Brains
Philadelphia is famous for its cheesesteaks, die-hard sports fans, and for being the birthplace of the United States of America. The city is rich in history, culture, food, and the arts. It is home to many historic landmarks and sites, including Independence Hall, Congress Hall, and the Liberty Bell. Philly is also a short distance away from some of the best places to hit the slopes in the mid-Atlantic region.
The Pocono Mountains are home to some of the best options for anyone looking for a quick day trip and are less than two hours away from the “City of Brotherly Love.” Big Boulder in the Pocono Mountains was Pennsylvania’s first commercial ski area in 1946. The highest peak is Mount Ararat, which has an elevation of 2,654 feet in Wayne County. The second highest peak is Camelback Mountain, which is another one of the highest peaks and comes in at a height of 2,133 feet. The ski resorts located here have perfected the art of snowmaking, and the Poconos have become a bonafide ski destination. Whether it’s the corduroy-groomed beginner slopes or the double black diamonds and terrain parks to test your skills, today, the Poconos has it all.
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Camelback Mountain Ski Resort
Camelback Resort is a well-known ski resort located in Tannersville that offers something for all levels of skiers. The resort is also home to the biggest snow tubing park in the United States. Celebrating 61 years of snow activities for all levels of winter sports enthusiasts and voted one of the “Best Ski Resorts in the U.S. and Canada” in Condé Nast Traveler 2023 Readers’ Choice Awards. There is also a vast 170,000-square-foot indoor adventure building with tons of activities, such as a 125,000-square-foot indoor waterpark, indoor climbing wall, indoor ropes course, and over 100 arcades and rides for the whole family to enjoy.
A great run at Camelback Resort is Pharaoh, an expert run located just to the right as you get off the Stevenson Express high-speed lift. It starts as an expert run, throws you some nice turns, drops at the top of the mountain, and transitions into an intermediate trail called “Bactrain” about halfway down the mountain. It was a fun run that was quick and fast but brought you back down to the bottom of the mountain where the high-speed lift was waiting, and you could jump right back on and hit it again.
Camelback Resort recently introduced two state-of-the-art offerings to enhance the ski experience. Amazon’s Just Walk Out, available on the Camelback app, gives guests effortless shopping at the resort’s Big Pocono On The Go, which provides grab-and-go offerings. Camelback is the first ski resort to offer this experience, allowing shoppers to leave with no waiting line. The Camelback app also includes SkiLynx, enabling guests to live-track their total trails, miles, and vertical feet, as well as find friends and view real-time lift wait times.
Blue Mountain Resort is located in Palmerton and boasts the biggest vertical drop in the state (1,082 feet), making it very popular with skiers looking for a challenge. Of course, the resort offers slopes for beginners and intermediate skiers as well. Blue Mountain Resort holds the distinction as the first mountain resort in the Poconos last season to open and the last to close, thanks to its newly installed snowmaking technology.
For the 2024-2025 season, another multi-million-dollar snowmaking upgrade has been installed along with 132 new stick guns and six new fan guns across the mountain, increasing production by 17.5%. This year’s upgrade allows opening with more terrain, includes a complete revamp of the resort’s automation software, improves efficiency, and aids control of snowmaking timing to provide the region’s best conditions.
Blue Mountain Resort expanded some of its trails like Come Around, Lower Lazy, Falls, and Lower Sidewinder. Also, Blue Mountain will add a new 2024 Prinoth Bison X Cat snow groomer by late fall. In addition to its skiing thrills and challenges, Blue Mountain offers tuber fans 46 lanes of snow tubing. If you are looking for quick and delicious food on the slopes, the resort’s Wood-Fired Pizza & Pub is the place to go. The restaurant offers menu items like the Dreamweaver with pizza sauce, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, and quatro formaggi in 90 seconds, allowing snow enthusiasts to get back on the trails in no time.
