Mid-Atlantic 2019/2020 Poconos (greater area) -- Conditions, Resorts, Meet-ups

[johnnyvw]

Well, it's relative to the rest of the trails. I skied at Big Bear for the first time a few weeks ago, their blacks would blues at most places, their double black maybe a difficult blue. All relative...

 

[Arcane]

Yep..that's what I was comparing it to. Relative to their other blacks, it's far easier. If you get a chance to go to CBK this year, you'll see what I mean!

 

[Large Squirrel]

it was back-to-back ski days for me this weekend. saturday met up with a couple of college buddies at montage, and sunday raced nastar at bear creek with @tinymoose and 3 other peeps from our blue mtn adult racing clinic.

saturday was lots of fun. montage was blowing snow all day long, and the north face was skiing very nicely. boomer had some nice soft bumps going, and white lightning super tasty. i dabbled in the WL trees and they were in good shape as well.

sunday was really fun, except for the massive amount of ppl running the nastar course. i believe it was the bear creek race team's last day for the season, so all the kiddos were racing their coaches and/or parents (bc runs a dual course setup). poor line management lead to a very long wait, so we complained and things got resolved. it was our first time racing the nastar at bc, and we both really enjoyed the course there.

 

[Philpug]

I remember when Rhododendron was a gladed trail.

 

[johnnyvw]

Me too...one of my favorites because people avoided it like the plague, so the snow was usually good when the rest of the runs were boilerplate

 

[johnnyvw]

Montage was a ghost town yesterday. Conditions were very nice except for some rocks being exposed on the lowest part of the mountain. And early afternoon, the snow they blew overnight turned into flypaper..I almost went over the handlebars on lower Smoke. By the time I left at 2 pm, the base area was soup.

 

[kitchener]

CBK was getting progressively soupy, too -- hit some "dead spots" a few times that almost made me fall forward.

 

[Large Squirrel]

Montage was a ghost town yesterday. Conditions were very nice except for some rocks being exposed on the lowest part of the mountain. And early afternoon, the snow they blew overnight turned into flypaper..I almost went over the handlebars on lower Smoke. By the time I left at 2 pm, the base area was soup.

white lightning was in great shape yesterday. apparently they were able to blow snow on it saturday nite.

 

[johnnyvw]

white lightning was in great shape yesterday. apparently they were able to blow snow on it saturday nite.

Yes it was, as was Boomer. The fresh stuff on the steeper slopes was good, it was on the low angle slopes it got sticky.

 

[4aprice]

I had a blast at Camelback Sunday after flying in from Colorado the night before. Started out real interesting with some spots that were down right dangerous (a Pocono right of passage) with the cold morning but softened up nice in the early afternoon.


Uncle Bills with seeded bumps



Same with Marjies (they took longer to thaw though)

Lower Cleo has a line too. Decent bump day with sun and good practice for Trip #2 out west coming a week from tomorrow.

Some good après on the deck.

 

[johnnyvw]

Those bumps are looking like what I saw at Blue a couple years ago, kinda space apart a bit too much to get a good rhythm

 

[4aprice]

Those bumps are looking like what I saw at Blue a couple years ago, kinda space apart a bit too much to get a good rhythm

Disagree, coming out of Colorado and some real nice bump skiing (think Mary Jane at Winter Park) I think they are a little tight and slow. Would like to see some better spacing for more speed. But Its Camelback and any bumps to practice on are very appreciated. Still think they should be on Rodo.

 

[johnnyvw]

Hmmm...well, if you make that comparison to MJ, then looks must be deceiving LOL Unfortunately with the way the weather is shaping up, I probably wont have a chance to sample the goods...I think I may be done for the season around here.

 

[johnnyvw]

Just got an announcement email from Camelback, they are shutting down the entire resort at 4 pm tomorrow, tentatively reopening April 2. Ski season is done. I think they were the last hold-out in the area.

 

[4aprice]

Pocono season overall was a pretty tough one. I got my 20+ days at Camelback, which I expected. Think the resort did fairly well with the hand they were dealt. They scratched and clawed and once again they did reach 100% as they have every year that I have been a pass holder there. While many days (especially early) were strictly, groomer days they showed some willingness to seed a couple of bump runs down the stretch which was appreciated. Still think they should do Rodo next season. Concern for the Thirsty Camel as that would be a loss to me but interested to see some of the updates and changes I've heard about.

Going into dry land training mode for the summer (running, biking and hills) and hope to augment that with some 2 hour sessions a couple of times a month at the indoor slope down at the Meadowlands. It will be interesting to see if my goal of keeping some ski muscles "in tune" works out and make the early season next year better.

 

[Willyum215]

22 days in at Elk. Definitely got my value out of the pass. I, too, have to tip my hat to them for the excellent conditions they provided despite the lack of really any natural snow. Sounds like all the resorts in the area did the very best they could under the circumstances.

Perhaps we'll have an actual winter next year? Only time will tell. Have a great offseason, all!

 

[johnnyvw]

"and hope to augment that with some 2 hour sessions a couple of times a month at the indoor slope down at the Meadowlands "

Would be interested to hear if it's even worthwhile to bother going there. It looked to me that there's quite a schlep from parking, could be a PIA in the summer with a full load of gear

 

[johnnyvw]

Blue Mountain earlier this afternoon. Except for a few bare spots up top, still very skiable looking.

 

[kitchener]

I can see the sage brush!

 

[Willyum215]

They are calling for 3-6" up here at Elk, starting early tomorrow morning... ???