Tell the story of your home mountain

[dl]

What I would consider my home mountain and my current mountain are different. I grew up in CNY and while I raced many times at the formerly mentioned Greek Peak, I spent my weekends and some week nights at Cazenovia Ski Club. This is a private ski club that still exists today (www.cazenoviaskiclub.com). It happens to have some very challenging terrain, was home to many top ski racers and a couple of Olympic skiers and......to this day it still has 1 T-bar, 2 rope tows and out-houses. They got snowmaking sometime in the 90s I believe. There are two "lodges," the first of which is an large A-frame w/electric heat and the other is the "wax hut" which has a wood burning stove in the center. Each lodge had 2 percolators heating water for your Swiss Miss or Cup-o-Soup. Every kid who spent time there had a patch under their arm from the rope burning through and you were sure to go through a few pair of gloves each season. Come race day we'd import a few more toilets, and they'd set up a grill and sell burgers and dogs.

I have many memories but two things come to mind which you'd be hard pressed to find on today's hills. 1) going up the rope tow could be dangerous especially if you were small. all it took was a good whip of the rope from the guy behind you and you could find yourself in the mid-station snow fence. 2) there was a trail that traversed across the hill which led to a couple of great trails. On the side of this trail was a large, lone tree. Dangling from the downhill side of the tree was a thick rope about 20' long, possibly more. For fun we would bring the rope around the tree to the uphill (trail) side and either hold it or put it between your legs. You would then ski across the hill and at some point the rope would lift you off the ground and you would fly around the tree. At the peak you were probably 20 feet off of the ground. the key was to make sure your skis were headed in the right direction when you came around - made for a very smooth landing. We got good enough to do multiple spins (helicopters) as we flew around the tree. I remember one kid's first time around the tree when he got spooked 1/2 way around and let go of the rope. At least a 20 foot drop.

Ah...memories. I take my kids there during the summer for hikes and they still wonder about t-bars and rope tows.

 

[campgottagopee]

What I would consider my home mountain and my current mountain are different. I grew up in CNY and while I raced many times at the formerly mentioned Greek Peak, I spent my weekends and some week nights at Cazenovia Ski Club. This is a private ski club that still exists today (www.cazenoviaskiclub.com). It happens to have some very challenging terrain, was home to many top ski racers and a couple of Olympic skiers and......to this day it still has 1 T-bar, 2 rope tows and out-houses. They got snowmaking sometime in the 90s I believe. There are two "lodges," the first of which is an large A-frame w/electric heat and the other is the "wax hut" which has a wood burning stove in the center. Each lodge had 2 percolators heating water for your Swiss Miss or Cup-o-Soup. Every kid who spent time there had a patch under their arm from the rope burning through and you were sure to go through a few pair of gloves each season. Come race day we'd import a few more toilets, and they'd set up a grill and sell burgers and dogs.

I have many memories but two things come to mind which you'd be hard pressed to find on today's hills. 1) going up the rope tow could be dangerous especially if you were small. all it took was a good whip of the rope from the guy behind you and you could find yourself in the mid-station snow fence. 2) there was a trail that traversed across the hill which led to a couple of great trails. On the side of this trail was a large, lone tree. Dangling from the downhill side of the tree was a thick rope about 20' long, possibly more. For fun we would bring the rope around the tree to the uphill (trail) side and either hold it or put it between your legs. You would then ski across the hill and at some point the rope would lift you off the ground and you would fly around the tree. At the peak you were probably 20 feet off of the ground. the key was to make sure your skis were headed in the right direction when you came around - made for a very smooth landing. We got good enough to do multiple spins (helicopters) as we flew around the tree. I remember one kid's first time around the tree when he got spooked 1/2 way around and let go of the rope. At least a 20 foot drop.

Ah...memories. I take my kids there during the summer for hikes and they still wonder about t-bars and rope tows.

I remeber racing you dudes---and you're right caz had/has some great racers. Another thing about rope tows=glove eaters!!!! I still have those friggin heavy leather "inserts" somewhere at home. Maybe I'll wear them skiing sunday just to see if anyone ask's about them.

 

[ERJ-145CA]

My home mountain is Hidden Valley, it's about 15 minutes from my house and a 5 minute drive past Mountain Creek. I moved up to the Vernon area last January mainly because it is one of the few affordable areas of NJ that is also close to skiing. I have MC and HV within a 15 minute drive, Mt. Peter 35 minutes away and the Poconos 1.5 hours and Catskills about 2 hours away. I decided to go with an unlimited pass at HV for my son and I because it is uncrowded, even on weekends and it has a long rolling beginner trail for my son. By contrast MC is super crowded on weekends so I didn't want to get a pass there even though it would be much more interesting terrain for me, though the beginner trail is much less interesting at MC. Hidden Valley is 620 vertical feet and has basically 4 top to bottom runs though they are broken up into upper and lower on the trail map. There are a couple of relatively steep blacks too. It's a good place to bang out a bunch of runs in a couple of hours on weekdays while my son is in kindergarten.

