The All New Montage

[Schif]

So I went up to grab my pass from Montage last night and poke around at some of the new improvements. I must say I was pretty impressed overall, these guys sank some serious cash into the place, and it wasn't just a coat of paint here and there. We'll see how the trails are tonight or tomorrow, but here is what I found last night

 

First of all when you pull into the lot, the first thing you hit is a brand new traffic circle/dropoff area, which is actually pretty nice. The Soccer Moms dropping off their little park rats after school are going to love this, rather than the dirt and stone parking lot of old. There is a pretty cool wire sculpture in the middle which I'll assume is from the same local artist who did the ones of the guys rappelling down the side of a building in downtown Wilkes-Barre, and the ones stacked up on each other/ hanging from a building in Pittston, with banners strung between the two pieces.

 

 

 

As you head down the brand new steps you encounter a totally redone area, with the new rental/retail building on the left, and the lodge on the right, and a big fire pit in the center.

 

 

The smell of drywall and spackle filled the air as the doors of the rental side opened up, but the ski shop looked well stocked and ready to sell people from new jersey the gloves they forgot to pack.

 

I turned around and looked at the lodge, the biggest difference I noticed was a severe lack of MS paint images of a particular moose, almost sad to see that little guy and his triangular blue mountains go. In his stead was a new awning sporting a nice logo, and a gigantic window that was never there before, showing off chandeliers.

 

So I cruised into the lodge and stepped into a whole new world. Gone was the smell of teenagers, french fries and wet socks, instead it was a freshly carpeted floor, new paint, and nice wood accents that made the place seem like a pretty cool place to hang out, rather than a big box store with ski clubs running around. The customer service area is beautiful, but since I didn't want to get labeled as a creep on the first day I was there, I refrained from taking pictures of it due to the nice girls behind the counter. Instead of that little office, customer service is a big counter set into a big nook, very much like a hotel front desk.

 

So I snagged my pass and snapped some pictures of the most visible thing in the entire lodge and/or county.

 

These Chandeliers/art pieces/lights/scrap/American Pickers' dreams come true are actually pretty awesome. Clearly cell phone pictures don't do it justice, and I wasn't going to work on getting a good shot while contractors/staff were running around finishing stuff, but they are pretty cool. Here is a side view of them, there are actually 4 individual pieces up there.

 

They are made of old chairlift chairs, the old lights from around the mountain, sleds, scooters, neons, big bulbs, bumper boats, toboggans, and whatever else the guy could get his hands on. Swanky.

 

I poked my head into the new bar area, and it looks nice, beautiful new bar, cool lights hanging, and new carpets/tables. I didn't get any pictures in here, because it seemed like they were having a meeting. The food selection seems to have been stepped up this year too, above the big cafeteria area there are signs for a pizza place, Starbucks Johnny Rockets, and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. A TR about the fries will have to come from someone else, because I usually just cruise down to the Shoppes at Montage for a burrito from Panchero's instead of hitting up the lodge, but maybe I'll sample some of the food this year.

 

So I decided to continue the tour and head out onto the patio by the snow, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, a lazy effing river surrounded by snow.

 

 

I don't know what's up with that, but here is another angle to show you that I'm not making it up.

 

Overall, the place looks great, I know they tuned up all the lifts, and long haul is 100% ready to run this year. New Groomer, and a diamond and a double diamond for opening day makes me a happy camper. For the first week or so I'm sure there will be some bugs to work out, but overall it seems pretty awesome, and as long as no lawyers get a look at that snowy death trap that is the lazy river, I think we are in for a quality first week.

Edited December 6, 2013 by Schif

[Ride Delaware ?]

Awesome update. Glad to hear that things are looking up for them. I hope the customers and revenue follow.

[trackbiker]

Thanks for the report and photos. Looking forward to getting up there and checking it out first hand.

[Schif]

Any PASRs going to be at Montage this weekend?

[NMSKI]

Once its close to 100% i'll be up there a good bit hopefully.

[toast21602]

really not much snow up there. but looking good, for sure.

