2/12/2011 Blue Mountain PA

ricks

New member
I had the pleasure of taking my youth group to Blue Mountain this weekend. This is a brief trip report and resort description for anyone else who would like to ski/board there. It also has information on things probably coming soon to all your resorts.

Arrival:
We were not a group of “first lift up” people since we didn’t arrive at the mountain until about 10:00. The rental line went rather fast for those that were renting. I have no idea how long it would have taken if we had arrived at an hour when most people begin their ski day.

The Conditions:
The conditions early on were pretty good, but after a couple of laps I noticed that the surface was getting a good bit of loose stuff piling up. I was quite concerned because most every rink I have been too, the Zamboni would have been around to make that as smooth as glass between skating sessions. Oh wait. Wrong arena. Or was it? Well, there was no reason to worry. That was all taken care of by other means described later in this reporters newest expert boarder tip described later.

I must say that there were a few standouts for the day. Lazy Mile actually had some decent snow and the seeded bump run, although mostly ice between bumps, was actually fun.

Lift lines:
I must say that I was originally pretty scared about Blue because of what I had heard about lift lines. 20 to 30 minutes is what I was told. I was pleasantly surprised that the averaged out to about 14 minutes. Way below expectations.

I would like to tell you here about Blue Mountain lift and resort safety. The NTSB, CIA, TSA and FBI have come up with this new combined safety, security and lift ticket system. You might want to pay attention here because this will probably be coming to your resort soon.

You no longer have to be bothered with a pesky lift ticket strapped to your zipper where it flutters in your face as you ski down. At Blue you purchase a small credit card sized ticket that you place in your pocket along with your keys, Chapstick, cell phone, snot rag and any loose food you would like to eat on the lift ride up. This ticket is “read” by the TSA Airport proximity scanner/turnstile “thingy” (technical term) prior to getting on the lift. Yes. That’s right. Turnstile. The kind of thing that won’t let you through unless it says you are ok to go through like in the sub-way. Sometimes the scanner can’t “read” the ticket and you have to wait while the TSA agent/Ski lift attendant comes and works with you as you pull out and drop all your “pocketables” in the snow which will eventually let you through and onto the train, er, I mean lift. This slight delay in the line is not much of a problem, because it is a sort of a built in delay for the rest of the safety/security systems still to come.

Special Note:
Now I know that they say those scanners can’t match up the fully necked body scan picture with the person that has been scanned, but I found it disconcerting that every time I went through that scanner the TSA agent/lift attendant guys in the lift shack/security booth would point at the computer screen and laugh hysterically. I just told myself that they were watching reruns of the “Simpsons” or something like that. I still can’t believe that they let me on the lift with those pointy metal ski poles after confiscating my toothpaste and shampoo for being over the size limit.

Lift safety is very important at Blue Mountain and it is tested constantly. Here is how a lift test works on the high speed detachable six-pack lift.
After about six or seven chairs load and head up the mountain a secret agent will work his magic. On the next chair, six people slide forward and get ready for the chair. Then a seventh (secret agent) will slide on forward to make it seven on a six to see if the lift attendant will catch this safety violation. From what I saw, they are really good at their jobs and they caught every single one of them and stopped the chair to sort out this safety violation. The same kinds of tests were constantly done on all the lifts at Blue with similar testers (five on a quad and three on a double) and shutdowns. I did witness two testers trying to get on a double that was already occupied. Hey, nice way to be obvious guys. They were probably new at their secret agent jobs. I would guess their supervisor is going to give them a bad review this year. And I could never tell who was a secret agent tester. They are disguised very well. They look just like any other skier/boarder. I gotta say. I really felt safe at Blue Mountain.

Skier/boarder skills/etiquette:
I must also comment on the skier/boarder skills witnessed at Blue.
No need to buy fancy magazines for technique tips or take those expensive lessons. I have the boarder tips right here.
Now all you beginner and intermediate boarders will have to wait till your skills improve, since this is an expert’s tip. I say this because I only witnessed this technique on diamond and double-diamond trails. And everybody knows the only people on those trails are of expert and “Like, Oh my gawd, you are like sooooo good” level.

Here is how it works. Gather yourselves into groups of at least one to two dozen boarders. When the trail steepens up a bit, everybody turn and execute a heal-side stop. Now put you bum on the snow with your hands about shoulder width apart and slightly behind your bum. Now slide your board, bum and hands down the entire steep part of the slope. When the trail begins to flatten out, roll around on your back for a while with you 23 other friends. Incidentally, this activity makes one of the best sounds you will ever hear in nature and no Zamboni necessary.

Lodges:
Blue Mountain has two lodges. Both are accessible by car. So if you don’t like the parking that you can get at one base area, you can drive down the mountain to the other lodge to find the parking is worse there, so you can come back up to find even worse parking.

A new service that I found at Blue was “Mom Rental”. What you can do is rent a “Mom” that will sit and reserve a table/tables for an entire family, brood, daycare center, large high school or small military operation. Our group didn’t take advantage of this service early enough and they ran out of Rent-A-Moms/tables. They are really good at their jobs as well. They are like those aggressive fish on National Geographic Channel. They would make sure that their area was clear of all intruders even if their brood was out on the slopes evading sharks and hiding in weeds and coral. I wasn’t sure if any were like those “mouth breeder” species of fish and I wasn’t about to wait around to see.

Overall impression:
Overall we had a great day skiing……
But then again as I always say.
“If you lower your expectation low enough, everyday can be a great day.”
 
RFID lift pass is common in Europe. There's a €2.00 fee that you get back when you return it. Sure hope it catches on in the states. We left UT in fall 2009, and hadn't seen it there yet.

14 min lift lines? I hope you get out to UT sometime soon!
 
powerlumina77":1os65usx said:
RFID lift pass is common in Europe. There's a €2.00 fee that you get back when you return it. Sure hope it catches on in the states. We left UT in fall 2009, and hadn't seen it there yet.
Um, Solitude has had RFID passes since at least the 2000-01 season. Alta installed their system in 2008.
 
Marc_C":3gg5lsqy said:
powerlumina77":3gg5lsqy said:
RFID lift pass is common in Europe. There's a €2.00 fee that you get back when you return it. Sure hope it catches on in the states. We left UT in fall 2009, and hadn't seen it there yet.
Um, Solitude has had RFID passes since at least the 2000-01 season. Alta installed their system in 2008.

And as long as we're listing Utah resorts with RFID systems, Park City Mountain uses them for their Fast Tracks lanes.
 
Closer to PA, l'il ol' Hickory Hill in the southern ADKs now has an electronic card as well.
 

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how many Jets or Eagles jackets did you count!? Gapers = Secret Agents, lol. fabulous tongue in cheek review, i'd like to rent a mom
 
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