I used to ski HV with my mother occasionally in the early 1980's on weekdays, at the time they were a semi-private club, weekends and holidays were members only. At some point in the 80's it became a normal public ski area. It had serious financial troubles for years and just before last season was bought by new owners. It's now officially called the Hidden Valley Club and starting next season it's going to be a semi-private club again, members only on weekends and holidays. I got the e-mail last week that they won't be offering unlimited passes for next season and joining the club is not in my budget so I'll probably get a weekday/non-holiday pass for next season. I'll have to take my son elsewhere on weekends, maybe Mt. Peter in Warwick, NY.

 

[4aprice]

It's now officially called the Hidden Valley Club and starting next season it's going to be a semi-private club again, members only on weekends and holidays. I got the e-mail last week that they won't be offering unlimited passes for next season and joining the club is not in my budget so I'll probably get a weekday/non-holiday pass for next season. I'll have to take my son elsewhere on weekends, maybe Mt. Peter in Warwick, NY.

I taught there when it was semi-private and for those who can afford it, it was very nice. But thats gotta be horrible news for you with Mountain Creek screwing up so much. I have a suggestion you can either take or leave. Not sure exactly where your located but if you have decent access to the Milford-Wantage bridge on 206 you should go give Ski Big Bear at Masthope a try. It might be closer then you would think and it is much more of a hill then Mt Peter, Campgaw, or what ever Sterling Forest is called now. Thier passes cost like $200.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[ERJ-145CA]

I taught there when it was semi-private and for those who can afford it, it was very nice. But thats gotta be horrible news for you with Mountain Creek screwing up so much. I have a suggestion you can either take or leave. Not sure exactly where your located but if you have decent access to the Milford-Wantage bridge on 206 you should go give Ski Big Bear at Masthope a try. It might be closer then you would think and it is much more of a hill then Mt Peter, Campgaw, or what ever Sterling Forest is called now. Thier passes cost like $200.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

I live by the YMCA in Hardyston on Rt. 94. I didn't even know Big Bear existed so I checked out their website it does look like a nice mountain. Probably be a good weekend/holiday choice for the family. About how long of a drive do you think it is from the Y. I'll probably still go to HV on weekdays by myself next season just 'cause it's close. Sterling Forest is now called Tuxedo Ridge but I've never been there, I would drive past 3 other ski areas to get there so it doesn't seem worth it. I used to live 10 minutes from Campgaw but I'll probably never go there again unless I move back to that area.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

30 years ago..Ray Tuthill an avide skier who owned a construction decided to put his employees to work during the winter time building a ski area on the Northside of the Blue mountain 17 miles north of Allentown and 75 miles from Philadelphia. He named the ski area Little Gap because it's location adjacent to the Little Gap which is a geographical feature along the Appalachian trail. The mountain first opened with the Vista Chairlift..school-hill tow and Raceway T-bar and had about 250 vertical feet near the top of the mountain..a few years later runs like Burma road, The Chute, Midway, Lazy Mile and Switchback were cut along with the addition of two 800 vertical foot double chairs which still stand today..the Main Street double and the Burma lift..all of a sudden dinky Blue mountain had more vertical than major players like Shawnee, Doe Mountain, Jack Frost and Big Boulder. Late in the 80s, the challenge chair was built and it began at the end of Shuttle and brought Blue mountains vertical drop to an impressive 923 feet. The Challenge Trail, Tuts Lane and Sidewinder were cut.

Now that Little Gap was a major player in the PA ski scene..it needed a name change and became Blue mountain...

In 1992, The Challenge chair was lengthened to the valley giving Blue mountain 1052 vertical feet..the origional challenge double is where the current 6-pack sits..In 1994 Blue mountain installed the Comet high speed detachable quads..one of the first detachables in PA..covering 1082 vertical feet in 4-5 minutes as opposed to 9-10 minutes for the Challenge double. For the 1995-96 season, Blue mountain opened the Paradise trail over 6,000 feet long..almost 2 kilometers in length. For the 1996-97 season, Blue mountain allowed snowboarders for the first time which led to Terrain run which at the time was a Snowboard park and back then the halfpipe was for snowboarders only. The headwall of Razors edge was also opened but it was simply called Bump Run although it didn't always have bumps..then you had to cut back to challenge where it flattens out after the first headwall.

In more recent years, Sidwinder became a terrain park, the bottom 2/3 of Razors edge was completed, a 6-pack was installed, lower sidewinder became a skiercross course, steps at the entrance of the Sidwinder park were installed, snowtubing was added and new for 2009..Dreamweaver..