Mid-Atlantic Inside intel says Camelback PA is being purchased by KSL

[T-Square]

Great news.
Always wanted to ski Camelback. On the top of my bucket list.

I’ve skied there. Not much vertical, but if you’re a fan of horizontal, man is it your mountain.

 

[Noodler]

I’ve skied there. Not much vertical, but if you’re a fan of horizontal, man is it your mountain.

That is a classic comment.

 

[Philpug]

There are a few here who used to spend good amount of time at Camelback. @Andy Mink and I were amongst a group of middle schoolers and high schoolers who routinely skied there. Most of us had midweek and night passes and commonly would call each other to figure out how we could get that and the call would include "My mom will drive if your mom would pick up"...in an era well before 7 passenger SUV's or even minivans, we would all pile in the back of a station wagon. I beleive in my Junior year of High School I never skied once during the day getting full use of of my pass, skiing about 60 nights.

When I skied Camelback, The Hump was still a gladed trail, Rocket (and Big Pocono) would only be skied during the day because there were no lights on them. And before the Stevenson chair went in, a chair named for Bill Stevenson, the father of one of our classmates. In the early 1980's Camelback hosted a few "All night ski's" which were more like all night drinks. The first one was a warm night with spring bumps top to bottom but the second one was bitter cold and top to bottom ice.

I believe the last time I skied Camelback was when I met up with some people from the early days of Epic. I forget who was there but we were to meet at like 10:30 at one of the lifts..I arrived earlier and did almost 10 runs in the hour prior. This had to be in the late 90's and by this time, Camelback's trail network was really no longer trails but alleys. Back in the day, the mountain had more character, you could go from trail to trail but as the year on with more traffic, I imagine that got more dangerous for the skiers.

As I said as these multi resort passes started, I am surprised that it has taken this long to go after the mid Atlantic region, yes the mid west but the Pennyslvania seemed to be ignored. This is an area that has a ton of resorts that are feeder areas and ripe to get this people to come west. I really think this is a smart move for KSL and I am excited for my old home mountain and my friends who still ski there and hope they come visit Squaw/Alpine an even Mammoth.

 

[mikes781]

Count me as one of those. I have a season pass to Blue and would jump on converting it to an Epic Pass if given the opportunity. Probably would buy one for each of my kids also. I’d end up doing a few additional trips to VT as a result and look hard at a trip out West.

 

[KingGrump]

I’ve skied there. Not much vertical, but if you’re a fan of horizontal, man is it your mountain.

Man, that horizontal s**t sounds lots like Alta.
Gotta to add CB and Snowshoe to my Ikon road trip next year.

 

[Itinerant skier]

That is a classic comment.

On so many levels

 

[Wendy]

I assume the Bear Creek you're talking about was once called Doe Mountain. That's the mountain I learned to ski on. I looked it up a while back and was quite surprised to see what it has grown into (and the amount of diversification of the services/entertainment they now provide). I'd love to go back to that one too just for the fun of it.

Where I took my first ski lesson! Yup, it is the same place and has a beautiful lodge, hotel, restaurant, and spa facilities. Also conference center. They’ve done some trail improvement, huge increase in snowmaking capacity, but they can never increase the size of the hill! That said, it’s a delightful little place, a great place to learn to ski, and fun night skiing. It’s 15 minutes from my house and I can see the lights from my house at night. .

 

[Wendy]

Camelback was known to reopen after closing in the spring if they got a big dump of spring snow. I remember a few times, skiing there in April, in beautiful corn, for $20. Since I can only ski weekends I have to go to Jack Frost or Montage where the crowds are much smaller. Jack Frost was bought by Peak Resorts, but I am not interested enough in their other resorts to pay over $600 for that pass....I’d rather go West.

 

[Shawn]

but they can never increase the size of the hill!

Probably right about Bear Creek; its summit ridge looks narrow. Not a lot of room for hill building. But several resorts have added vertical, like Mount St. Louis in Ontario. Pretty interesting to me.

 

[Wasatchman]

How bad is this news for Peak Resorts? Do you think Camelback on IKON will seriously hurt Peak pass sales?

 

[4aprice]

How bad is this news for Peak Resorts? Do you think Camelback on IKON will seriously hurt Peak pass sales?

No. I don't believe that many people have been picking BB/JF because of the Peak Pass connection. Maybe a few but its not something I've heard talked about too much. I do know of several fellow Camelback pass holders who have either Ikon (like my wife and I) or Epic for travels out west.

 

[Sibhusky]

Probably right about Bear Creek; its summit ridge looks narrow. Not a lot of room for hill building. But several resorts have added vertical, like Mount St. Louis in Ontario. Pretty interesting to me.

Blue Mountain in PA was formerly Little Gap with a 300 foot vertical. They increased that to 800 after awhile and now are at 1082.

https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-1986-12-24-2545312-story.html
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Mountain_Resort

 

[Philpug]

How bad is this news for Peak Resorts? Do you think Camelback on IKON will seriously hurt Peak pass sales?

I don't think it will effect Peak much. The JFBB skier is different than the Camelback skier. Because of access, I found the former is more a Philly skier (PA Turnpike) and the latter is more NJ/NY (Rt 80)

 

[4aprice]

I don't think it will effect Peak much. The JFBB skier is different than the Camelback skier. Because of access, I found the former is more a Philly skier (PA Turnpike) and the latter is more NJ/NY (Rt 80)

Bingo

 

[ted]

any updates on the Vail purchase of Blue?

 

[Marker]

I don't think it will effect Peak much. The JFBB skier is different than the Camelback skier. Because of access, I found the former is more a Philly skier (PA Turnpike) and the latter is more NJ/NY (Rt 80)

This was me for sure, a JF and Blue skier that would rather continue to Elk if I'm going to pass them and skip CB.

How this shakes out in the Poconos is of interest since I've landed on the Ikon side at Killington.

 

[Philpug]

Announcement coming shortly. You heard it here first.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

A little birdie mentioned this to me and I've not uttered a peep. Glad it'll be out in the open soon.

 

[SKI-3PO]

How do the little birdies find out so much info? And why do they expect others to keep a secret when they are clearly unable to do so themselves?

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Without disclosing my source it's been a rumor for quite a while. Tis google'able. Pretty normal in the corporate land of acquisitions as I've been through it quite often myself. Meetings happen, people talk and the speculation begins. Glad it'll be public record soon.