EdBacon

They should open tomorrow so they can scoop JF.

I'm not expecting anything approaching decent conditions till the second half of December. Will take some time for the weather to change. No worries.

Ontario, is that a sandwich cookie?

Last time I was at CamelBack (or CB as locals call it) was 2015. I punched a french person in the face and broke my pinky finger. It's still crooked cuz it healed weird I can show you sometime.

Saturday looks like the day. No rain. Might go. Need to drive to Hawley later though.

Wow did Blue Mtn get snow today? Looks gr8.

Love you.

Weather probably isn't going to let them do more than operate on weekends before then anyway.

JF doesn't do tubing anymore. It isn't family friendly enough.

Jack Frost is opening Dec 1

Camelback's base is about the same elevation as the top of Blue Mountain.

Camelback is older and more comfortable with where they are. They're less motivated to make big changes. Which I can sort of appreciate. They have a stable of old fixed grip lifts still while Blue is all high speed now. They did build out the hotel and waterpark thing in 2015 but otherwise I can't think of any major improvements on the mountain recently. Their new high speed lift is only going in because the lift it replaced had a major accident.

I couldn't hang around Cortina Valley too much. Somebody tried to turn the lodge and base area into a hotel resort in 2020, right in time for the pandemic. I don't think it lasted more than a year. Even though its closed I think somebody lives there now. But I did walk up to the top.

Recently learned its actually pronounced "El K" Which is Spanish for "The K"

Not a Prince fan?

Come spend the night inside my sugar walls

Then its really pink.

Why is frost pink?

I'm stoked. Gonna score me a funnel cake at the Camelback cafeteria.

I would.

No brainer for me. Blue + Camelback as local mountains and the vacation covered beats the pants off JF/BB. I won't end up using more than the 14 days locally + a couple vacations anyway. And abandoned areas are always free when it snows.

The Biggest Little Mountain in the Catskills! Somebody tried to run a hotel out of the lodge but that folded a few years ago. I think somebody might be living in the lodge now.

Anyone want to guess for the next one?

Been a while since I've been up to this. Also I've visited pretty much everything in a day's driving distance. Got up to MA last fall and checked out what remains of Mt. Tom.

The main problem with siting the trails on the east side of the mountain is that the bottom is mostly floodplain. The original ski area had issues where the ground at the base of the tows wouldn't freeze and you'd be stuck walking through a swamp. It's a big reason why they moved the operations further west down the mountain. Also, on the occasion there's adequate snowfall: skiers right of Nile Mile, right around the first left switchback turn if you duck into the woods you'll come out onto a woods trail that proceeds steeply down towards the old railroad grade. This wasn't a Big Pocono ski trail but it does cross into the old ski area. From there you have to skin or hike back to Nile Mile. No water slide, but imo something better. Check this out: