Bye Camelback, you suck!

[emtp563]

I've been skiing at Camelback since 1974 and have been skiing there Primarily since then. Sure, I've tried other Pocono ski areas once or twice, but CB is where I primarily go. I've been a season pass holder for 6 seasons, I worked there from 1984-1989 and my mother has been working there since 1984, and still does. My taste for the place has been progressively souring for the past few years. It seems CB has turned in to a Summer resort and skiing has become a secondary operation, instead of the other way around.

 

The seasons have been getting shorter and shorter, and the rates have been rising. I couldn't believe how early they closed last season. CB couldn't wait to close down and start opening Camelbeach. I remember skiing there years ago until the last week of April some years. The straw that broke the Camel's Back was the raising of the season pass rates this year. I'll be damned if I was going to pay more for less.

 

I've found that a lot of the employees are rude, and the Rangers take the cake and are just plain ASSHOLES. I don't need to explain why they are assholes, as this has been discussed here before.

 

CB is the most popular ski area in the Poconos- therefore it attracts the most people. It's almost always crowded, and the parking lot is always full. Sorry if I offend anyone here from NY or NJ- but I don't appreciate the congestion you cause and you people can't drive for shit. Go back to and stay where you came from: you are ruining our beautiful rural area (I'm from Northampton County) and turning it into urban spawl (like NJ). A realator friend of mine told me they can't build houses fast enough in this county (Northampton) and the idiots from NY/NJ will pay outrageous prices for relatively small houses and still think they are getting a good deal. All of our farmland and forests are being turned in to developments and strip malls. For instance, who needs a Home Depot 2 miles from a Lowe's and 5 miles from two other Home Depots? Our infrastructure was not designed to handle this kind of influx of population.

 

I have officially boycotted Camelbeach and have not taken my children there ever since they began charging a "spectator fee" several years ago. Now, I am boycotting the ski area. Blue Mountain is just as far from my house, so I will be skiing there from now on. It seems more of my friends and local folks ski there anyway. Fuc$ You Camelback.

[Ski]

Thanks, empt563, that was fun to read.

[Glenn]

I don't really dig the NJ/NY bashing. I'm not from either place (I'm not really from anywhere, I moved my whole life because my dad was in the military). You have just as much a right to move out of the area as they do to move in. Increased population is the trend everywhere. I'm not trying to start problems or anything, its just you turned a fairly legit post into an attack on people moving into the area. I live in the same county, and honestly it's only done good for us, when we move out our house will probobly have tripled in value. Anyways more power to you for leaving CB. I wish I had the cash and the location to switch to Blue myself.

[emtp563]

To each his own. I want to get the hell out of this area and move somewhere where I can be left the hell alone. My wife and I are interested in the NE Kingdom area of Vermont. That's pretty much as rural as it gets ;-)

[AtomicSkier]

You're not alone emtp, i've converted ThinkSnow. He had a camelcard last year, and he pm'ed me asking about blue, cause he knew I had a season pass there (thats how we met, actually) and I gave him the low down, so he went opening day, loved it, and only went back to CB occasionally to use his camelcard up. He know has a season pass to Blue. I do have to agree, camelback gets insanely crowded, and while Blue doesn't have as many lifts, i always do laps on Razors Edge and Challenge until abot 10:30 (thats when there is actually 10 people in front of you on the lift) and then i usually eat lunch around 11, so i have the lunch hour to ski, in which i usually then move up to the upper mtn lifts, which are never crowded. Ski a few runs using those lifts, then call it a day. If you know when to use what lifts, you'll find much shorter lines at blue, and you'll love the added vert.

[LineSki]

im not completely fed up with camelback yet, but it is only a matter of time before i start going to blue.

