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by Frank Quattrone
Winter sports lovers, it’s time to rejoice! Anyone exhausted by this year’s seemingly endless summer and disappointed by its far-too-short fall, your time has come. Winter is here, and ski season is in full force. Good news for hardy souls eager for stunning, snowclad mountain vistas, bracing downhill adventures, and fresh air fun!
Over the last few decades, when so many ski areas have been forced to close, the survivors have become stronger and more diversified. Often, they have evolved into four-season resorts and have refocused their energy and considerable resources on family-friendly activities and amenities that never entered the minds of their forebears.
In the 1970s, the nation boasted an average of more than 700 ski areas, with roughly forty in Pennsylvania alone. Today, there are closer to 480 nationwide and only twenty in the Keystone State. The reasons for the declining numbers vary by region. The West, for instance, blames the closures on a combination of unusually warm winters and others whose snowstorms are far too intense, sometimes inducing blizzards and near-avalanche conditions. The Northeast, including the popular resorts of Vermont, cite increased operating costs, the great recession of 2008, and some bad snow years.
But a recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme sees climate change as the primary factor, leading to shorter winters with late snow accumulation and early melt, decreased average snowpack, and warmer nighttime temperatures that impede the creation of artificial snow. It is heartening then to celebrate the newfound vitality of three ski resorts that have defied the industry’s downward trend and continue to thrive with heady new business plans, improved snowmaking technology, and activities and events that attract families all year round. In this issue, Bucks County Magazine shines its spotlight on two of the most successful ski areas in Pennsylvania—Blue Mountain Resort and Camelback Mountain and Resort—and the acclaimed Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont.
BLUE MOUNTAIN RESORT
Located in Little Gap Valley along the Kittatinny Ridge within easy distance from the Appalachian Trail, Blue Mountain Resort is just ninety minutes from both New York City and Philadelphia. Founded by Ray Tuthill in 1977, one of Pennsylvania’s premier ski areas recently celebrated its fortieth anniversary, still locally owned and operated. Present CEO and President Barbara Green, Tuthill’s daughter, has pledged to continue nurturing the positive workforce and positive experience for families initiated by her father.
As Director of Sales & Marketing Tricia Matsko describes it, “Here at Blue Mountain we try to create memories to last a lifetime.” It all begins with the Blue Crew, what Matsko calls “our brand ambassadors. They greet our guests at the door, provide help at ski lifts, and toss cookies and chocolates to children and other guests.”
That’s because Blue Mountain prides itself on being a family-friendly destination, creating “micro-moments” for parents and their children, as well as the millennials who have begun flocking to the site. Aside from its thirty-nine ski trails and sixteen lifts, thirty-nine snow tubing lanes, and five lodges, Blue Mountain boasts Pennsylvania’s highest vertical (1,082 feet, a far cry from the site’s original 269-foot vertical), the most varied terrain for guests at all ability levels, and some of the longest runs in the region. Family and Friends’ Lesson Experience packages invite parents and children to learn together. Matsko laughs, “Even boyfriend and girlfriend can be in the lesson together and go home happy!”
Blue Mountain also offers the only family-sized snow tubes in the Northeast. Depending on weight, they can accommodate four to six people in a tube, easily alleviating a child’s initial fear. The resort provides child-care services and even offers a Winter Adventure Camp for kids on weekends, where they can ski and hang out with other kids and skilled ski instructors. New free outreach programs target eighth-graders and other schoolchildren within a thirty-mile radius of the resort, to expose them to the exciting experience of winter sports.
Although there is no overnight lodging at Blue Mountain at this time, the resort has developed partnerships with local hotels, B&Bs, and vacation home rentals. There are, of course, equipment rental shops at Blue Mountain’s Summit Lodge (at the top) and Valley Lodge (at the base). And guests can enjoy indoor and outdoor dining at the Slopeside Pub & Grill at the Summit Lodge, now open year-round, with live entertainment, daily food specials, special events, and more.
Because snowmaking accounts for more than eighty percent of a resort’s energy costs, Blue Mountain has also focused on upgrading and maintaining one of the most energy-efficient systems in the industry. In addition to skiing, snowboarding, snow tubing, and other winter sports, Blue Mountain also offers outdoor adventures and activities during the summer. For more information on costs, directions, activities, and special packages, visit www.skibluemt.com or call 610-826-7700.
CAMELBACK MOUNTAIN & RESORT
Like Blue Mountain, Camelback takes pride in its family orientation and family adventures. A four-season resort, Camelback provides a wide variety of skiing and snowboarding experiences and packages and boasts state-of-the-art snowmaking equipment for exceptional season-long conditions. It has the biggest snow tubing park in the country, with forty-two lightning-fast lanes and Galactic snowtubing enhanced by an LED laser light show. Guests can also enjoy ziplines, rope courses, and the only mountain roller coaster in the region.
