trackbiker

Hotlanta,GA has the best looking girls in the clubs plus the best food. Unfortunately, the skiing sucks there.

Every stripper (er sorry, dancer) I ever met was "working her way through college". Of course most of 'em don't even have a GED.

The best place after Blue is the Brass Rail off of the Lehigh St. exit of Rts. 309/78. Exit 57. They have a great Allentown cheese steak that often gets there before your beer. It's not a Philly cheese steak, but after skiing all night, it sure is good! Plus, where else is open till 1:00am after skiing on Fri. or Sat. night where you can get some food and some beer? The Brass Rail RULES!

Right now there is the Quad and the Challenge Chair. That's 6 seats on that side of the mountain. They are replacing the Challenge Chair with the 6-pack. That plus the Quad is a total of 10 seats vs. the current 6. 10/6 = 166% of what is there now. A detachable lift has the same uphill capacity as a fixed-grip lift per seat. The detach runs at 800fpm, the fixed-grip at 400fpm but there are twice as many chairs. They each load and unload every 6 sec.

So, you if you're not affected by long lift lines, you don't have any ideas how they could better spend the money to make things better for you?

If there are 66% more at the top, where are they going to go? They can't ride the lifts back down. You can't get to that side of the mountain from the 2 doubles by Main Street. You now have 6 seats going to the top on that side. After the 6-pack you will have ten seats. That's 4 more at full capacity. How are you figuring?

1. Sure wouldn't cost $5 million! 2. Cost almost Zero 3. What, 5 grand if they make it and install it? 4. Zero Dollars! Just move the signs. (Although I disagree on this one. I like skiing Lazy Mile fast.) 5. Zero Dollars. 6. They'd make money on that one. The vendors pay commissions of 50%. 7. See #6 above. 8. Midweek unsold nights the cost would be nominal. 9. What, Turkey Hill or Sheetz isn't good enough? 10. $1000 to rent the cage? Doug, you're a cheap date man. You've still got the $5mil to spend if you figure that commissions on #'s 6&7 will pay for the other items! How about granite markers for trail signs purchased from Doug at 100% commission?

A HS 6-Pack cost about $5 million IIRC. How do you think that Blue Mountain could better spend that money to improve the skiing and boarding experience for their customers and why. Please indicate if you are skier or boarder in your reply. Here's my opinion: Skier 1. Install a handle tow in the lower terrain park like Elk did in theirs. This will allow the lower level boarders to stay in the park, which is the only place a lot of them want to be, improving their experience and at the same time lowering the lift demand to the top and conjestion from them skiing to the top of the park, which is where they wanted to be in the first place but didn't want to walk back up so they took the quad lift. 2. Make the new base lodge the main lodge. This will better utilize the beginners slopes there and keep first time skiers/boarders from falling all over Burma Road and stopping the two double chairs at the bottom. As it is now, they ski the Vista lift once or twice then head for Burma Road before they are ready. 3. Finish the new trail under the HSQ before installing another lift. 4. Install a HSQ in place of the two doubles by Main Street. Then relocate those lifts to some new expert only terrain farther east on the mountain. What do you thinkthey should do?

Well, where else do they go after they get off the lift?

A 6-Pack will increase skier traffic on that part of the mountain by +66%! Even with ONE new trail, it will be like skiing on the Schuylkill Express Way during rush hour on busy days. They'll have to keep a Medivac helicopter parked permanently on the pad with one hovering to take care of all the collisions. Make sure you wear your helmet and full body armor on busy days. Another HSQ would be better. Plus if you think boarders don't like riding a full quad, wait till they try to load&unload six novice boarders on a 6-Pack. And that's the lift the boarders will take because it's closer to the park. That will be stopped more than it is running on busy days. It won't affect me because I don't ski there on weekends or holidays. And they will only run the HSQ OR the 6-Pack during weekdays because the demand is not there for both. What a waste of money that could be better spent on A LOT better on more needed improvements. The lodge is a good idea. It will give better access to beginners to use the beginner triple area instead of going to the upper lodge and then falling all over Burma Road and stopping the two chairs by Main Street. FYI: High Speed lifts provide no more capacity than fixed grip lifts when they are operating at capacity on busy days. They both have the same uphill capacity/hour. They are great when there is no lift line because you can do some quick laps. But when there is no lift line they won't be running both lifts anyway. My take on the 6-Pack is that it is 100% a marketing thing. They don't need it. They just want to be able to say that they have the most vertical (yeah, they also have the most flat runout! )and a 6-Pack! I can hear the commercials on the radio already. "Ski Blue Mt.!.....the most vertical and THE ONLY 6-PACK IN EASTERN PA! What it should say is, "The most CROWDED slopes in eastern PA!...You thought Camelback was bad on weekends! You haven't seen ANYTHING yet! No need to worry, with 66% more skiers on the trails, it definitely will get tracked out much quicker!

Wanted to give you all an update and let you know that I skied Montage last Saturday. I now understand what you regulars are talking about. I've skied 9 areas this year alone, 8 in PA, so I'll do my best to give an objective review. First the positives: - The North Face area is great. It appears that this is the area that they concentrate on opening first and keeping in good condition. The conditions and grooming were best in this area. - There were virtually no lift lines! In fact after 5:00pm there were empty chairs! On one of the busiest ski weekends. (I have to admit that is why I chose to try Montage that day.) It was cold, but even during the day there was at most a one or two chair wait for the Phoebe Snow. - The trails on the North Face were interesting. I didn't do White Lightning as I'm not an accomplished mogul skier and my son is only 15 and can't drive if I get hurt. The conditions looked good and I was tempted, but my son didn't want to do it. I would have if he had and almost did. Next time I will do it if conditions are good. A lot of areas have steep trails that are always a sheet of ice. I don't know if it was Pres. Day Wkend. or if they always blow snow on that trail, but it did look to be in skiable shape even getting there as late as we did. The other trails are different enough to keep things interesting. They have some turns and pitch changes. If you ever skied Shawnee you'll know what I mean. If you've skied one trail there, you've skied them all! - The terrain in general looks very interesting. I have to say "looks" because a lot of trails weren't open. It would have been nice to do a long fast cruiser like Upper/Lower Fastrack or Upper/Lower Runaway under good conditions and get the use of the full 1000' vertical. - I did like that there were no flat runouts. - The lifties were the only personnel that I had any contact with other than buying the tickets and they all seemed personable, socialable, and interested in their jobs despite the cold that day. Now the negatives or not-so-positives: - Pulled into the lot and didn't have any clue as to where the lodge was. OK, that is only a problem the first time. But it is still a problem that would be easily solved by putting up some signs with an arrow pointing to the lodge. - Parked near the top of the Phoebe Snow. Since we couldn't see where the lodge was, and more importantly didn't know how far it was, we saw the shuttle and decided to take it. Since it was a cold day we had decided to boot up in the lodge (more important for debooting on cold nights). It's nice that they have a shuttle, but it would be even nicer if they had a rack for skis on the outside of it. We were carrying boots, skis, poles, bag with ski pants, hats, gloves, etc;and a bag with lunch onto a commuter bus. And so was everyone else. They need to at least put some ski racks on that thing like every other ski area. Even Elks works better where you stand up for the ride. - The lodge was an absolute zoo! I realize that that happens only a few times a year and was due to mainly the people tubing, so I'll give a pass there. But since there was no room at all in the main lodge we went to rental area thinking that it wouldn't be crowded at that time of day. It was. And is a rinky-dink little area with a few small benches to boot up at. They need a separate area with benches near the lockers to boot up and stow your stuff. -Stopped back in the lodge around 7:00 to eat. It wasn't as bad as earlier but was still crowded. The personnel were starting to clean up, but most of the tables were still a mess. The lodge, including the tables and seats are like a grade school lunch room. My son even commented that he hadn't sat on those type of stools attached to the tables since 5th grade. - I rode the Phoebe snow with a couple from VA who had the same experience. They need a decent trail map to direct you to the North Face area from the lodge area. Like my son and I, they had taken the Iron Horse first then skied Lower Runaway to the bottom. Like us they were ready to leave until they found the North Face area. Lower Runaway was a sheet of ice that day. - The open terrain was very limited. It has been a bad year for every ski area in PA, but if they had more terrain open it would be much more enjoyable. It is nice having no lift lines and no one on the slopes, but if they had more terrain open to spread people out, the skiing experience would be the same as far as crowds but still better. The layout of the mountain is such that they could keep the snowboarders who only want "hits" in a decent terrain park at the top of the mountain, and leave the rest of the mountain to the serious skiers and boarders. Summary: A great facility with lots of untapped potential. I love that there are no lift lines, but there's a reason for that. A good management team could maximize the skiing and the skiing experience and increase skier visits. Which would provide the money for some decent snowmaking, and get the whole place open in a bad year without overcrowding the area. Montage will never be a Camelback or Jack Frost. They don't have the timeshare, ski-once-a-year market. But they could be more like Elk, who doesn't either, but still has a lot more terrain open! The county needs to sell/lease the area to a Snow Time or Peak Resorts who knows how to manage a ski area. To the benefit of them and everyone else. Then you would see what you are really missing in a well designed area that is poorly managed. They don't need a HSQ to attract skiers. (OK, maybe you could replace the Long Haul with a HSQ) The North Face is only 580' vert. Elk doesn't have one with 1000' vert. Real skiers want good conditions and a well manged area. Montage is a ski area that is a diamond in the rough that could be the premier ski are in PA.

Thanks for your informative reply. This is only my 3rd ski season back in the area and I drive by Montage several times a year on the way to Elk and/or Greek Peak. Never hear much about Montage. Had planned to try it out this year. But then I can't get their website to check conditions, whats open, etc. I see that they don't open 'till noon on weekdays when everyone else opens at 9:00. Something else I didn't mention is that they are owned by the freaking county and they dropped out of the PA recreational department discount voucher program this year. I can buy a discount voucher to almost every other area in PA except Montage, and they are owned by the county? How much business has that cost them? I think that you are right, they need to be bought out or managed by a private corporation like Snow Time or Peak Resorts(who JF/BB hired to manage their ski areas this year.) I run a small business and jump through hoops to please my customers! Which brings me more customers. It ticks me off to no end to see a potentially profitable place run by what seems to be a bunch of drone managers. I'm sure that there are employees there who would like to kick the place up a notch, but a business can't be run by a beauracracy. So they decided not to open until noon (now 10:00, but no one knows it!) Make it some one's responsibility to post the ski report early! I love the idea of no lift lines. That's why I ski a lot at night or midweek. Never in PA on a Sat./Sun. day, except for Elk. But no liftlines "weekends and holidays" is also a sign that we may not be skiing there at all in the future. And it doesn't seem like anyone is doing anything to improve the situation. My post were really intended to invoke a response of "why I should ski Montage?" Based on your post, I may try it out on my way to Elk, Greek Peak, or Plattekill (where the owner is doing everything he can to make a go of the place!) on a Fri. night once they are 100% open. I realize the weather has not been great this year, but it's been the same for everyone. Here's hoping that we get lots of snow in Feb!

And how do they get the money to buy to buy the snow guns? Hint: They are going to sell two less lift tickets this Friday. Plus they going to lose a locker rental and food for two people. That's not going to help them.

Just proves that you don't know what you're talking about. They lost over $60K last year. They're trying to sell the place and can't give it away. Looks like you may have to start skiing at a place that gives a s#it about their customers. From the horses mouth: Article from the NE PA Business Journal

They must have a brilliant marketing department! You can't even look at their website until they decide to stroll in and turn on the server. In the mean time, all of the people who may have tried it out are skiing somewhere else. People with money to spend on lunch, drinks, etc. They'd rather gear their site to all of the locals who already bought a cheap season pass and aren't going to spend a dime extra on anything else. That's a great way to fill all those empty chairs on weekdays and to maximize profits! I wonder how much money they will lose this year? Does the snowmaking and grooming crew come in at 10:30 as well? No wonder they don't have any snow while Blue Mt. is 100% open!

Obviously a lot of people are staying out of your way! In fact, if they keep losing money, no one will be in line and you'll have to walk back up.

I saw that they updated it around 11:19. Wow, that's great if you live 40 min. from the mountain or less and can jump right in the car and go. People who aren't pass holders there are probably already skiing somewhere else! The "Conditions" sections was obviously not designed by a skier. You have to keep hitting buttons to see the Lifts; then the BD Trails; then the BS Trails; then the GC Trails, instead of having all of that info and a trail map on the same page. Their top to bottom lift is not even open. Camelback, Blue, JF/BB, and Shawnee are all 100% open. I think that the extra drive to Elk is in order. Seems like it would be the thing to do even if we had 12" of powder based on their customer friendliness.

What's with Montage's website? Do they roll out of bed around noon then update their site? I can never get it to load in the AM. Their latest update on Snowcountry.com is about 5 days old. I was thinking of going on Fri. but how much do they have open? Are they making snow? Are they trying to get any new trails open?Wonder how much business they are losing to the other PA resorts that update their sites every morning. Guess I'll go to Elk.

Thanks for the feedback! My thought was to check it out on a holiday weekend. Unfortunately this MLK weekend looks to be a washout. Might try it Pres. weekend. I would think that Montage would be mobbed on a holiday weekend. Never skied there. Always go to Elk if I'm up that way. Will likely try go there on a Fri. night on the way to Greek Peak sometime.

Anyone been to Eagle Rock Resort? How are the conditons typically compared to Pocono areas? How are the lift lines on weekends? Any sources for discount tickets?