CNY and PA Ski Tour - Day 1 - 2/4/2014

I decided that I would do a tour of central New York and Pennsylvania ski areas that I've never been to. The original plan was to ski ten mountains in five days, however, a snow storm on the day of my planned departure forced me to modify my plan, and leave a day later, adjusting the trip to seven mountains in four days. The revised plan included the following ski areas: Camel Back, Elk Mountain, Greek Peak, Song Mountain, Labrador Mountain, Toggenburg Mountain and Plattekill Mountain. (I've skied Plattekill before, however, the last time I skied there was almost thirty years ago)

Day 1

My first day had me driving from my home in the Lower Hudson Valley to Camel Back Resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, a drive of approximately two hours. I arrived at the mountain about fifteen minutes later than I had planned, which was no big deal. As I drove up the road leading to the resort, my first thought was that this was exactly the sort of thing I don't like about so many ski areas today. It's really built up, with lots of condos, hotels, restaurants, water slides, etc. at the base of the mountain.

I bought my ticket, grabbed a trail map, and proceeded into the lodge to boot up. After looking at the trail map, it became apparent that Camel Back's trail system is a pretty straight-forward collection of parallel trails dropping off of a ridge.


Camel Back "Main Face"

I left the lodge and got on the Sullivan Express high speed quad. I decided that I'd work my way along the ridge, from skier's left to right, hitting each trail in succession. In just a couple of minutes, I had reached the top.

My first trail was King Tut, followed by Hump. I felt a little “out of sorts” on those first two runs. I was having a tough time with visibility, even though it was a perfectly clear day. I wear eyeglasses, and I have a prescription insert that fits inside my ski googles. After the second run, I thought maybe the insert needed to be cleaned, so while I rode the lift up, I took my googles off and removed the insert. I was surprised to find that there was only one lense in the insert!!! I immediately panicked … how was I going to ski four more days without being able to see??? When I was booting up, I had switched the insert from my clear goggles to my tinted goggles, so I was hoping that maybe the lens had fallen out and was either in my bag or on the table where I had booted up. I skied back down to the base and went inside to look. Fortunately, I found the lens in my goggle bag and was able to pop it back into the frame. What a relief!!!

I went back out and continued my progression across the ridge.

Over the next hour and a half, I made my way across, skiing most of the trails, including Cliff Hanger, Camel Back's double black diamond trail. The pitch off the top of the ridge on many of the trails, including Cliff Hanger, is actually quite steep, in fact, steeper than I would have guessed, but it doesn't last for more than a couple of turns, and that's it.


Cliff Hanger With Great Wolf Lodge In The Background

In the end, Camel Back was pretty much exactly what I expected. This may be harsh, but I can't really imagine any reason why I'd ever go back. The runs are short, and oddly enough, I think an unintended consequence of the high speed quad lifts is that they actually accentuate how short the runs are, because you're back at the top of the mountain so quickly.

I guess if you don't really have any other options, it's better than nothing, but I'd describe Camel Back as a resort that has some skiing rather than a ski resort.


Camel Back Base Area With Water Park Features

After leaving Camel Back, I headed to my next destination of the day, Elk Mountain, which is located off of I-81, Northeast of Scranton, PA.

I was immediately impressed by the contrast of Elk Mountain to Camel Back. Looking up at the mountain from the parking area, I could already tell that this was going to be much more my speed. I took the shuttle ride from the parking lot to the main lodge, bought my lift ticket and booted up. Studying the trail map on my way up the East Chair double lift, I saw that Elk Mountain's trail system was somewhat “circular”, with the trails essentially all dropping off from a central point, some to the left, some down the middle and some to the right. This is somewhat of a simplification, but it's the best way I can think of to describe it.

Once again, I decided that I'd follow the same approach that I had followed at Camel Back, working my way from skier's left to skier's right. Like Camel Back, I was somewhat surprised by the pitch at the top of the trails. With one-thousand feet of vertical drop, the length of the trails at Elk Mountain was a big improvement over Camel Back. The other nice change was that some of the trails at Elk Mountain were left ungroomed, with nicely formed, reasonably soft bumps on some of the expert trails. I had a lot of fun skiing the bumps on Wyalusing, Chippewa, Tunkhannock and Iroquois (I may not have gotten the trail names correct).


Tunkhannock Bumped Up Nicely


These Guys Yelled Out For Me To Take A Picture Of Them!

There were lots of fir and pine trees along the edges of the trails, and I really liked what I saw. Unfortunately, I had arrived at the mountain a little later than I had originally planned, and my afternoon ticket was only valid until 4:30, so I had to really hurry to ski all of the trails. I really would have liked to have spent more time there.


