trackbiker

Method, all good points. I learned a lot from your post. I knew about the air pockets being a problem, but I bet most people don't know what "kneading" is. (It's tilling the snow piles to get rid of air pockets.) It's great to see an area spending money. My only concern is what they are spending it on. They could have the best park and lighting system in PA for what they are spending on that pipe. They still have to eventually show a profit. Goes back to the same old question, "How do you end up with $1million in the ski industry? ... Start with $10million!" Bear Creek has a different business plan. After a terrible season last year, they expanded their snowmaking pond, and still added a big addition to their hotel. Obviously, because there is a demand for more rooms. They are booked year-round with weddings and banquets. They primarily market the ski & stay packages to the Baltimore - D.C. area. The mountain is nothing compared to Sno's terrain, but I bet they have more skier visits than Sno. It's always crowded when I'm there. I never thought it would work for "Doe Mtn.", but I was wrong about that. But I've learned what they saw and I didn't. At the time of the sale, Sno said they were not interested in realestate. Don't know if they were/are just biding their time for building permits later, but the money in the ski business is in the hotels and realestate, not the skiing and riding! Just look at all the big players in the ski business. They've been making money in the villages and condos. IMHO, BC has the better business plan. Sno will need to build a hotel to attract the average "few-times-a-year-families-with-money-to-spend" to their water-park and for skiing. Those people don't care about 22' half-pipes. They want long blue cruisers, good grooming, a good ski school for the kids, and apres ski amenities.

Good One! Best laugh I had all day! I think most people on this board didn't get it!

How many of you have seen a real super pipe? I mean an X-Games type super pipe? And I mean not on TV. The ones I've seen have been on black diamond steep slopes. You really can't see how steep they really are on TV. A 22' half pipe on the upper mountain at Sno is a waste of time and snowmaking. You won't even be able to make it to the top of the pipe, never mind get any air out of it. Put up all the "hater" emoticons you want. That's just physics. It would have to be on the North Face to get any air out that thing. When it's done, put up some videos of people getting 10' of air out it and I'll be the first person to say I was wrong. Bottom line; the new ownership is trying hard, and spending a lot of money. But I'll bet a season pass that there is new ownership by 2014. Any takers?

Good analysis. I was at Camelback Fri. from 1:00 to 7:15. Planned to stay 'till 8:00 or 9:00, but the conditions did not hold up. Most trails turned to boiler plate in the center with up to a foot of frozen granular piles on the sides after sunset. The steeps at CB have been a sheet of ice everytime I have ever been there going back to the '70's. Granted, I've never been there for first turns, and I'm sure the r@!n earlier this week did not help. They were not too bad early on because NO ONE was on them and you could pick your turns. Some were better than others. Best trail was Dromedary because most people either miss the turn off of Big Pocono Run, or slide on by it on the ice! Early on, Nile Mile had more traffic on it than I80 on my way up. 80% of the people getting off the Stevenson Quad take Nile Mile. When I went back to it later, it was scaped in the center with piles of frozen granular up to a foot deep on the sides. In other words, yardsale city for the noobes. The top of Cliff Hanger was OK early on if you stayed to the right. The bottom 2/3 was great all day. But you had to traverse the ice on the top 1/3 to get to the bottom 2/3. Pharoah; they should just close that trail. Or rename it Ice Chute/Yardsale. The noobe's, after skiing Nile Mile, see the Blue Squares and take the trail. After the first U-turn, they are on an Ice Chute for about 150 yds. then do a Yardsale at the next turn! A nice trail from the second turn on down. Most people should take it from the Raceway Triple on down. All in all, a good day. But CB needs to improve their grooming and grind up all of that boiler plate on the steeps.

I saw the same thing last weekend. Sno should definetely keep Lower Runaway and Cannonball rated as Black Diamonds! In VT they would be rated as Blue Squares. But for the noobee's sake and ours, having them do a "yardsale" then walking down the middle of the slope, isn't better for them or us. It's a "Lose-Lose". Keep those trails rated as Black Diamonds and do us ALL a favor!

ski, thanks for the report. I'll give it to Sno for conditions. I went there over Blue Sat. night, even though it is 40 miles and a half hour farther. Plus $3.00 more for a ticket and $7.50 in tolls, plus the extra gas. I haven't skied as much as planned this year, so I go when I can and conditions are the priority. I would still put lighting over the 22' Zaug. I didn't see anyone in their 13' half pipe. Switch was one of only 2 trails closed because they used the snowmaking for the mounds on Spike. Was it open for NASTAR today? I would make it a priority over the park. But that's my opinion. I pack my own lunch. It's better than waiting in line for over priced greasy burgers. Apres ski is not important unless I'm in NE or out west, so it's all about conditions for me in PA.

Skied Sno Sat. night. Conditions were fast packed powder with about an inch of fresh natural on top. Only a few spots in the center scaped off on the head walls near the bottom, but all edgable. About 7:15 it started snowing HUGE wet flakes mixed with rain at the bottom, all snow at the top. Dumped about 1" - 1.5" in 20 min. Totally got covered in wet snow on the Long Haul. Conditions changed to slow wet snow in one run. Later it got skied in with the drier stuff and the North Face was better on the last run than my first. No lines. Only problem was people waiting for friends right in front of the loading zone. Lots of nubes snowplowing down to the bottom. They need to change those trails back to black diamonds on the map. They're still marked black on the trails. The $3.00 locker system wasn't working, but there's always bags all over the place because I don't think anyone uses them anyway.

The kids don't even eat the damn pizza! They take two bites, then run around like wild indians, yelling and screaming. Chuck E Cheese is for parents who usually use the TV as a babysitter and don't have a CLUE as to how to relate to their kids or have a relationship with them. Just look around at a Chuck E Cheese, the kids are all off going nuts and their fat, out of shape parents are all sitting at the tables talking bullshit. Turn off the TV on Fri. nights and play cards, scrabble, chess, checkers, Life, Trivial Pursuit, or freeking Chutes and Ladders with your kids! Or take them skiing, biking, boating or whatever... Kids won't remember the SUV and McMansion you don't need. They'll remember the time you spent with them! On a good day, it is worth getting up for first tracks; but I wish that wrist band system had worked at Sno, so I could ski from 2:00pm 'till 10:00pm on good conditions instead of getting there at 8:00 am! Hey, I used to start the weekend early and party 'till 3:00 on Thurs. nights and be at my desk at 8:00am on Fri. mornings. Not any more. After a few weeks of that, you start saying "goodbye" around 10:00!

I wouldn't care if the visibility was ZERO, I'd turn on the flashers and go 90 just to get the he!! away from Chuck E Cheese as fast as possible!!!! Closing during a rain storm is not a bad thing. It keeps the snow from being compressed into boiler plate and lets the rain drain through the snow. It can then be groomed back out to much better conditions than if they stayed open for a handful of people.

sexkitten, great post! Can you post a link to it or let us know where it is from?

That's a lot better than 11:30 to 12:00 last year. Thanks for the report. The pics are great! Now if you can only give GSS some photography lessons!

So we're still talking 11.5 to 12 min. to the top. I don't think any lift at Elk takes that long. But I'll let you know. I'll be at Elk on Sun. Elk had everything open today except for Lehigh which has no snowmaking, Seneca under the double chairs (which only really gets blow-over snowmaking from Susquehanna), and Tioga Spur which is really a connector trail. I'd say Elk won the snowmaking and most terrain open contest this year regardless of Sno's new super snowmaking system. I'm sure ski will have a response, but I would say that experience counts.

Well said. 90% of the people who would carry a pack would be OK. It's the 10% of the goobers who have all kinds of sh!t hanging off it and loose straps, etc. who would cause a problem an get hung up on the lift. Hey, if you are looking for "glade skiing" in PA, go to Jack Frost! If you call that call that one trail "glade skiing"!

IIRC, I estimated the Long Haul lift was running approximately 400 ft/min. last year. Most fixed grip lifts have a design speed of 500 ft/min. Doesn't seem like much but that's 25% faster. I remember snoemployee saying they had all the drives for the lifts overhauled in the off season. I thought the Phoebe was running faster and quieter this year. That lift was slower than Long Haul last year.

Didn't you know? Whistler is the "Ski by Braille" Trail at Sno! If you don't have white ski poles with red tips and a German Shepherd on a leash barking directions, you shouldn't be on that trail!

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!