For the best of both snow experiences, the two resorts now share a joint pass program. The Peak-to-Peak Poconos Pass offers unlimited skiing and riding at both Camelback and Blue Mountain resorts for the upcoming 2024-2025 season. Passholders receive special perks and discounts at both resorts, and there are no blackout dates or restrictions.
Big Boulder Ski Resort
Big Boulder was established in 1947 and was the first ski resort in Pennsylvania. It also has bragging rights as the birthplace of modern-day snowmaking. Big Boulder is less than 12 miles away from Jack Frost Mountain, and guests can ski and enjoy views of Big Boulder Lake as they carve down the mountain. A dedicated learning hill and several long beginner slopes are the perfect setting to learn how to ski or snowboard. Big Boulder also has the Bubly Snow Tubing Park which is great for families to hit with their children for some snow tubing fun.
Big Boulder recently made lift upgrades, which include the Blue Herron and the Harmony replacing the Merry Widow 1 and Merry Widow 2. The older lifts were fixed grip and are now going to be detachable. The goal is to provide skiers and snowboarders at Big Boulder with improved terrain accessibility, reduced wait times, and more reliable lift service. “We will be completing a few capital projects that will improve on these infrastructures and our ability to create experiences of a lifetime for all of our guests,” Tony Santora, General Manager of Jack Frost and Big Boulder Ski Resorts said in an interview. The on-mountain enhancements at Big Boulder were a part of Vail Resort’s Epic Lift Upgrades.
Jack Frost Mountain
Just around the corner from Big Boulder is Jack Frost Mountain, which is an inverted ski resort with the lodge on top of the peak. This allows guests to start the day off skiing immediately and not have to take a lift up the mountain to begin their day on the slopes. Jack Frost is located just minutes off Interstate 80, which is great for anyone who does not want to travel on back country roads for hours to get to the mountain.
Jack Frost is a family-oriented ski resort that embodies the characteristics of a ski resort that the Poconos are famous for. The mountain offers terrain best suited for beginners to intermediate. For the more experienced skiers or snowboarders, there are some truly fun trails to hit as well.
Lift upgrades this summer at Jack Frost include the Pocono, the Tobyhanna, and the Paradise, which will replace the B & C lifts, the E & F lifts, and the East 1&2 doubles. Replacing and consolidating the five lifts between Jack Frost and Big Boulder with fixed-grip four-person chairs greatly increased uphill capacity and access to multiple slopes throughout both mountains.
Big Boulder is great for beginners and Jack Frost offers a great progression of slopes. Guests also have the opportunity to get dual first tracks, first at Jack Frost in the morning and then again at Big Boulder, which opens in the evening. “I really like how Jack Frost and Big Boulder complement each other. Big Boulder is a great place for the whole family to learn how to ski or snowboard, and Jack Frost really has something for everyone,” Santora said.
Elk Mountain
Elk Mountain is located in the Endless Mountains in the Northeast corner of Pennsylvania and is technically not part of the Pocono Mountains. Elk Mountain is about 2.5 hours away from both New York City and Philadelphia. The atmosphere at Elk Mountain is undeniably old-school Pennsylvania skiing. It has that mystique of ski resorts back in their glory years of the late ’60s and ’70s. The lodge is rustic and small, and it looks like it has not been changed in decades. Elk Mountain has that sense of character and dignity of a place that pretty much has not changed since the late ’70s. The cool thing is that all those things work beautifully at Elk Mountain and truly make you reminisce about times past.
A great run at Elk Mountain for those who love to hit bumps is Tunkhannock. This slope does not allow skiers or boarders the opportunity to settle into their run at all. The expert trail starts right in your face with an imposing vertical drop at the beginning of the trail, with moguls almost everywhere from the very top to the very bottom of the run. Tunkhannock sits right under the main chairlift and provides the ultimate Hollywood line for any skier who wants to put their skills on display. It is easily one of the most challenging trails in Eastern Pennsylvania to ski/board down.
