haven't been there yet this year and other than the beer prices, I don't think any of the cons have changed. Is the ski check free now or still $3.00?

While I don't agree with all of the trail ratings, the new map is a more accurate representation of the mountain. Just look at riderossi's Google Earth map and compare the old and the new trail maps. When I suggested a connection like the Rattler to Cannonball last spring, all of the Sno regulars were against it. After reading their responses, I agreed. Mostly for keeping the nubes off of the North Face. I guess we'll have to ski it this year to see if it is a good or bad thing. All of the old trail names were railroad related. The new trails are snake related. My guess is they will change all of the old trail names once they install a new HS lift and some new top-to-bottom trails.

poconoceancity, From the Quakertown exit on I476, Blue is only 15 - 20 minutes farther than BC as long as you're not traveling at rush hour. I know because I live near the Q-town exit and timed it. It's more miles to Blue but less slow back roads than BC. If you're a skier and not a "park hound", it's worth the extra time. Just follow the directions on Blues website. I've tried all kinds of ways and that's still the fastest. Congrats on the new baby, by the way!

You were at a mountain in VT surrounded by condos and houses Christmas week and it was crowded? Who would have thought? When are you going to VT next not expecting any crowds, Presidents or MLK weekend? sexkitten, I was there Dec. 6 & 7. Myself and 3 friends were the only ones riding the Jackson Gore Quad for the last 2 hrs! Packed powder with 3 inches of fresh on top! If you like Blue Cruisers, you'll love Okemo. And if you like being pampered, you'll love the Jackson Gore Inn. Have fun and give us a report.

I'm all for keeping the whole lower mountain black diamonds. I see that the new trail is a green circle and they downgraded Upper Fast Track to a green circle. No problem there as novices can get to the Iron Horse lift from those trails and stay on the upper mountain. But they down graded Lower Fast Track and Lower Runaway to double blue squares. Those trails get steeper as you near the bottom and have some turns. Not good for Nubes who are carrying some speed when they hit the headwalls down there. It seems like they are trying to appeal to a bigger market of skiers, but the true black diamond skiers will not like the nubes littering the trails and the nubes won't have such a great experience either after they crash down there. Might be a good time to send some emails to Sno as it seems the map is not "official" yet. (And yes, Melissa, that includes you! )

Sorry to hear about A-Jeff. Hopefully, with modern medicine, he'll be back on the slopes this season.

Ski4Food, Thanks for the input. Seems like you have a lot of inside information. I agree that the mountain has a lot of potential and is a great place to ski when the natural snow is good. Regardless of what the charter says, they need to do some creative accounting to upgrade the lifts, snowmaking, and lodge. It would make it a lot easier to sell the real estate if they had a first class resort. I hope that they do make improvements in the years to come, but in the mean time, I'll take my $56.00 somewhere else for better lifts, conditions, lodge, and have enough left over for lunch. They still need to get there priorities straight, or reduce the ticket price in the mean time. Or at least offer some discounts. I can drive just a little bit farther and have a much better experience for less money than staying in their village. Just my 2 cents worth.

Google Earth is really cool, but the verticals are not always that accurate due to how the program works. Topozone.com or terraserver.com would give you a more accurate vertical.