2/8/2025

[indiggio]

A bunch of us had had enough of Blue lately and decided to use up an Indy on Montage yesterday and from the sounds of the reports out of Blue, it was a good decision.

Arrived in the lot just after 8am to 19' and hazy sunshine.  It felt cold in the lot, so went with the extra puffy just in case.  Later the sun came out and standing around in it, felt overdressed, but out on the slopes it was cold again. 

In all the years I've skied, I've never bothered to venture to Montage and have to say I'm happy I finally did.  Even though the mountain has a bizarre layout, it's unique and a throwback.  The beer shack in the middle of the mountain with a DJ cranking tunes was cool, even though we didn't stop for a beer.  They had another DJ cranking tunes at the bottom of the Phoebe Snow lift.

They opened precisely at 9am and for kicks and giggles we took the Short Haul lift out of the lodge area.  The snow was spectacular, loose talcum powder groomed to perfection, what a concept!

We cruised on down Boomer which too had perfectly groomed snow and the run had some giddy up.  Passed by White Lightning that unfortunately had a Closed sign, and the reason was evident when we got to the bottom and saw a winch cat grooming the bottom headwall.   Up and down Smoke which was also perfectly groomed and a lot of fun.  
Is it Saturday?  The place is a ghost town!  If it were 930am at Blue, we'd be dodging people already and the runs would be cookies, marbles and ice, but none of that was around, at least in the expert area.

Giving the groomer some time on White Lightning, we went over to the Iron Horse lift and down Switch were they were setting up the Nastar course.  Next to the run under the lift, there was overblown chalk that a few sampled and found quite enjoyable.   The run itself had groomed powder.

Up the Long Haul and now we found ourselves back in Blue conditions.  They evidently hadn't put as much effort into the conditions over here and/or it has a lot more traffic from beginners and intermediates.  The snow was more granular with patches of ice here and there that you had to be careful of as they'd take down an unsuspecting slider.

Back over to Boomer to check on White Lightning and they had just dropped the rope.  Down the in run, it reminds me of Coming Soon, flat.  Up ahead there are a bunch of people just standing around.  We all fly past them and down the headwall.  Woo-hoo, it definitely has some giddy-up and woah that compression at the bottom was unexpected.  Wow that's fun!
We lapped that a bunch of times and discovered a bunch of overblow into the woods next to the run where you could actually get a few nice pow turns in the trees.

Definitely a fun diversion from the rigamarole that is Blue.  This place holds a lot of potential for Spring skiing and warrants a repeat then to use up the second Indy ticket.

Edited February 9 by indiggio

[PSUFrankenstein]

Nice report.   I always try to hit Montage for my 2 indy days. It never gets crowded and their terrain and various bars are pretty fun.  I've found the same conditions off of the long haul lift,  seems icier on Fast Track and Runaway.   Not sure if you hit Rattler but taking that to Cannonball is one of my favorite runs there

[RidgeRacer]

I’m planning a midweek montage day at some point in the next few weeks. PASR day anyone?

[indiggio]

5 hours ago, PSUFrankenstein said:

Nice report.   I always try to hit Montage for my 2 indy days. It never gets crowded and their terrain and various bars are pretty fun.  I've found the same conditions off of the long haul lift,  seems icier on Fast Track and Runaway.   Not sure if you hit Rattler but taking that to Cannonball is one of my favorite runs there

Yeah, we hit the Rattler connection, well some of us did.  A couple of the stragglers missed the rest of us make the turn and they ended up taking the long way round.

We also made a run through the trees on Branch Line that had a lot of ice in the middle and inside corners.
One of the corners was a sheet of ice and most of us barely survived it without going down.

[NMSKI]

Nice report!  Montage is great for a change of pace.  I’ve got 4 passes to montage that I need to use at some point this year.  Was supposed to take the fam up there today but wasn’t able to.  

[toast21602]

16 hours ago, RidgeRacer said:

I’m planning a midweek montage day at some point in the next few weeks. PASR day anyone?

LMK

[RidgeRacer]

16 hours ago, NMSKI said:

Nice report!  Montage is great for a change of pace.  I’ve got 4 passes to montage that I need to use at some point this year.  Was supposed to take the fam up there today but wasn’t able to.  

When's the next day you can do. We can make that that official 2025 PASR day at montage if it works for everyone 

[NMSKI]

41 minutes ago, RidgeRacer said:

When's the next day you can do. We can make that that official 2025 PASR day at montage if it works for everyone 

Need to do a little bit of figuring the schedule but I will let you know!  Great idea!

[Johnny Law]

Next time your there peep the long haul, at least the last time I was there it's 4938382 different lift pieces put together with all kinds of fabricated stuff. It's amazing. 

I don't understand really why there is never anyone there. I get scranton/wb is economically depressed but people go everywhere now and it's a great product. It's so low key you can mess around all day and miss nothing, the bar/restaurant is good and it's cheap. 

I do think though that its like Elk though in which the low crowds are the major factor. Both can't handle the blue crowd and would be far far far worse due to layout/lifts etc etc etc

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If I'm around when you guys go I would definitely go.  

Edited February 10 by Johnny Law

[PSUFrankenstein]

As long as it's not a crazy week at work, I'd be in for a Montage day.  Monday through Wednesday is $40 lift tickets.  Fridays you can rent out one of the tents at Midland for free although there are plenty of other places to sit too.  I have 2 Montage tickets I got for half price if anyone needs them for the PASR day, I think they were 40 each

[RidgeRacer]

1 hour ago, Johnny Law said:

I'm around when you guys go. I will definitely go.  

FIFY. 

Montage day 2025 may warrent its own thread. 

[indiggio]

12 hours ago, Johnny Law said:

Next time your there peep the long haul, at least the last time I was there it's 4938382 different lift pieces put together with all kinds of fabricated stuff. It's amazing. 

I don't understand really why there is never anyone there. I get scranton/wb is economically depressed but people go everywhere now and it's a great product. It's so low key you can mess around all day and miss nothing, the bar/restaurant is good and it's cheap. 

I do think though that its like Elk though in which the low crowds are the major factor. Both can't handle the blue crowd and would be far far far worse due to layout/lifts etc etc etc

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If I'm around when you guys go I would definitely go.  

There were a lot of cars in the lot when I left, but the expert slopes were still virtually empty.

We did make our way over to the beginner/intermediate area to leave and found where all the people were as it was packed. 
Going through there was like being back at Blue on a Saturday at 11am, dodging families, beginners, etc. 
Luckily we found the extended Lower Sidewinder-like snake trail that nobody was on so we could avoid the masses to get back to the lodge.