[poconoceancity]

im not completely fed up with camelback yet, but it is only a matter of time before i start going to blue.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I also am done with camelback. My family has owned a ski house in Split Rock since the 70's. When I was old enough to drive in the 90's I said good bye to JF and BB and started riding at CB. In the late 90's I was part owner of a board shop in Margate, NJ. Part of the deal was that we got free season passes to CB and just about every other mountain. The last few years I found myself going more to Blue and less to CB. And after the same bad experiences as most of you, I too am only going to ride at Blue even though it is a little further south.

Edited November 8, 2004 by poconoceancity

[Ski]

What'll be REALLY funny is when people start bitching about how crowded Camelbeach has become and how fed up they are during the summer.

[soldier32]

i personally think that camelbeach is a discusting place. just look at how many people there are in that wave pool. theres so many people in it most of the time that you cant even swim 3 feet without crashing into someone. but just think, with that that many people in such a small plcae theres gonna be other things in that pool also because a lot of people have no morals and are just discusting. as for camelback, i never liked it there to begin with. it was always too crowded, and youre exactly right about the staff being assholes, and theyre park is just pitiful and way too crowded. i can go on for hours about this place

[ThinkSnow]

Ahh, welcome to the dark side EMTP.

 

I switched to blue last year for the same reasons listed and because it's a good bit closer (75 miles as opposed to 110). Still a bit of a hike, but worth it to be on the snow. I think that NY/NJ area is really moving westward into the poconos... if you want rural, go live with sib

[skifreak]

I always get a season pass to blue and I have never had one to camelback and never plan on getting one to camelback. Blue is much more convienent for me and there are no rangers that sit there and cause trouble with you. Do yourself a favor and get yourself a pass to blue.

[nick malozzi]

i have been a hardcore CB goer for a few years now. i started going there because that is where the ski club at my school went. so out of ease and convenience i started going there. then my senior year i got a SP for CB so that i could go up more and still go up with the ski club. I was planning on makeing the switch to blue last season, but the college pass at CB was too much of a good deal at the time. i was broke as a joke, just transfered to a new school and didnt really feel like going to a place i wasnt familiar with. in addition there is an ice rink not so far from CB that i could ref at then run to CB afterwards for some runs. the rink closed, they pissed me off more then ever last season, and now blue and bear creek are closer to where i reside. so gbye CB and hello bear and blue.

[skidude]

Blue is much more convienent for me and there are no rangers that sit there and cause trouble with you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Hehe only old slow people get caught by the rangers....and uhh ohhh hmm greg

[Ski]

Emtp and Nitro remind me of DaveK and DaveJ's winter versus summer articles they used to write. Slightly different tone, though.

[romemadman]

hey i liveain jersey and i will admit most ppl that live in jersey and ny as really bad drivers (it is main ly the ppl from northern jersey the mobs that got kicked out of NY)

i moved here to central jersey from montgumery county in 2000 and when i moved here to my town it was one of the most rural places any where and the only thing that made this town known is that bruce springsteen lives here. And many of the small houses were owned by ppl from ny as summer houses and that was ok.

but in the past 2 years i hve been expiriencing the same thing s u empt

all of the rich assholes from ny and upstate nj are moving down here and are building these huge mansions adn now ppl outside of our town call us the rich snobs when really more than half of the ppl that live here are low middle class but aren't poor.

an example of all of the snobs moving in is this rich guy buy a proprety near my friends house and cuts down every tree i the lot except for 1 in the middle of the yard and was chardged by the town for doing so. SO later on he tells his contractor to ignor the huge fine and keep building and he will pay this giagantic sum of money in the end. This is what many ppl that have lived in my little town are starting to hate. It used to be so nice being like a mile away from tyhe ocean with beautiful beaches and great spots for sufing but now these huge houses go up and many ppl get fed up with it.

some kids and their families go up to vermont up in the winter and have their kids go to the mountain school b/c they are on a racing team or they just love skiing and riding that much.

[Snoshredder21]

Yea i think camelback is pretty much overrated.its park SUCKS. the trails are ok. i mean its alright for weekdays but its basically mountain creek on weekends. i go to shawnee on sundays. i like that place, new park n pipe this year. anyway 22 DAYS TIL DECEMBER I LOVE IT!

[The_Public_Enemy]

I got a season pass to season pass to CB for free, so I'm spending the money I saved on a pass to Shawnee. Finally a place where the freestylers can go without having to drive to Creek. They have a build-any-jumps-you-want policy and no asshole rangers to clip your ticket when you clip some idiot sitting on the landing of a jump. My friends and I got so fed up with CB's park, we built a 65 and 40 foot booter in his field and some rails, and shelled out money for snowmakers.

 

I don't know how much you know about CB's history, but they used to have an area called "Hell's Half Acre." I found out about it talking to a guy who was a hotdogger back in the day. They would have a few monster jumps set up for the then hotdogging elite over by the Coolmor lift. Too bad the don't have the balls to do anything like that these days.

 

This thread summed up the reasons way the more hardcore skiers and riders in the area are and already have abondoned CB. It deserves to be abdandoned with the way they've treated their local regulars

[tretiak]

never been to camelback and prlly never will go there either

[pyro_boarder]

I think Camemback is a good mountian. Not so good as a company. I think It went downhill when they relised they could make more money in the summer. I've already boycotted Camelbeach. But I go to camelback because it's 5 miniuts from my house. Their prices are outrarous. This year I only got the limitted pass because it's too crouded on weekends.

[skidude]

Speaking of outragous prices, anyone check out elk. I think they are MORE than Cb....Now I know elk has real nice trails and snow, but there lifts pretty much suck. Its like 57 for a weekend lift ticket now I think

[sibhusky]

I don't know how much you know about CB's history, but they used to have an area called "Hell's Half Acre."  I found out about it talking to a guy who was a hotdogger back in the day.  They would have a few monster jumps set up for the then hotdogging elite over by the Coolmor lift.  Too bad the don't have the balls to do anything like that these days.

 

This thread summed up the reasons way the more hardcore skiers and riders in the area are and already have abondoned CB.  It deserves to be abdandoned with the way they've treated their local regulars

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The reason it was called Hell Half Acre was because of all the idiots not paying attention to the skiers' responsibility code and having collisions with each other, not because of any special terrain dispensation. They ended up with too many injuries. This was right where Big Pocono used to join Honeymoon and people would come hotdogging down Big Poke right onto the green trail without looking uphill, etc.

[volklyokel]

I'm grateful for this thread, as I was considering making a three or four day (weekday) run up to the Poconos. I've not skied anywhere up there (except BB and JF a few years ago with a group, which were fun little hills for about half a day). I was considering Blue, CB and Elk. With what I've heard here on PS&R, looks like I might just visit Elk and Blue only.

 

Of course, I'll stick to my plan for (a) doing a few days at Blue Knob, my favorite place in the East that I've been to so far; and ( ten days or two weeks in Utah and ski with the big boys.

 

V

[ThinkSnow]

Like has been said, camelback is not a bad mountain, just bad management. Blue is very nice, and I've heard great things about Elk, but haven't been there yet.

[AtomicSkier]

I'm grateful for this thread, as I was considering making a three or four day (weekday) run up to the Poconos. I've not skied anywhere up there (except BB and JF a few years ago with a group, which were fun little hills for about half a day). I was considering Blue, CB and Elk. With what I've heard here on PS&R, looks like I might just visit Elk and Blue only.

 

Of course, I'll stick to my plan for (a) doing a few days at Blue Knob, my favorite place in the East that I've been to so far; and ( ten days or two weeks in Utah and ski with the big boys.

 

V

[Schif]

I have to completely agree with most of you on CB. I have only been there a few times, but my experince left much to be desired. They really do charge a lot for a little. That mountain, while large in size is tiny in terrain. For anyone who has been riding or skiing for any amount of time, there are hardly any trails worth going on.

For the ones that are, i've never seen more commercialization (sp?). I personally dont like riding between chain link fences that run accross instead of down the mountain. And to top it all off, those road signs just piss me off!