EdBacon

Regional rail is great but needs more frequent service and a few late night trains. The subway in Philly is a use at your own risk situation right now. I've never seen it as bad down there since I moved to Philly for college 13 years ago.

The stain line. The plain line. The tame line?

I mean tons of people do this elsewhere no problem. Amtrak isn't really commuter rail though as tickets are often prohibitive unless you're just in the office once or twice a week. I knew plenty of people who commuted from the Trenton and Princeton areas to NYC though which is a similar distance. Provided reasonable headways its totally feasible for a lot of people.

Service between Philly and Allentown/Reading is where trains excel if the trackage rights and scheduling can be worked out with NS. The old Reading mainline from Landsdale to Quakertown/Bethlehem is no more but a NYC -> Lehigh Valley -> Reading -> Philly route could do well and the line is already there. It would need safety upgrades though for passenger traffic.

Camelback to Ikon rumors

I saw park kids from BB switch over to BC this year too.

Good to hear. Place used to be packed with teenagers but seemed to be much less crowded/quieter the last ten years or so.

Montage is pushing the distance from Philly. At this point leaning towards epic+indy.

Blue + Indy is another way to go then I guess. I like that Shawnee gives a discount on the Indy if I go that way though and its much cheaper to begin with. Blue would be the priciest option of the three.

I don't feel like giving money to Vail, but staying with epic to keep JFBB as the home mountain and then attaching an Indy Pass might be a compromise. The other option is having to move to Shawnee and get a season pass there which saves money on the indy pass.

Camelback's owners also own Blue now, right? Maybe they can do a Blue/Camel multi pass for ya'll.

Story was leaked and posted via NE Skiology. Reposting from there: Long story short: Vail is cutting prices by 20% next season. Although there is no word on pricing for regional passes like their NE Regional Pass.

They actually have the tendency to swing in a circular motion.

And I'd like Elk more if they didn't but they have other things going for them. Absolutely. Like I said, this is subjective.

Problems with Camelback... I mean ok so this will be subjective but: First thing I see when I drive down the access road is a giant cement box with tubes poking out. The waterpark looks ugly from the outside and totally blocks the view of the mountain as you drive up. Great first impression. Parking lots are paved. Parking lots require you pay a fee now at peak times. No tailgating in the lots. I used to drive into the upper lot and look for a spot, now they have attendants that direct traffic. Last time I was at CBK when I turned into a lot to look for a space I got chased down and kicked out for entering a "full" lot. The proliferation of non-ski related stuff on the mountain to the detriment of skiers. The re-alignment of ski trails in order to place said non-ski attractions. Allowing non-skier hotel guests to wander over ski trails to access said non-ski attractions. Really tone-deaf, corporate feeling marketing and communication teams. Over zealous ski patrol who will pull a pass if they find you off the groomers. The removal of one of their steeper runs to place a terrain park, where their original terrain park was self contained on its own lift. Not keeping up with the terrain park street art program which was super unique. Finally the prices, which are VT prices.

The state inspects yearly but the resort should be doing routine inspections for different things on weekly/daily basis as well.

Try putting that in a statement to the public. Best to err on the side of caution even if its overkill for the time being. Bring somebody in to look over the Stevenson and say it's all good before restarting. Will help assuage some people.

Lift accidents happen. Rare as they are. Wait to see what an independent investigation finds. Lift inspection and maintenance is an area where the people responsible are often way overworked and under compensated, or lack specific technical expertise.

They still have the Stevenson running despite it being almost identical to the Sullivan. I would think they'd also suspend operations on that but guess not.

Depends. If it's a maintenance issue than yeah, it's on CBK.

Maybe they should invest more into the actual mountain than adding circus attractions. 🎪

It's faster and time is money.

Going by the pictures at least it didn't fall off over one of the stretches where its further off the ground. That detachable is one of the older ones around. I'm not sure on the lifespan of a detachable. I know fixed grips can run forever if you keep them in good order, owing to their relative mechanical simplicity. Not sure if detachables will have that same kind of run or if they'll need to be retired/replaced.

Pretty pathetic. 28th is about normal for JF. BB used to go to mid April.