As his 2026 North America tour winds down, worldskitraveller let me know that he'd be in the Poconos today. Even though I'd just returned from Denver late yesterday, I couldn't pass up the opportunity and scooted over to Shawnee for opening bell to join him on his first-ever ski day in Pennsylvania.
The trails were soft corduroy and completely empty so it was easy to high-tail it through most of the area in about 75 minutes. I was back home by noon!
We took a look at the trees and there was plenty of cover from the storm nine days ago; however, the untracked snow had stiffened up enough that wider skis would've been necessary to keep from punching through.
Before leaving, I showed him this 1975 newspaper article that's framed in the base lodge. It's hard to believe that a feeder hill in the Poconos was able to lure someone of Killy's stature; however, one suspects that his role as head of ski ops was largely ceremonial. I recall that Stein Eriksen was hired by Aspen and Deer Valley as ski school director and Jean Vuarnet as technical advisor at Vail and Heavenly.
Camelback and Blue Mountain are also on worldskitraveller's docket for today followed by Montage and Mountain Creek tomorrow, if I recall correctly. We're going to chat again before his flight home so all of the burning questions about Project 101 can be answered. A very pleasant guy with an interesting back story -- I look forward to continuing the conversation.
The trails were soft corduroy and completely empty so it was easy to high-tail it through most of the area in about 75 minutes. I was back home by noon!
We took a look at the trees and there was plenty of cover from the storm nine days ago; however, the untracked snow had stiffened up enough that wider skis would've been necessary to keep from punching through.
Before leaving, I showed him this 1975 newspaper article that's framed in the base lodge. It's hard to believe that a feeder hill in the Poconos was able to lure someone of Killy's stature; however, one suspects that his role as head of ski ops was largely ceremonial. I recall that Stein Eriksen was hired by Aspen and Deer Valley as ski school director and Jean Vuarnet as technical advisor at Vail and Heavenly.
Camelback and Blue Mountain are also on worldskitraveller's docket for today followed by Montage and Mountain Creek tomorrow, if I recall correctly. We're going to chat again before his flight home so all of the burning questions about Project 101 can be answered. A very pleasant guy with an interesting back story -- I look forward to continuing the conversation.
