Winter

Geezer, I can't be certain but I believe the village is run by an association but one guy still owns the land it all sits on. There are so many issues up there, most revolving around Joe Moore who owns Elk. He apparently revoked all the season passes and discount passes to the two local ski shops, Idlewild and Guenthers, over a stupid dispute over having their names embroidered on the kids race team jackets. He's pissing a lot of good customers off, thinking that they'll still spend big money to be there. But in the end, its just plain bad business to upset your customers.

Tough question. White Lightning at Sno is my fav for two reasons other than pitch... it's long and rarely icy as they always keep fresh snow on it. Tunkhannock at Elk is a hell of a challenge when the bumps are big. It's not super steep but the challenge is running it from the top non-stop and see if your legs give way before gettting to the cross over. But yeah, Extreme at Denton is a riot. They run races off the top of that, no?

I was up for the J3 race this Sunday (skied Saturday) and have to tell you the conditions were stellar! I'd put your snow making up against any other in Pa from what I saw. Boomer was off the hook and it's been years since i saw a race surface like what was on Smoke Sunday. Bulletproof without being Ice. Great job by the race crew by the way.

Same story all over PA. People are just not getting out there to make up for lost time. Elk and Sno were dead this weekend as well. ... Wow, and to think all some of you ever bitched about was the race kids snakin' ya and no one else!

I went up with this cuz on the lift. Yes, he was racing ASRA, Yes he had a hot chicky with him, and yes, he had a slight accent. Funny you pegged it JS. Didn't spy the car though, i'd guess a Renault.

Ehhh, have faith. It'll work out. Big court date is this Friday, stay tuned.

Saturdays i think. Someone assumed Timberline was no longer going to be closed off, but they are now going to have weekend closings in addition to weeknights and a few special events as uaual.

Gapers probably, not meant to insinuate anyone on here or those more passionate about parks than your average school kid who could give a crap about the sport. But all six hits that year were outside the park on regular trails. One of them was one of my kids so i have a bit more insight into this that most. betcha bear is missing the money they brought in right about now.

and they could have only wished not to have 'park-types' ignorantly running into 6 race kids 2 january's ago sending several to the hospital Really? Wait til you see how much Nastar expands its hours this year. Hey Honk, nice twist on a simple post. But since you brought it up, the race team was banned from the park during training hours since 2008. But some park dummies didn't seem to understand a rope across a closed trail also probably meant that they shouldn't be in the training course either. Flame suit on, but i will say that by and large Bear Creek has the largest number of ignorant park riders . The other places I hit don't have nearly the lack of respect that BC does. Whether it's dicking around or cutting in the lift line, running into people on the slopes, foul language or anything else that exhibits a lack of common sense, Bear has the most of them. Go ahead and bring up race team problems, im not defending them. But don't tell me that anyone here hasn't left at the end of the day at Bear pissed at times because of shit going on in or around the park.

Yeah, That's where a lot of them headed. Race Director Matte DePaulo was happy to see his numbers go back up. Blue had a steady decline in recent years because of Bear's successful team.

Golf course brotha. Golf course. Those nuts play in 100 degrees, 25 degrees, rain and hurricanes. No need to wait for just the right temps.

But i hear they do. Hoping i'm wrong.

it's basically two old rich guys swinging their expensive dicks at each other. Elk wants to build condos but needs right of way through village of four seasons property. VOFS wont grant it because they are trying to protect the property owners home values. Elk locks up the gate that is used by VOFS to access Elks slopes (so they dont have to ride the dumb cattle cars) and now VOFS is suing Elk because they are drawing snow making water from VOFS spring fed lake. For crying out loud.

I think anytime bear claims to be open, as in hike 100 yards of snow, they use it against the pro-rated season pass guarentee so they dont have to give back as much money at the end of the year if they dont hit the 65 day promise. that's BS as that counts out a good deal of people who have no intrest in hiking, older loyal skiers included. Absolutely ignorant in my book.

That's cool. Im hoping to see the old blue marsh open back up, park n ride only.

I have to say, im feeling a bit sad (just a very little bit) for bear right now. Not for the managers and owners but for the people who make a living working there. Even the seasonal part timers were hoping for a few extra Christmas bucks by this time. Beyond that, what comes around goes around and maybe this is payback from mother nature from some of the dumb decisions the management has made over the last few years. Just put a few days in at elk , kids have their race camp this weekend. It was packed, mostly with nearly 80 race kids from liberty and roundtop, who are also not open yet. Bears not alone.

I was becoming worried that 'STEEZE' hadn't chimed in within quite a few pages! For a moment i thought perhaps he scored a job at a Pa ski area as their director of PR. ;-)

LOL, yeah, nachos can take on various forms but using potato chips.... What did you get charged for that? They've never made a bad burger there, that's my go-to favorite... that and a good IPA to wash it down.

I never had a terrible meal there,. but depending on what culinary group was in there, it could have been hit or miss. Bear, as i mentioned, is trying to get all operations under their umbrella, hence the booting of the ski team, the ski shop and now the food service. At least it looks like the beer will be good!

I follow ya. As i mention in a previous post, i remember the ponds being REALLY low and then a warm spell hit. And of course, there are many other factors other than wet bulb indexes. Blue Mt. seems to be the most southern ski area in Pa currently open, it would have been nice to see bear take the line lower. But if Roundtop, liberty and whitetail aren't open either, it wasn't for lack of trying i suppose. Oh, fwiw, the beer selction looks good as usual, but they no longer seem to have the 'on tap' menu up. http://bcmountainresort.com/grille

Well said. I really hate to bring Elk up but just to slam home the point, they closed last year with 100% open and good coverage. There was quite an uproar from pass holders as you can imagine. The bottom line is there shouldn't be too much of a gamble when you plunk big $$$ on a season pass, hoping to get your $$$ out and then some. You're only gamble should be weather, not mistakes by the mountain. I won't buy a pass at BC soley because there are some very good 'outside' deals through ski clubs and shops, that if you only ski once per week it makes more sense to explore those avenues. This isn't BC specific, every mountain has things worked out like this, you just need to spend some time and do homework to sniff out the best deals. Brilliant post, I simply have no intelligent answer to that. Can't bring myself to use middle school bad words. Haven't been to the Grill yet to spec the beer selection, but they rarely disappoint. They usually have it posted on-line, but sometimes they are a week behind the kicked kegs.

Hey great idea pip-squeek! Maybe if you have the balls, we can meet up over a beer at BC and you educate me on geography too! That is, only if you can get in the bar without being accompanied by an adult.

This is a Bear forum right? Thought that was what i'm talkling about. Well, your brilliance with math and snowmaking don't outweigh the strength of my arguement. I ski at BC on weeknights so even though I dont care for the people running the place, I appreciate what they've done on-hill since the Doe mt. days. Again, I dislike the administration, not the hard working people trying to give us a place to ski. And ask any hardcore skier or rider, i think many would have been slightly happier at least having SOMETHING open now and through out the holidays than to sit on their overpriced season passes watching mud overtake snow.

I disagree. Last year it took only 60 hours of fulltime blowing to open 100%. Thin cover here and there to be sure, but only 60 hours. And didn't they even have a few elements for the park as well? Simple math would tell you that they could have concentrated the snow making energy on a few key slopes for the 40+ hours of good temps and then at least survived this warm up through their most needed open time, that being the holidays. I'm not a full time snowmaker, so I really can't speak with authority on this. However, based on historical facts and my previous involvement with snow making, I still stand by my statement that I think they made a wrong move.

First day there was Sunday, as and said before, the snow was pretty darned good. And not a soul at the bar!