Campgaw 2-16-2019 (night)

Yeah, I skied Campgaw. I became curious when I realized the place is less then a half hour from my house. Night tickets are only like $25. The place actually has a paved parking lot; not sure I’ve seen that before.



I suspected from the start I might get bored so I made sure I had some sick tunes along



It has a base area




Two doubles, a carpet and a tubing hill. Something less then 300 feet of vertical.





All I can say is that I enjoy skiing and there was skiing to be done. It was really just one run that had lights on it.  I tried everything I could think of to make it interesting. Big turns, little turns, no turns, skiing ridiculously fast, skiing backwards, skiing on closed unlit trails. This place is really only appropriate for raw beginners and toddlers. Steve Miller and Joe Walsh helped though.




At some point I looked over my shoulder, near the top of the lift, and realized we were so close to the city that I could actually make out the Empire State Building in the distance. I tried to take a pic on the next lap but the lights blurred it out. You’ll have to take my word for it.



This made me giggle a little. The “upper mountain” was a little steeper then the bottom 3/4 but not much.



I had dinner there too. After I ordered, one of the managers got on his radio to call the kitchen and told them to send up “another bag of chili” so... it didn’t taste bad but it made me wonder if any of the other ski resort chili I’ve had over the years was bag chili. Probably.



Lots of heads on walls around the lodge; not all of them native to New Jersey currently.





They apparently have a mascot.



Not a bad lodge as far as it goes. There was more seating downstairs and outside.



There was a big snow-making whale on top between the two doubles, with a flag jammed in it. It might have added 5% to the place’s vert. God bless America.

Hah, NJ represent!

My Campgaw TR, five years ago:
https://forum.nyskiblog.com/Campgaw-NJ-03-23-14-td4038580.html

Great photos Brownski!

I went there once to help out with a Salamon demo day back in 93. I don’t remember if I took a run or not. Do they have a terrain park?

Great to see that $25 still buys a lot of smiles!! Thanks for sharing!!

nepa wrote

Great to see that $25 still buys a lot of smiles!! Thanks for sharing!!

With the chili and the decaf it was $33 + gas

BTW, I cracked up about the bag chili. Agreed, I suspect Campgaw isn't the only ski area that serves it -- I'd bet a doughnut that it comes from Costco.

Excellent work, Brownski, this is TR of the season material. Love the cassette Walkman.

You don't want to look behind the food service curtain...

JasonWx wrote

You don't want to look behind the food service curtain

Which is why I'd say that you shouldn't complain or joke about your food coming from a Costco bag -- could be far worse.

Brownski wrote

.....

Not a bad lodge as far as it goes. There was more seating downstairs and outside.

Random off-topic question: does anyone know the story behind these round open fireplaces? They seem to appear in the lodge picture of every TR from an old-school NY ski area. Where they all made by the same company? Copy cat one-offs in 70s lodge design? Probably very inefficient at generating any heat but they sure look cool.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Excellent work, Brownski, this is TR of the season material. Love the cassette Walkman.

X2 on the cassettes and Walkman. We’ve seen the skis before but now I’m convinced brownski is a fan of many things vintage.

GREAT TR BROWNSKI!~

raisingarizona wrote

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Excellent work, Brownski, this is TR of the season material. Love the cassette Walkman.

X2 on the cassettes and Walkman. We’ve seen the skis before but now I’m convinced brownski is a fan of many things vintage.

If it ain’t broke...

Jamesdeluxe wrote

JasonWx wrote

You don't want to look behind the food service curtain

Which is why I'd say that you shouldn't complain or joke about your food coming from a Costco bag -- could be far worse.

Hey, I’m not knocking it. I eat the chili from Wendy’s from time to time and that stuff is much too consistent to be made by a teenager following a recipe. I just learned something about myself is all.

Excellent trip report. You captured the essence of Campgaw.

In 4th grade and 5th grade, I used to get dropped off at Campgaw with a couple of friends on Saturdays for a lesson/lift ticket deal. Skiing the "steep part" was a right of passage. Occasionally, my parents would ski with us. I took my older one there a number of times, but the second one has not yet had the pleasure of skiing Campgaw. She has done the tubing. The tubing section used to have a rope tow where the current tubing tow is and you could ski that area. The carpet in the middle used to be a t-bar.

You can see Campgaw from Rt 17 in Ramsey.


Sunny day view of the "steep" section of main trail

Campgaw Baby! That's where it all began for me 44 years ago.  
Great TR!

great to see this little area still operating..

D.B. Cooper wrote

When I first saw this I almost posted “yeah but Campgaw is real” but then I thought some people would take it seriously and I’m not interested in finding out A. Who would take it seriously and call me a conspiracy nut and B. Who would take me seriously and agree that the moon landing was fake.

A friend of mine recently told me that he doesn't think the moon landing is real.  I'm working on proving that it did happen.  F'n Van Allen belts and my lack of knowledge of the amount of radiation it takes to kill you.