Skiing Camelback intermittently since about 1961 gives me perspective. I remember when their ski school introduced GLM, direct to parallel, long before PSIA, and when they hired skiing cops in Yellow jackets to control weekend madness so ski patrol could just deal with injuries. The difference between this manager and CEOs at Berkshire East and SkiCooper saddens me. Other than hotel management, he is clueless about our sport/hobby/passion. Ar best, he can chair meetings. I see no good in his running a ski resort. Any of us could do better.
I fully realize that my tastes in ski areas is completely out of step with probably 90% of the current skiing population. With that admitted, this podcast convinced me that I never want to visit Camelback. Mr. Makarsky‘s comments, expressed with an abundance of corporate financial gobbledegook, made me think that Camelback is exactly the type of place that has no soul. Mr. Makarsky spoke a lot about an enhanced visitor experience and providing a product, but I don’t think he mentioned fun or adventure even once. Dude, does he even ski?
Stuart, thanks for the review and confirming what I've known as a Penna resident ; keep on driving. I own at Ski-Big Bear and if you want to see an accident waiting; just stop by any Saturday when the Long Islanders line up to use the mountain as their own personal day care.. BUT, we don't charge for parking; added some awesome snow making and well they do the best with 640' they can... i'm amazed you complement Elk mountain as we question just one of the next one to fall seeing there's been almost no capital investment in that mountain in what appears to be decades lousy snowmaking really really slow lifts and more of those wonderful Pennsylvania skiers that just don't ever want to take a lesson and for whatever reason stop in the middle of the trial .... thanks for spending some time on the Poconos and if you ever want ahead a bit north to those Delaware Highlands I'd love to cut a few lines at Ski Big Bear... The greatest thing about owning a home in the Delaware Highlands is you can get to Hunter Bel Air Platte Hill less than 90 minutes. I'm in Southern Vermont in three hours.
Look on eBay for a book titled "Camelback: The Ups and Downs of a Banana Belt Ski Area". It was written in the late 80s and goes into great depth on Camelback's history up to that point - The original resort including opening day, installing the lifts, Bill Stevenson (for whom the quad is named) and his contributions to the ski area after being brought in to help install the Cleopatra lift, trying to make money with summer operations (including an executive staff trip to Bromley, VT to ride their alpine slide and deciding to install one at Camelback), and tons more. Very detailed and taught me a ton about the mountain I hadn't known. Even back in the '60s they thought a ski area in the Poconos' "warm climate" was ridiculous.
Skiing Camelback intermittently since about 1961 gives me perspective. I remember when their ski school introduced GLM, direct to parallel, long before PSIA, and when they hired skiing cops in Yellow jackets to control weekend madness so ski patrol could just deal with injuries. The difference between this manager and CEOs at Berkshire East and SkiCooper saddens me. Other than hotel management, he is clueless about our sport/hobby/passion. Ar best, he can chair meetings. I see no good in his running a ski resort. Any of us could do better.
I fully realize that my tastes in ski areas is completely out of step with probably 90% of the current skiing population. With that admitted, this podcast convinced me that I never want to visit Camelback. Mr. Makarsky‘s comments, expressed with an abundance of corporate financial gobbledegook, made me think that Camelback is exactly the type of place that has no soul. Mr. Makarsky spoke a lot about an enhanced visitor experience and providing a product, but I don’t think he mentioned fun or adventure even once. Dude, does he even ski?
Stuart, thanks for the review and confirming what I've known as a Penna resident ; keep on driving. I own at Ski-Big Bear and if you want to see an accident waiting; just stop by any Saturday when the Long Islanders line up to use the mountain as their own personal day care.. BUT, we don't charge for parking; added some awesome snow making and well they do the best with 640' they can... i'm amazed you complement Elk mountain as we question just one of the next one to fall seeing there's been almost no capital investment in that mountain in what appears to be decades lousy snowmaking really really slow lifts and more of those wonderful Pennsylvania skiers that just don't ever want to take a lesson and for whatever reason stop in the middle of the trial .... thanks for spending some time on the Poconos and if you ever want ahead a bit north to those Delaware Highlands I'd love to cut a few lines at Ski Big Bear... The greatest thing about owning a home in the Delaware Highlands is you can get to Hunter Bel Air Platte Hill less than 90 minutes. I'm in Southern Vermont in three hours.
Look on eBay for a book titled "Camelback: The Ups and Downs of a Banana Belt Ski Area". It was written in the late 80s and goes into great depth on Camelback's history up to that point - The original resort including opening day, installing the lifts, Bill Stevenson (for whom the quad is named) and his contributions to the ski area after being brought in to help install the Cleopatra lift, trying to make money with summer operations (including an executive staff trip to Bromley, VT to ride their alpine slide and deciding to install one at Camelback), and tons more. Very detailed and taught me a ton about the mountain I hadn't known. Even back in the '60s they thought a ski area in the Poconos' "warm climate" was ridiculous.