The Action Never Stops at Mountain Creek!

[Domeskier]

These would have been marked trails back in the 80's:

By the way, does any regular know why they took Pipeline off the map?

 

[bensonr2]

I was wondering myself what happened to Pipeline. I haven't been there in a couple years but back when I lived in Sussex I had a season pass for a few years.

I imagine they decided it wasn't worth the effort to maintain the trail plus the liability issues as it was a trail the inexperienced could get into trouble on.

I myself only went on it once. I kept trying every year to ski it as soon as it opened before it turned into a death trap. The one time I did I believe it was only open half a day but it was already a giant steep piece of ice. One of my skis popped off trying to hold an edge. Wound up sliding down 50 feet to recover my ski.

As it stands now the granite lift / great gorge north only services 2 runs plus the South connector trail. I worry that may just close the lift eventually though they would need to create a way to get from Vernon to South.

I think the best solution would be to try to use the old Granite view trail. It was closed I believe due to the long flat spot but perhaps the trail could be rerouted some way.

 

[Domeskier]

I've only been to MC a few times in the past few years, but always after a storm when the website reports things to be bumped up, and I've never seen it open, so I'm guessing it's probably a liability thing, too. Might have been poachable after this last storm....

 

[manhattanskier]

That trail is a death trap, way too wide and steep for the amount of snow MC gets.

 

[danimals]

In 2010 they had a new trail on their trail map running off the back of south that crossed over southern sojourn back into pipeline They even cut a good amount of it but just abandoned it. Maybe pipeline is gone so there won't be people speeding into a green traverse trail

Pipeline, holy $hit. The top would get wind scoured if winds were higher than 5mph. Then a fairly steep trail that ends directly at a 90 degree turn with barely any run out before. It needed to go straight through the condos to the lift.

As it stands creek has nothing for anyone that wants a challenge. South has some really long trails that make it ski bigger than it really is, but God damn those park features everywhere.


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[cdskier]

In 2010 they had a new trail on their trail map running off the back of south that crossed over southern sojourn back into pipeline They even cut a good amount of it but just abandoned it. Maybe pipeline is gone so there won't be people speeding into a green traverse trail

Looks like the intent of that new trail based on the map you posted was to eliminate that double from South to Granite. Would certainly cost less in the long run you would think so surprising they didn't finish it. Been over 10 years since I've been to Mt Creek though and I have no desire to go back.

 

[Funky_Catskills]

That looks SICK!!

 

[bensonr2]

Looks like the intent of that new trail based on the map you posted was to eliminate that double from South to Granite. Would certainly cost less in the long run you would think so surprising they didn't finish it. Been over 10 years since I've been to Mt Creek though and I have no desire to go back.

Yes that was the intent. I believe they admitted that they had to give up on that idea because "the mountain doesn't go that way".

I could have told them that just from skiing the area on and off and never having looked at a topographic map.

They must have thought they could somehow connect to the old granite view trail. But they are very limited because one of the snow making ponds gets in the way. But even without the pond I don't see how it was possible. As it stands granite view had a terribly long flat spot, worse then the south connector trail. The few times I rode it I gave up every time and popped off my skiis to hike at least a 100 ft. I think it was uphill for a good portion.

 

[mriceyman]

Actually got to ski it a couple times early mid 2000s.. From what i remember it was the only trail worth anything on the hill. It did have huge whales/mounds ttb so anyone without experience was in for a world of trouble. Im sure after last storm poaching it was a blast.


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[bensonr2]

Anyone above a strong intermediate is going to be bored at Mountain Creek. But even for the more experienced the death trap that was Pipeline after it had frozen over (which is going to be 90 percent of the time) wasn't adding much.

The real issue for skiers was that they turned "south" into nothing but park features. It should have stayed on the Vernon side. The Vernon side is better for the boarding crowd as most of the more boring runs were there anyway. So if all you care about are features for tricks then why not put it there.

It was never going to be a great skiers hill but as an alternative to the Poconos it wasn't bad. But it has been all downhill since the mid 2000s.