Fir And Pine Trees Lining The Trails At Elk Mountain

In the end, I really liked Elk Mountain. I don't know if I'll ever have any reason to ski there again, but if the opportunity presented itself, I'd definitely go back. This was exactly the kind of place I had hoped to find on this adventure.


The Base Lodge at Elk Mountain

After leaving Elk Mountain, I drove to Cortland, NY to spend the night. Day 2 was slated for Greek Peak.

I love these type of ski safaris.

I skied Elk a couple times in the mid-00s (wrote a quick article about it) and felt the same way about it as you.

Camelback is an "it is what it is" kinda place but glass half full -- how many ski areas do you know that have rhododendron glades? I've hit a couple powder evenings there and actually skied through them.

Jamesdeluxe wrote

I love these type of ski safaris.

Actually, to give credit where credit is due, while this trip, or something like it, was something I'd been wanting to do for a while, it was a post of yours from a couple of weeks ago from Camel Back, with Cliff Hanger and the double black diamond sign, that actually led to the plan. When I saw that picture, I was like "Come on ... a double black diamond in the Poconos ... I've got to see this for myself!"

I put the plan together and was kind of waffling about whether or not to do it, and then your reports from France starting coming in ... while I can't really do what you did, even though I would absolutely love to, I figured that my little trip, closer to home, would have to do, so I went for it!

Thanks, I'm glad that someone is reading my stuff!

After reading your TR series, I was telling Jason that 40 years ago (33 years before I became a downhill skier), those were the hills that all my classmates went to -- I grew up in a suburb west of Syracuse. They used to argue about which was their favorite: Greek, Song, Lab, or Togg. Meanwhile, I was getting up at 3:30 am to be at the hockey rink for a 5 am game, ugh.

You really nailed Camelback and Elk. I never really liked Camelback, but it was close to where I went to college. Elk is superior to Camelback. Those runs were short at CB even before they installed the high speed lifts .

You should have gone to Montage Mountain -- major street cred points for being able to say that you skied in Scranton.

Jamesdeluxe wrote

You should have gone to Montage Mountain -- major street cred points for being able to say that you skied in Scranton.

or is it Wilkes-Barre......

(It actually is Scranton)

x10003q wrote

or is it Wilkes-Barre...... (It actually is Scranton)

Never skied at Montage, but saw a Jethro Tull concert there 15 years ago and asked one of the beer vendors.

Amazingly enough, the group learned the day of the concert that the great-great grandfather of lead guitarist Martin Barre was one of the founders of Wilkes-Barre (pronounced "BAR," not "BEAR-AH")!

Considering possibly trying Camelback to add a ski area to my list.  Trails look similar to Mountain Creek's Vernon Peak.

I'd say you're much better off going to Elk Mountain than Camel Back, but that's just me. It's a little further away, but it's a much better mountain.

if you're going to a crowded pokey mountain on a weekend, the terrain is better at blue, not quite as much run out and better layout. in marginal snow years camelback has an elevation advantage and may have slightly better snow quality but its a moot point after the masses ski it off in the first hour, and certainly not an issue this year! camelback has better rhodos for sure! elk is nice but I have issue with the zero tolerance tree skiing policy   and if I'm gonna drive that far I might as well keep going a bit and hit greek. another option is montage (mountain formerly known as sno), was there for the first time a few weeks ago and had a great time. strange layout but some nice terrain and the new owners  have done a great job.

I'll have to add Blue & Montage for a future journey!

  I am an Elk pass holder and like Montage on occasion for a 4hr ski session. Elk doesn't allow trees but after the storm this past wk there were tracks everywhere. Lehigh ,an all natural trail was open this past for the first time in quite a while.  While it is quite flat and boring,it shows the glades that somedayhopefully will become available . Elk is good for Pa I like Greek better ,but I never ski the Poconos unless its in the uncrowded late season.

Great report! Montage is an interesting place. The layout is quirky, and when I was there the "long haul" lift, which goes all the way from top to bottom wasn't running. Just like your experience at Camelback, I'm glad can say I went there, but I can't see myself going back.

The Poconos/North Jersey are the closest areas to me, and the only place I will ever go is Blue Mountain. It's by far the best around in terms of variety and vertical. Still, if it's between driving 100 minutes to Blue or 3 hours to Plattekill the day after a storm, I'll take Plattekill, all day every day.

I'm happy that I suggested Elk over Shawnee which you really would not have liked