Eastern Pennsylvania conditions ?

[urungus]

Will be driving from Washington DC back to Western Mass on Friday and thought I would try to hit a ski area in Eastern Pennsylvania on the way. But a cursory check of Blue Knob shows zero open advanced or expert trails. Anyone know of any other area that currently has decent terrain open ?

 

[Domeskier]

Blue Mountain appears to be 100% open. Best terrain in the Poconos, for what that's worth.

 

[trackbiker]

Will be driving from Washington DC back to Western Mass on Friday and thought I would try to hit a ski area in Eastern Pennsylvania on the way. But a cursory check of Blue Knob shows zero open advanced or expert trails. Anyone know of any other area that currently has decent terrain open ?

Montage or Elk both have pretty good conditions right now. Elk has a 4 hr ticket for $50. I'll be at Elk on Friday. If you go PM me if you want to make some turns.
Wherever you go, stay off the PA Turnpike (76 , 476). The tolls are now ridiculously high. Take 81.

 

[Not Sure]

Blue Mountain appears to be 100% open. Best terrain in the Poconos, for what that's worth.

Blue is really stepping up their game this year. Blowing lots of snow and refreshing. Their new trail is keeping things interesting, sort of half pipe on skiers left. The Compass orientation is accidentally perfect when the guns are going with some wind the bumps capture a lot of snow that would normally end up in the woods.
Haven’t been to Elk this year yet but always a favorite

 

[PAabe]

Blue Knob is very under capitalized and rarely has the snowmaking ability to open all of their terrain, which is a bit unfortunate because they are usually considered to have the best terrain in the state if it is all mostly open. Some advanced terrain was open earlier on natural but it got hit with freezing rain. Their snowmaking progress at this point in the season is typical. They are blowing on High Hopes, double black, which may be open Friday.

Pretty much everywhere else should be at or near 100% open. We have had fantastic conditions for PA this year.

I would agree with the recommendation to try Elk or Montage, or since you are going on a Friday, Blue Mountain (Blue will get busier at night though). Do not ski in the trees at Elk unless you want your pass pulled. Those 3 along with Blue Knob have the best advanced terrain and the biggest vert in the state.

Montage, Blue Knob, and Shawnee are on Indy. Roundtop, Liberty, Whitetail, Jack Frost, and Big Boulder are on Epic - Whitetail, Roundtop, and Jack Frost are considered the better of those vail areas and might be ok on a Friday.

 

[Domeskier]

I was thinking Elk might be a bit out of the way, but Google maps suggests it adds only about half an hour over Blue Mountain from DC to Western MA. I would do Elk.

 

[urungus]

Thanks for the advice everyone. No worries about tolls since this is a business trip Thinking I will hit Blue Mountain for a few hours in the morning, then use my Indy Pass at Montage in the afternoon. Both are 100% open as of today, whereas some of the advanced terrain at Elk is not open. Plus I don’t like their hostility towards tree skiing. Are there are any weird old school narrow twisty trails at either Blue or Montage ?

 

[PAabe]

You can probably hit all or most of the trails at both.

Most of the trails at Blue are actually pretty twisty somewhat narrow and kind of weirdly laid out. Blue is pretty grate the biggest issue is the crowds and resulting ice which if you are there Friday morning will not be an issue. Honestly hard to pick favorites at Blue, I would check out as many as you can and see what is skiing nicely; I do usually end up repeating Paradise, Dreamweaver, Razor's, Sidewinder, and Widowmaker>Midway. Usually they let part of some of the blacks bump up. Top lodge imo is nicer but some people like being able to ski down to their car at the bottom lodge. 4hr ticket is good 4hr after first scan and the gates tell you when your time is up, consider buying online since they limit tickets and do surge pricing.

The upper mountain at montage is nothing super special, maybe hit easy street it is kind of weird; runaway and fast track are fun and the bottoms are twisty but the long haul (if it is even running) is in fact a long haul; each of the lower mountain blacks at the bottom is different and I would check them all out. White lightning is mad steep, it and boomer are often left to bump up, rattler is cool and narrow but short. The Indy Pass gets you an extended day ticket I believe so you would be good to keep going even after the lights come on!

On a side note, Blue Knob has finally blown some snow on some black terrain and lower High Hopes will thus be opening tomorrow.

 

[IceEidolon]

Sidewinder and Switchback are your best bet for interesting trails at Blue Mountain. Switchback is usually more shaded and is easy to ski off the double - keep that in mind if the lines at the valley lifts get long. Nightmare/Dreamweaver is a park now. Widowmaker to Chute is a fun often ignored route off the doubles - Chute may be bumps though. If you come out of Lower Sidewinder/S turns, avoid Central Park and duck over to No Terrain Run or Home Stretch unless you have speed to get to the top of the big jumps on Central.

 

[urungus]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I got a late start so I was only able to go to Blue Mountain. I believe I skied every trail except a couple greens, and Razors Edge / Razorback, which were closed for racing.

Great day for skiing after the recent frigid temps in Vermont, 50 degrees and sunny with bright blue skies. Nice vistas. Solid coverage on all trails and nice soft but not slushy surface conditions, but some trails had a lot of what I guess you would call yet to be frozen death cookies, is there a word for that ? Only place I encountered any ice was on Barney’s Bumps.

On the two top to bottom high speed lifts, there were moderate lines but they moved quickly, but I get the sense that it might get a little Mt Snow like on the weekends.

Pretty much everything groomed, including all the double blacks. They had big Danger Ungroomed signs at start of Freefall but bumps were barely there. The small Blue Baumer Glade was packed down but not icy

Starting where Sidewinder meets Crossover, they had a cool ski cross course set up, with lots of jumps and steeply banked turns. Complete with metal gate that falls down to to start the race. But only camp kids are allowed, although FYI the attendant I talked to said there was some sort of event open to the public happening next weekend.

Jerry factor was pretty high, I saw a guy at the head of the line let the chair go by, then attempt to chase it down from behind despite the shouts of the lifties. He managed to get about half of himself draped over the chair before they shut it down.

Many sweatpants and I saw at least 5 different Flyers jerseys.

Looking forward to trying Blue Knob/Elk/Montage next time.

 

[urungus]

A few photos:

Icy Barney’s Bumps:


Groomed double black:




“Ungroomed” Freefall:


View from summit lodge terrace:

 

[urungus]

Blue Baumer Glade: