Bear Creek, Pa - 1/18/14

[Rowsdower]

I had a few hours to kill while visiting my parents so I decided to get some turns in at my old local hill. Had to set up a new computer for my folks, unfortunately, which meant I wasn't getting to ride in the morning. Got on the lift at 1:00 to surprisingly small crowds. I was definitely surprised. This should have been one of their busiest weekends and I remember lines being much longer when I was a kid. It snowed about an inch over night, but this was pretty much just for show. The snow quality was pretty variable, as it often is this far south and east. Ice patches abounded, with loose granular and wet packed powder that must have just been blown in the last couple nights. The northwest side was much better than the north, which was icier through the terrain park. Some of the jump landings were literally sheets of ice and looked very sketchy. Plus, high traffic areas got scraped off pretty quick which exposed the bulletproof layer beneath. This set up a scene I was familiar with as a teenager: a bunch of kids in hoodies and basketball jersies queued up at the top of an icy rut leading to a rail of some sort. Not my idea of a good time. Took a couple runs in the terrain park, hit the two features I can still manage, then made my way over to the northwest side. Broadway was wet packed machine made snow, but littered with slowly moving slalom gates. Extreme and Grizzly were fairly nice: a bit firmer but not icy. The rest of the northwest side of the hill rode about the same and was actually quite enjoyable. Left by 4:00 and the crowds still hadn't descended. Seemed odd that even with so-so conditions there weren't more people. Oh well. Off to the Poconos tomorrow.

Crappy cell phone pics:

 

[〽❄❅]

^ looks more developed then the local hill of my youth, Spring Mountain, had some good times there

I don't know where in jersey you have to drive home to, but i'd say it's well worth some additional miles out of you way to do Elk over Camelback if you can. Whichever, have fun tomorrow!

 

[Not Sure]

Bear Creek AKA Doe Moutain....Has gone through a lot of changes over the years, T bars gone, added a decent steep upper section Sasquach ..not very long. North side expansion. Lodge is awesome, Hotel . I've skiied there off and on since 1976. When the T bar was running they would let the upper section bump up. I can remember some of the largest moguls I've ever seen.
They do a pretty good job of snomaking , not a lot of verticle but a decent place to bring a family.
Here's a well done pond skim video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg1WBgqBgow

 

[Rowsdower]

^ looks more developed then the local hill of my youth, Spring Mountain, had some good times there

I don't know where in jersey you have to drive home to, but i'd say it's well worth some additional miles out of you way to do Elk over Camelback if you can. Whichever, have fun tomorrow!

Piscataway, and starting from Berks County, Pa, so its almost twice the distance as I'd be going the other side of Scranton. I'm trying to keep the trip short as possible tomorrow since I won't be able to get as early of a start as I'd like. That's the main problem I have with getting to Elk. It's an extra hour and change to get north of Scranton, and from Jersey its basically the same distance to the Catskills. At some point I should make the trip though, because it sounds like the AZ mountain of choice for Pa. I've only been once, and that was when I was like 14.