Blue Mountain 2/25/15

When the boy finished his racing career I thought that I had probably seen the last of Blue Mountain after spending 3 days/season there for races, however, a friend of mine scored some tickets and invited me to meet him out there for a day on Wednesday. Couldn't have picked better as it was a beautiful sunny day with nice temps. Blue is in great shape with as much natural snow as I have ever seen. Skied pretty much everything except for Paradise and Burma Road which are slow skiing zones (no slow skiing yesterday). Surprised that Challenge did not have bumps but Barney's, Widow Maker and Midway all had Blue's patent seeded bumps. We even went into Blue's glades which like everything else in PA exist, just on a smaller scale. After finishing a fun 4 hour session we had a late lunch at a new restaurant in the upper lodge where they have done a ton of work and really transformed what was a pretty bland lodge into a nice facility.











Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

Looking good


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

Did you see GSS?

Nice to see a quality winter happennin' everywhere!

Glades open in SE PA?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu32fBkiHFE

wa-loaf said:

Did you see GSS?

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Not this time. I have met and skied with him before.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

bigbog said:

Nice to see a quality winter happennin' everywhere!

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The picture of the moguls under the six-pack is normally a no-go zone. Blue while good vertical is a low elevation mountain, Camelback gets more natural. It's a good winter.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

I was there too! I went with my daughter for the day and we had to make it a short trip as she had to work later on in the evening. It was our first time at Blue We were surprised at how crowded it was for a non-holiday Wednesday. There were some pretty long lines there and I wasn't all that impressed at how the lines fed into the lift (Hunter does it much better).

We did a few warm up laps on Nightmare/Dreamweaver and stuck to the "double blacks" and the Sidewinder Park. After enjoying an awesome lunch at the Slopeside Pub up top (probably the nicest lodge I've ever seen at a ski resort) we ran down Upper Main Street, Widowmaker and a few other trails on that side, but were frustrated by the slow double lifts, so we headed back to the main lift and spent most of the afternoon alternating between Challenge and Razor, which were in great shape. I don't care for bumps so I didn't miss them. It was fun just to bomb down those trails. Packed powder was everywhere and it softened up nicely in the warm sun. I don't think you could've gotten a better day for conditions and weather.

Given the optimal conditions, I liked it better than Camelback as it is more varied and has longer runs. I just wonder how Blue would hold up under "usual" winter conditions were natural snow is sparse and you have to depend on snowmaking. Usually Camelback is pretty good about snowmaking and gets more snow so we've headed there. This has indeed been a great winter when it comes to conditions. I'd like to head back there and check it out again as it's a nice day trip so hopefully next year will be good too. I doubt that we'll continue to see conditions like this for long given that it's almost March.

4aprice said:

The picture of the moguls under the six-pack is normally a no-go zone. Blue while good vertical is a low elevation mountain, Camelback gets more natural. It's a good winter.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

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Camelback does seem steeper. I found the use of "double black" at Blue amusing. My daughter and I were commenting about the moguls under the lift. They did seem to be "improvised" and I can see why people would go there for a more challenging run. Certainly the conditions permitted it...plenty of snow everywhere.

Wavewheeler said:

Camelback does seem steeper. I found the use of "double black" at Blue amusing. My daughter and I were commenting about the moguls under the lift. They did seem to be "improvised" and I can see why people would go there for a more challenging run. Certainly the conditions permitted it...plenty of snow everywhere.

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I wouldn't say either Camelback or Blue are completely sincere about their double black designations, its more marketing than anything. The one thing Blue has over Camelback is sustained steepness.

Cricket

Rowsdower said:

I wouldn't say either Camelback or Blue are completely sincere about their double black designations, its more marketing than anything. The one thing Blue has over Camelback is sustained steepness.

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I'll agree on that. I found Blue much more interesting to ski than Camelback. Camelback starts off fairly steep and quickly flattens out (with the exception of Cliffhanger, which isn't open a lot it seems). Blue seemed to stay steep and fun almost to the end on the "double" diamonds. If only they'd upgrade the double lifts! We had an enjoyable day though.

Side Note: Keep an eye to the sky there's a Bald Eagle living nearby , saw it again yesterday , near the Lehigh gap . Looked awesome against the Bluebird sky!

Blue pics

Figured I'd add in my own pics from 2/25 since I was there the same day. GREAT conditions and I loved the pub!

Nice to see some blue love, yesterday afternoon was awesome!

gorgonzola said:

Nice to see some blue love, yesterday afternoon was awesome!

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We're getting more snow Thursday..some places up to a foot. If I didn't have to work Friday it would be tempting to go back. Definitely going to head up there hiking if I can't ski it again this season.

Was at Blue yesterday. Started snowing around noon. A few inches had fallen by 3 when I headed out for the fun drive home. It was just turning to sleet as I was packing up the car. Probably will not be too good tomorrow when the temps drop again.

Oh, and no IPA's in the new restaurant yesterday. Way to ruin a good meal.

Jersey Skier said:

Was at Blue yesterday. Started snowing around noon. A few inches had fallen by 3 when I headed out for the fun drive home. It was just turning to sleet as I was packing up the car. Probably will not be too good tomorrow when the temps drop again.

Oh, and no IPA's in the new restaurant yesterday. Way to ruin a good meal.

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Unfortunately it's been raining on and off all night and day. Supposed to snow several inches tonight into tomorrow so Friday might not be a bad day to check out there. Supposed to be sunny and in the 30s on Saturday so it'll be a zoo at all the resorts. Unfortunately I have to work Friday and won't ski anywhere on Saturday. I might go snowshoeing instead.

Wavewheeler said:

Unfortunately it's been raining on and off all night and day. Supposed to snow several inches tonight into tomorrow so Friday might not be a bad day to check out there. Supposed to be sunny and in the 30s on Saturday so it'll be a zoo at all the resorts. Unfortunately I have to work Friday and won't ski anywhere on Saturday. I might go snowshoeing instead.

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If you want to ski non crowds go to Roxbury NY on Saturday good snow fallen all winter here lots of fun this winter.