Improvements

[ski14]

Now that Sno's getting on the right track, do you think we will still see the lodge upgrades and the movement of the tubing to left of white lightning along with the new lodge over there, also they said they would be clearing three new TTB trails to the left of fasttrack- was this all supposed to be done in 5 years or 10?

[Brian]

Personally, I hope they continue to concentrate on adding lights and trees before they go ahead with any major redesign of the tubing park, and adding an extra lodge. Needs before wants.

[snoskier]

I echo the lights and trees. My guess is that any winter improvements are going to come after at least one full season of the water park in operation.

I think once that is up and running they will take care of a lot of little things for a season then do something big.

[riderossi]

Definitely isn't a priority to get a new lodge or relocate tubing right now. The mountain needs to be loaded with new pines and lights. Would much rather see a high speed lift that goes from the bottom of phoebe to around the top of iron horse than a new lodge. But I'm sure that's not too likely. Hopefully the water park will bring in money and we will start to see more upgrades. Hopefully they will sell the zip rider too... Talk about a waste of money.

[trackbiker]

They have more than enough terrain for the crowds that they have now. A high speed lift would be a colossal waste of money. The mountain skis like two mountains, the Upper Mountain and the North Face. People skiing the North Face don't want to go to the top to ski a flat trail just to get back to where they wanted to be in the first place.

They could us a top to bottom blue cruiser which could be done by cutting a blue trail to skiers right of Fast Track. The upper part could come later. This would better utilize the Long Haul lift which isn't even open weekdays. A high speed lift could come much later after they have cut some top to bottom trails on that side.

Relocating the tubing would be nice and building a separate lodge for it would be even nicer. Most of the people crowding up the lodge are Mom, Dad, Grandpa, and Grandma, taking up space while junior is out tubing.

They need to make what they have first class before they expand anything. Trees and LIGHTS would be top of my list. (Why did they ever cut those trees down next to the Iron Horse lift? Wasn't it windy enough at the top of the mountain? ) They could then market their, great snow conditions, lack of crowds, and vast beginner friendly terrain to the hoards at CB and Blue on weekends and holidays. Maybe even LOWER their prices to attract them. Or at least put their specials on their website where people could find out about them.

[ski14]

Speaking of the trees between Switch and Spike, did you ever notice they left ONE tree haha

[Brian]

Speaking of the trees between Switch and Spike, did you ever notice they left ONE tree haha

 

LOL, yeah.. let's name it.

[trackbiker]

Put Nastar on a steeper run!!!

They had a race there Saturday and the gates were set up on Smoke.

[stever2003]

How about more advertising in the Philly area? I don't ever hear about Sno down here. I don't think anybody knows about it (except for a few people who knew it as Montage before, but those are few and far between). More customers = more $$$ = more improvements elsewhere on the mountain.

[Brian]

Ding ding ding.....I bet you hear Blue ads and JF/BB ads everyday. I do wish the northface lift was a high speed lift. For what snow charges, they should have modern lifts!!!

 

On a busy weekend, I'd rather have no line, a slow lift, and a cold one from my coat pocket than sit in line, shuffle forward so the asshat in the next line over knows it's my turn to merge, get my board scratched up from the asshat behind me who's shuffling forward for the same reasons, watch as the ski school brats jump the line from their specialty entrance, and finally get to the front where they group me together with 3 nerds that have to bring up all the girls they've had in conversation because someone (who doesn't know them better) is listening......

[GolfingOwl]

I'd like to see more glade skiing. JF is the only mountain in NE PA that really is open to glade skiing and they have been expanding the available terrain. Sno has a lot of possibilities and they could use that as a further selling point.

 

I generally like Sno and how it is set up. High speed lifts are silly for a mountain under 1500' of vertical. All they do is crowd the slopes on smaller mountains. Sno rarely has lift lines anyway.

Edited January 21, 2010 by GolfingOwl

[Brian]

It's 2010 I want high speed lifts!!!! You get almost double as many runs in.

Sno rarely has lift lines anyway.

 

^ This.

 

On a busy weekend day (when Blue has lines)... I wonder really, how many more runs if any you can get with a Blue high speed w/ lines vs a Sno old-school w/o lines

[Brian]

I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice. I'm saying it's sincerely not needed, and would be just as excessive for that mountain and it's lack of crowds to invest in high-speed quads as it would be to invest in an extra lodge solely for snow tubers.

[Schif]

Ding ding ding.....I bet you hear Blue ads and JF/BB ads everyday. I do wish the northface lift was a high speed lift. For what snow charges, they should have modern lifts!!!

 

I can't remember the last time I heard a Sno mtn ad on the radio. Must have been early December, yet I'm constantly bombarded with Elk, JFBB, and Blue spots, and I listen to a ton of radio each day.

[DiMe]

Yeah but in uncrowded weekdays you get 8 runs an hour off the six pack and there are no liftlines the first two hours on the high speed lifts at blue. The Phoebe lift takes like 6 minutes for about 500 vert while the 6-pack is 4-5 minutes for 1000+ vert. A big reason I rarely ski Sno is the lack of top to bottom blacks and slow lifts. Sno shouldn't be charging 2010 prices with 1985 lifts.

 

8 runs in an hour? Your a slow skier

[millerm277]

Yeah but in uncrowded weekdays you get 8 runs an hour off the six pack and there are no liftlines the first two hours on the high speed lifts at blue. The Phoebe lift takes like 6 minutes for about 500 vert while the 6-pack is 4-5 minutes for 1000+ vert. A big reason I rarely ski Sno is the lack of top to bottom blacks and slow lifts. Sno shouldn't be charging 2010 prices with 1985 lifts.

 

Phoebe Snow, is a very short lift, changing it to high speed is a ton of $$$, for not much reduction in ride time. Would it be faster? Yes. Is it worth it to get a lift that gets you to the top one or two minutes faster? Not really, especially considering the lack of crowds to make it even remotely feasible to operate $$$-wise.

[trackbiker]

The last thing Sno needs is a HSQ. They need alot of other things first that are a lot less expensive to fix like LIGHTS. Maybe when they get some more TTB trails. A HSQ on 500' vertical would be overkill to say the least.

I do agree that their prices are high but the conditions are good all day, not just the first two hours like at Blue or Camelback. They should advertise what they do have to the population centers (and Scanton/Wilkes Barre ain't one of 'em). Lower prices may entice some people to drive the extra half hour. But then they don't even have their specials listed on their website, so maybe their stategy is not to get more people but to get more money from the people that are coming already. $5.00 lockers??? It's Sno Mtn. not Sneaux Mtn.! And the view is of office parks, interstates, and yes, a dump; not the Alps. And no wonder there is crap all over the lodge. Nobody pays for the lockers anyway.

I ski there at certain times for certain reasons and they need to figure out why and market that. I'd ski there more if the lights were better.

[riderossi]

I've heard lots of people saying the views are awesome up there...beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[snoskier]

The dump is just a big snow or dirt covered field. It took me a year of skiing at Sno before I learned the big open field across the valley way a dump. At night the lights of Scranton are really nice. They view going to fasttrack is great.

[Schif]

I'll agree that the view from Sno is pretty nice, especially at night. When you're night skiing you really don't get to see a whole lot of anything usually, but here you can get a cool view of Scranton and part of the valley, and I think its pretty cool to see the runway lights go on at the airport.

[riderossi]

and I think its pretty cool to see the runway lights go on at the airport.

Definitely...not many times when you are on the ground and can look DOWN at an airplane flying. Seeing Air Force One parked at the airport from the mountain is pretty sweet too. Shitty view my ass..

[trackbiker]

You guys are missing the whole point. Blue doesn't have such a great view either. Some quaried hills and a trailer park. I actually do like the lights in the valley at night. Sno can't change the view. What can they change to entice people to drive past CB, Blue, JF/BB? Their lights and the lights in the valley aren't going to get them up for night skiing.

[Johnny Law]

Just a note you can't run high speed chair with a haul line that short, every other day you would have to be spraying and re spacing the chairs. If you ever done a chair spacing you know a small lift can take a few days so I highly doubt Sno is ever picking up a high speed chair for a 500 vert lift.

[Schif]

The teewinot quad at jhole is only 400 vert and also boyne has a sixpack. They should make the long haul a high speed quad or sox pack so you can ski top to bottom runs fast!!! Sno charges 2010 prices for 1980 lifts.

Long haul would be cool as a HSQ but there isn't enough terrain top to bottom to really make that a good idea. Maybe if they expanded off to skier's right...

 

But then again I love those woods and a trail would take away from them.

[ski14]

What they said was a HSQ next to long haul, and three new TTB trails, but that was three years ago