Amy Cameron, Camelback’s vice president of sales and marketing, touts a unique offer for overnight guests, which includes free skiing or snow tubing with an overnight stay at Camelback Lodge & Aquatopia Indoor Waterpark. (Visit the resort’s website for details.) The resort, located ninety minutes from Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York City, has thirty-eight trails, sixteen ski lifts, and fifteen acres of new beginner trails. Huffington Post recently named Camelback the number one place in America to learn to ski and snowboard. And the National Ski Association awarded the resort its coveted Conversion Cup for “excellence in beginner programs,” which are geared to accommodate all abilities, including (according to a recent press release) “guided skiing for the visually impaired, stand up and sit-down skiing and lessons for intellectually disabled skiers, welcoming all levels, from beginners to Paralympic Champions.”
One of Camelback’s biggest lures, clearly, is its eight-story overnight lodge, with 453 spacious guest suites, offering one, two, or three bedrooms, to easily accommodate families on vacation. Amenities at the lodge include a luxury spa, shopping, lounges and dining, and a Family Entertainment Center featuring rope courses, miniature golf, laser tag, and more than a hundred arcade games.
But Camelback’s most distinctive attraction just might be Aquatopia, voted USA Today’s number one indoor waterpark. When I spoke with Amy Cameron, she was checking out the facilities in Aquatopia, still marveling at its 1.5-acre Texlon® transparent roof that allows for natural sunlight year-round and its incredible variety of water-based activities. Illuminated at night, Aquatopia boasts thirteen slides (including the cleverly named Venus Slide Trap), a wave pool, play-and-spray structures, a toddler area, a simulated surfer experience, and a swim-up bar.
The premier ski-in, ski-out slopeside lodge in Pennsylvania, Camelback has just opened two brand-new restaurants to complement Trails End Bar and half-a-dozen other restaurants and bars at the resort. At the top of Sullivan lift, with its spectacular views of the mountain, Kartrite’s Summit House offers contemporary American fare, along with craft cocktails and beers, and it features artwork from local artists. Located at the base lodge, Berrelli’s is the only “Family Style Italian” in the Poconos. Both are open all year-round.
Camelback Resort offers guests seasonal specials and packages, combining lodge amenities and adventures and activities, including Camelbeach Outdoor Waterpark, the commonwealth’s largest, with more than three-dozen rides and attractions, open only in the summer. For more information on costs, directions, activities, and special packages, visit www.camel backmountain.com, www.camelbackresort.com, or call 1-855-515-1283.
STOWE MOUNTAIN RESORT
One of the nation’s most venerable ski areas, family-friendly Stowe Mountain Resort dates back to 1914. Recently celebrating its centennial, Stowe was the first resort to launch a ski patrol to monitor the safety conditions of the mountain trails. The four-season resort is located in Stowe, considered by many to be Vermont’s quintessential ski town, situated as it is at the base of Mount Mansfield, at 4,395 feet, the state’s highest peak. The vertical drop at Stowe, which averages more than three hundred inches of snow annually, is 2,160 feet. Stowe’s ski trails, accommodating every level of proficiency, average 3,603 feet—the longest in all of New England.
Besides downhill skiing, snowboarding, and cross-country skiing along some of the most majestic landscapes in the Northeast during the winter, visitors can also enjoy a host of summertime activities, among them the Zip Tour Adventure (Stowe touts it as “the world’s fastest and most exhilarating zip line experience”—would you believe speeds up to eighty miles per hour!); TreeTop Adventures (with six different levels of courses consisting of aerial tree-to-tree connections with sixty-eight Challenge/Game elements); a Summit Gondola Ski Ride to the launch point near the top of Mount Mansfield; and the famous Auto Toll Road, which zigs and zags its way to the top of Mount Mansfield, with breathtaking views of Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks along the way.
To maximize the family fun experience, Stowe has expanded its amenities off the slopes in its recently opened Spruce Peak Village Center at the base of the mountain. At the center of the complex, families can enjoy free ice skating together, while at the Pavilion, to one end of the rink, children’s activities such as arts and crafts can be balanced nicely against a wine bar their parents will enjoy. Next to the outdoor ice rink is the Stowe Rock indoor climbing center, perfect for all ages with its six climbing walls, including a free-standing 40-foot-tall “Elephant Head” tower.
There is plenty of lodging both slopeside and in town, from charming country inns to luxurious mountainside condos and a host of possibilities in-between. The same is true for dining, where Stowe Mountain Lodge offers everything from a cozy breakfast or a quick midday bite to a candlelit dinner overlooking the pristine beauty of Vermont’s Green Mountains. The resort also owns Solstice Restaurant and Hourglass Lounge, two of the town’s most acclaimed dining destinations.
How do you get to the so-called “Ski Capital of the East”? Easy. The town and resort are forty minutes from Vermont’s largest airport, fifteen minutes from Interstate 89, and fifteen minutes from the Amtrak station. For more information about the many charms of Stowe Mountain Resort, visit www.stowe.com or call 1-800-888-253-4849 or 1-802-253-3000.
Frank D. Quattrone is an author, newspaper editor, teacher and freelance writer who writes about local history, food, art and people.