new at blue

[gorgonzola]

we had the club leaders meeting at blue last night and barb green ended up sitting at our table. news for the season:

5 fan guns!

to help blow snow on two new glade runs - should be interesting to see what they constitute as a "glade run", i hope theyre legit and not lame like some other pokey tree runs

moguls, moguls moguls - more commitment to bumps with two comps this season!
looked like alot of new snow making guns on main street also!

racing re-vamp: no more racing on raceway, now re-named widowmaker. monday night beer league to be on razor's :-o nastar to be on lower paradise re-named finish line. not sure about that one - i understand that the crossing was an accident waiting to happen and the finish area is too short but i like the pitch on the raceway headwall. definately the steepest nastar course around. no masters program this year either - i know a few tuesday night regulars were thinking about jumping over

then theres the lodge and tuning & rental shop improvements - no changes planned for the bar so really doesn't affect me so much :-?

oh yea and the rfd lift ticket checking. not sure how thats gonna play out or mean to the season pass holders, i hope they keep the vip line but no one's sure how its all gonna work.

i begged barb to bring back the 7:30 opening for passholders only. it might happen but probably not this season

 

[tarponhead]

Thanks for the update!

Any idea where the two glade runs are going? Dreamweaver area or the park to main st???? As far as quality...well at least they are trying. If we get a couple of weeks out of them I'll be happy.

Regarding the bumps...yeah! nice to see they are still embracing it. Seems like a real grass roots movement trying to keep the momentum going.

VIP line; If they get rid of that I'm screaming bloody murder. Remember those lines wrapping around the six-pack?

Widowmaker.... no comment. I'm doing the Tuesday night race thing again. Got new boots for the season and my boys are completely outfitted.... I'm ready!

 

[4aprice]

Impressive list of improvements. Glad to see moguls are getting more attention. Glades? on Blue? Gonna need snowmaking but an interesting concept. I would imagine they couldn't be too tight. Elk and Camelback take note. I will be calling on Camelback's management to pay attention to this thread as early as today when I go to the mountain to take care of some business.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[RootDKJ]

I'm not so thrilled with the rfid ticket checking booths. I'm very worried that this is going to screw up the ease of the VIP line.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Things r looking good 4 u Blue guys !! FAN GUNS !!

 

[RootDKJ]

Things r looking good 4 u Blue guys !! FAN GUNS !!

The fan guns, I'm excited about.
I'm hoping that opening day won't consist of softball sized death cookies this year

 

[tarponhead]

The fan guns, I'm excited about.
I'm hoping that opening day won't consist of softball sized death cookies this year

I'm gonna arrive expecting that. If they can show me otherwise, great.

 

[gorgonzola]

Thanks for the update!

Any idea where the two glade runs are going? Dreamweaver area or the park to main st???? As far as quality...well at least they are trying. If we get a couple of weeks out of them I'll be happy.

Regarding the bumps...yeah! nice to see they are still embracing it. Seems like a real grass roots movement trying to keep the momentum going.

VIP line; If they get rid of that I'm screaming bloody murder. Remember those lines wrapping around the six-pack?

Widowmaker.... no comment. I'm doing the Tuesday night race thing again. Got new boots for the season and my boys are completely outfitted.... I'm ready!

theyre the woods that get alot of action during natural snowafalls already - right of lazy starting from tuts and between come around and main street down to connector. theres some good pics on paskiandride.

looking forward to tuesdays tph!

 

[RootDKJ]

Here's some pics...

New ticket windows

Looks like some new lockers are going in.

Thinned out "glades"

I'm having a very hard time visualizing how the ticket checking is going to work. The lines a Blue can get pretty bad at times.

Peak crowd conditions (pay no attention to the kid skiing uphill):

So all of those people are now going to have squeeze through here???

I hope it works out for the best. I really do. If this starts to slow down the VIP line (and I know I average around 16 runs daily) I might have to re-evaluate staying at Blue. :roll:

 

[bvibert]

So all of those people are now going to have squeeze through here???

I hope it works out for the best. I really do. If this starts to slow down the VIP line (and I know I average around 16 runs daily) I might have to re-evaluate staying at Blue. :roll:

I'll be interested to hear how it works out. How did Blue do it in the past? Were there ticket checkers/scanners? The biggest problem I see with those is when someone gets up to them either with no ticket or one that doesn't work. With the crowd behind them it might be a little hard to back out of there. Aside from that I don't really see how it's going to be much of an impact (assuming the technology works reliably in that environment). You need to filter into groups of 4 at some point anyway, unless it's a 6 pack...

The gladed areas look cool, thinned out enough that snow should blow into them, but enough trees left to make things interesting.

 

[gorgonzola]

the scary part of those pics arent the line time - its how many gapers that high speed 6 dumps on the hill at any given time!

unfortunately it was made quite clear last week that blue's priority is not the locals or season pass holders, the jib honks or the race team - its all about how many $ they can extract from the weekend warriors wallets from philly/nyc/nj

some things are good for us, some not... what would ray do?

 

[RootDKJ]

I'll be interested to hear how it works out. How did Blue do it in the past? Were there ticket checkers/scanners? The biggest problem I see with those is when someone gets up to them either with no ticket or one that doesn't work. With the crowd behind them it might be a little hard to back out of there. Aside from that I don't really see how it's going to be much of an impact (assuming the technology works reliably in that environment). You need to filter into groups of 4 at some point anyway, unless it's a 6 pack...

The gladed areas look cool, thinned out enough that snow should blow into them, but enough trees left to make things interesting.

Blue used to scan your ticket/pass before you could even get on the snow. I liked this, but it was way easy to take advantage of (buy a AM ticket and ski all day).

Last season, they narrowed down the entrance to the queuing area and added one or two ticket checkers by the queue entrance the by each of the high-speed lifts. I thought this worked pretty well. Did they check everyone, no.

This concept of getting scanned in is likened to going through a toll booth on a major highway. Everyone gets all stupid and can't figure it out around the lanes. Bring on EZ Pass, and the greatest thing to ever happen to highway robbery....The high speed EZ Pass! Now we can collect peoples money and plate # at over 60mph!

Why not just build one great big fking arch over the both queue areas, with a million red led bulb strip across the top if it. If you have a RFID in your season pass or day ticket, a light goes off where security can watch when you go under the arch. If it doesn't , security clubs you you with a ski pole. Simple really.

 

[gorgonzola]

cuz they want the big brother thing - # visits, stay length, number of runs etc..... scary! :-o

 

[4aprice]

cuz they want the big brother thing - # visits, stay length, number of runs etc..... scary! :-o

If the lines at Blue get too scary and the new ticket system becomes a hassle, come over and visit me at Camelback. I'll show you how to beat the lines there.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[tarponhead]

Here's some pics...


Thinned out "glades"

Nice photos!

ok, I don't have a long skiing history and this also ain't Vermont.... but how high are the branches on those trees....From these photos it looks like a lot of "cat scratch fever" is gonna happen. I dunno, maybe the branch height is fine, just speaking from my limited experience in other glades.

Bottom line, I'm not complaining. Psyched they are doing this. Just making an observation.

 

[skivideoguy]

This is on Blue's site under Press.......

Barbara Green, president of Blue Mountain in Palmerton, Pa., is looking for a good winter.

"There are a lot of acorns on the ground, and that always means a snowy, cold winter," Green told OnTheSnow.com. "We're hoping to be open Dec. 1."

Green has been in the resort business long enough, however, to cover all bets, and has invested $1.5 million in expanded snowmaking capability.

"We automated two major trails this year, Main Street and Lazy Mile, with Johnson Controls Borax B6 tower guns," Green said. "We have them on three of our other runs. This makes five altogether."

Blue Mountain also added five tower-mounted Areco fan guns, strategically placed around the resort to make snow in high traffic areas.

Blue also is adding an RF-ID system that will allow direct-to-lift access for all passes and tickets, she said. Passes will be renewable online.

Green said other work at Blue includes a $1.25 million project to upgrade the courtyard at the summit and make the outside eating area more attractive, as well as adding space to the lodge to accommodate growth in the rental and ski school operations. The work will pay off with summer events, she said.

Blue is looking to create a 19-acre water park, Summit Splash, starting in March, Green said, which has taken up much of the attention of the area's operators.

That project, and ongoing concerns about the impact of a wind turbine on migrating birds, has put the wind power plans on a slow track, she said.

"The wind power issue is birds and how much I want to spend to study them before I put anything up," Green said. Wildlife officials have estimated a study would cost $200,000.

 

[4aprice]

Blue is looking to create a 19-acre water park, Summit Splash, starting in March, Green said, which has taken up much of the attention of the area's operators.

Interesting, Sno Mountain is trying the same thing. Anyone know how they did this summer? Camelbeach did very well this summer. Was there a couple of days where if the lines had been for skiing people would be complaining big time.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[St. Bear]

to help blow snow on two new glade runs - should be interesting to see what they constitute as a "glade run", i hope theyre legit and not lame like some other pokey tree runs

Love this idea for areas with low natural snowfall. Pats Peak does a good job blowing snow into Hurricane Glades.

 

[jaywbigred]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the commitment to bumps! I will certainly be making my way to Blue a handful of weekday nights if they have the fields they had last year! And if they have a course set up that they leave open (including the kickers), I may wind up treating the place as a second home.

Camelback and Shawnee are really missing the boat on this one, imo. At least in terms of my skiing dollars!

I know Camelback has shown signs of pandering to some of the mogul crowd, but the product they put out is not as high quality (nor as well lit!) as Blue's. Too bad, Cback is closer =(

 

[4aprice]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the commitment to bumps! I will certainly be making my way to Blue a handful of weekday nights if they have the fields they had last year! And if they have a course set up that they leave open (including the kickers), I may wind up treating the place as a second home.

Camelback and Shawnee are really missing the boat on this one, imo. At least in terms of my skiing dollars!

I know Camelback has shown signs of pandering to some of the mogul crowd, but the product they put out is not as high quality (nor as well lit!) as Blue's. Too bad, Cback is closer =(

You know I'm going to show this to Camelback management. Cliffhanger would be great with seeded bumps and is probably much better lit. Maybe they'll start listening to me this year. (Charlie, Bill:smash Not ready to abandon them yet but that day could come. Asp is still killer in the day light.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