Schif

I bet Long Haul will be open this weekend. All the better for drinking beers leisurely on the chair and going top to bottom in the woods is there's enough snow.

Watching the models and the Weather Channel and sipping on a cocktail. Tonight is a good night.

Looks Like Southern PA is going to get the brunt of this storm. Maybe I'll have to make a trek over to Roundtop.

Montage, oh the mythical beast that is often discussed and seldom skied. A HSQ would be a terrible idea to replace Long Haul. Think about it, all of a sudden you're putting hundreds of people at the top of Upper Runaway and Fast Track and of course the Glades. From there you could also reasonably access Whistler and maybe switch. These 3-4 trails funnel into Lower Runaway and Fast Track, as well as the possibility to go to Rattler which funnels into Cannonball. So long story short you're talking about 2 decent routes top to bottom that would get you back to the HSQ. Let's also remember that all of this terrain is labeled as intermediate and above. All of a sudden you've got tons of Tom Dick and Harrys all over the damn place. These guys will fall, they will slide, they will scrape, they will get hurt and most importantly they will ski off the only top to bottom routes within 2 hours. Let's also remember that the Glades at Montage are pretty great and they stay untracked for hours and hours if not days if you know where to look. All of that is gone with a HSQ. It will turn into blue mountain where you have to be up there for first chair if you want any chance of getting the goods. Ok so here's my take on why Montage doesn't do the numbers of blue and CB. First of all it's the extra drive. Camelback is a hair over an hour from the GW bridge, throw on another 45 minutes to an hour and New Yorkers don't have time for that. Same with Philly Pholks. An hour and half or so from the Philly area and you're at blue. Gotta go a few extra exits (45 minutes or so) and you're at Montage. Why go farther than you have to especially when you've got kids in tow. Now for the locals, The ones in the relatively close poconos have CB, Frost and Boulder so they are obviously locals to those places. The really close people now come from a really interesting part of the world. The Wyoming Valley which stretches from Scranton to Wilkes-Barre has never really given up on the old ways. These people live in bubbles. People from Pittston go to Wilkes-Barre for their shopping, people from other towns go to Scranton. Even though these places are close together it's really one or the other. You kind of stick to the paths that people around you run in and deal with what you know and not a whole lot outside of that. Wilkes-Barre has 2 major newspapers. Scranton has 2 papers. These cities are 20 minutes apart and admittedly in different counties but if you read these papers the stories are very different. Now on top of this there is another complete bubble in the are known as "The Abingtons" This encompasses Clarks Summit and the surrounding areas. The Abingtons might as well be somewhere in Kansas because people from up there know nothing of the rest of the valley. This area is easily the wealthiest in the entire region. These are the people that overall have an interest in Golf and Skiing. Interestingly enough Clark's Summit lies equidistant to Montage and Elk. If you ask someone from "the summit" where they play golf they say Glen Oak, ask them where they go skiing and they will all say Elk. These people will admit that Elk is too expensive, they will admit that it sucks they don't have a lot of night skiing, and they will all hate the fact that it's out in the middle of nowhere as opposed to Montage which is in the heart of a metropolis. Doesn't matter to them. Their parents went to Elk, their friends go to Elk, so they go to Elk. They almost forget that Montage is even there. They don't even really register the fact that CB or Blue or Frost/boulder exist either. One track mind.

Zee lights are shining at the finest ski resort within a 15 minute trolley ride of Sreamtown national historic site. They are blowing the hell out of switch, whistler, mainline, bunny slope and cannonball.

Anyone know how much tickets are supposed to be at blue and/or camelback?

If they can be open and there is enough snow to warrant a trip I would probably pop in on monday for a few hours. Then finish Christmas shopping at the Crossings across the street

Yikes! At least montage gives us a full hot buffet, live music, door prizes and a drink at the bar for the passholder party.

All this speculation is really rustling my jimmies.

People are still asking me to play golf on the weekends. Weather wise, i'm waking up each morning wondering when Halloween will come because Christmas sure as hell isn't on it's way with these temps.

Montage is running a deal right now where you can buy a 2 pack of lift tickets for $20 for the first Friday that they are open.

First week of March. I figure it'll still pretty much be winter out there.

So after the advice of you guys and poking around a bit I'm leaning towards Snowbird. It seems like a pretty solid mountain and a nice bonus is that it's really close to SLC meaning I could realistically stay in town and just drive to the mountain in the morning which I'm assuming would be more fun than staying there? I don't know much about the area but I'm guessing I'll find more apres ski fun in town and cheaper lodging too.

There were reports of some flakes and an icy road in the higher elevations of the Wyoming Valley this morning. Nothing substantial but it was coming down for a bit.

So I'm strongly considering going out west for the first time this March. My thoughts right now are to go to Utah. Probably fly into SLC and rent a car. What would you guys suggest in terms of which mountain to go to from there?

I think I saw ski999 a few times at Montage last year, but kind of from a distance.

Montage made snow last night too.

Job/going back to school. I'm not looking forward to being so far away from any decent mountains, but it'll be OK for a few years I guess.

Better than nothing. But also a lot closer to the elusive Blue Knob too, so there's that.

No pass to Snotage this year. I'm moving to Harrisburg in January so it doesn't make sense to get a pass there.

Screw PA this year. I'm going west. Anyone got good recommendations in the SLC area?

You guys are dedicated. I live 15 minutes from Montage and I rarely make first chair.

No one waits around except for maybe one lift ride. If I recall that led to me doing a few out of my mind drunk solo laps of Blue at the end of the season last year.

Have fun waiting and wishing for brush clearing in the trees at blue while I'm busy doing top to bottom laps through the trees at Montage in fresh untouched stuff 8 days after a storm.

I'm legendary. The surf takes lessons from me.