[Schif]

Just got back from my first day on the snow this year. I pulled into the lot at 9:55 Conditions were overall pretty good considering the rain last night. Nice grippy snow with a few ruts and a pretty small amount of cookies. Open trails included Mainline, Whistler (with terrain park features), the bunny slope, Cannonball, and Boomer. Cannonball was definitely the run of the day and I lapped it 3 times. The first time I was going to go down Cannonball, ski patrol stopped me and a few others at the top of the trail while a groomer came up the trail pulling a wheeled trailer. Kind of odd, but right behind it was another groomer laying down fresh cord behind it. Needless to say when they gave the all clear I moved ahead of the older lady who was chatting it up with ski patrol, and bombed this 20 foot wide strip of heaven, at the bottom I had to ask if there was a fire extinguisher in the lift shack because my hair caught on fire during the run I was going so fast. The park was set up pretty nice, with 2 decent sized jumps and a nice collection of rails and boxes, but on day 1 I wasn't quite ready to hit them yet. Not too many people out there today, mostly ski patrol guys doing training and getting their first day of turns in. Overall the mood was a pretty happy one from everyone there. There were probably 150 cars in the lot when I pulled in, and only about 170 when I left at noon, so it wasn't an overly crowded day, but it's still early season. I grabbed a swig of moonshine from a big mason jar, because I forgot to pack any beer, and cruised on home. Happy Ski Season Everyone!

[xNick11]

I plan on riding Montage, December 27th. I'm really only looking forward to the bar area

[Shadows]

shoppe made me slightly angry.

[Ski2Live Live2Ski]

Great conditions on Boomer (big soft moguls) Smoke (littls soft moguls) and White Lightning (just starting to bump) today, but whoever measured 50" base must have been doing it from the top of the biggest mogul on Boomer.

 

Starting to get thin cover at the very top of these trails, which could make them inaccessable after the expected thaw/rain the next 2 days.

[Schif]

Beautiful sunny day here at montage. Everything is open including the elusive long haul lift. The trails serviced by long haul aka upper/Lowe runaway and upper/lower fast track are in perfect shape, it seems that all the tourists are sticking to all of the other lifts (decent sized lift lines) leaving this piece if the mountain for mostly pass holders

[RidgeRacer]

Looking forward to getting back to montage. Thanks schif for the updates

[Schif]

 

I guess this was on the Local news today, the place is getting completely lit up with snow guns right now. Impressive.

Edited January 7, 2014 by Schif

[moe ghoul]

One of these days................

[pcklein31]

It is nice up here today. Nice soft man-made powder everywhere. No crowds. Have to stay off the flats though the snow is too slow. Most likely could have been improved if I changed my wax last night.

 

My biggest issue is that my goggles keep freezing over with the snow flying.

[Skiier14]

Is anyone up there today? How are conditions?

[NMSKI]

Going to head up tomorrow to check out the new Montage. Anybody else?

[Mess]

I will be up for a morning session. Probably start on the green trails early with my son then work my way over to boomer and smoke when he goes into the lodge

[NMSKI]

Had a fun solo session today. Did 1 or 2 top to bottom runs, but the long haul lift wasn't running while I was there (left at noon). Snow conditions were good. Some scrapy spots in the bumps, but nothing too bad. I alternated between Smoke, Boomer and White Lighting for most of the morning. I forgot how much fun the right side of Smoke is - surprisingly steep and the snow was grippy enough to ski it like you know what you are doing. Took my first fall of the year on White Lightning. Caught a tip but luckily Slim Slidell knows how to self arrest! New lodge was looking good as well like others have mentioned. I'm hoping to get back up there at least one more time this season, Montage is always a perfect change of pace for me.

[NMSKI]

Sounds nice but no Long Haul lift not good on a holiday. Who's Slim Slidell? Does he like the beach boys?

This is slim

 

http://www.mountainonline.com/wp-content/themes/mountain_theme/library/images/taos/slim.jpg

[pcklein31]

Hmm? Long haul must have come on around noon time. I was on the mountain from 11am - 2:30pm and I was pretty much lapping Upper/Lower Fast Track because Long Haul was running. I figured since I ride mostly on the weekdays and Long Haul really only runs on the weekends I would take advantage of riding top-to-bottom today. Conditions were nice, The snow started to speed up as I was leaving the temperature was beginning to dip below 32. Good day, sad to admit but it took me to my 14th day of the season to actually top 10K ft of vert for a day. Slow start to the season with a lot of quick 2 hour sessions.

[guitar73]

we were there yesterday. ran a few nastar runs...that was fun..no metals for us though. they must have groomed boomer recently b/c the bumps on it were very tiny. white lightning was in great shape! i didn't find very much ice on it at all. the slopes were uncrowded, but the lodge was packed (as usual). we ended up getting the make-your-own smores for apres...good times.