Agree with Blue Mountain already thinking they are above being on Indy. Western PA has a small rustic old school hill Laurel Mountain (900 vert?) that was brought back to life by the Commonwealth and Seven Springs a few seasons ago. Seems like Springs' m.o. is to give as little $ as possible and still call it a ski area. Hidden Valley is the 3rd sibling and they all are on the Laurel Highlands Pass. Blue Knob is on Indy and is off to such a poor start with even poorer communication and snowmaking that Indy should probably drop them next season. I usually ski a few days at Blue Knob each season because it has great terrain (Platty-like) so bought the Indy expecting to use it there. I expect Blue Knob to be on the market again soon.
Great write-up on the possibilities - thanks! In terms of the PA resorts, I would tend to agree with your recommendations. I think it is indeed a no-brainer for one of them to get on the Ikon pass, and Camelback would be the best candidate given its capacity, high speed lifts, ownership situation, etc. Blue Mountain might be less attractive only because it seems like it is already incredibly successful on its own (allowing them to charge high lift ticket prices and still be busy). (Maybe you can say the same think about Camelback.) All four of the resorts you featured have more to offer than Epic's Jack Frost / Big Boulder (which are not bad, but just smaller with less interesting terrain). Montage has the most challenging terrain in PA. The Elk Mountain skiing experience is very similar to the feel on many Vermont mountains, just on a smaller scale. Their prior tagline was "It's like skiing VT without the drive" True.
Agree with Blue Mountain already thinking they are above being on Indy. Western PA has a small rustic old school hill Laurel Mountain (900 vert?) that was brought back to life by the Commonwealth and Seven Springs a few seasons ago. Seems like Springs' m.o. is to give as little $ as possible and still call it a ski area. Hidden Valley is the 3rd sibling and they all are on the Laurel Highlands Pass. Blue Knob is on Indy and is off to such a poor start with even poorer communication and snowmaking that Indy should probably drop them next season. I usually ski a few days at Blue Knob each season because it has great terrain (Platty-like) so bought the Indy expecting to use it there. I expect Blue Knob to be on the market again soon.
Respectfully, try pushing against this when snowshoeing or skiing, at about 9,000 feet above sea level.
https://youtu.be/gHuHGjwzMsI
Some call it "character building". In Colorado we call it "fun".
https://iamcolorado.substack.com/
Great write-up on the possibilities - thanks! In terms of the PA resorts, I would tend to agree with your recommendations. I think it is indeed a no-brainer for one of them to get on the Ikon pass, and Camelback would be the best candidate given its capacity, high speed lifts, ownership situation, etc. Blue Mountain might be less attractive only because it seems like it is already incredibly successful on its own (allowing them to charge high lift ticket prices and still be busy). (Maybe you can say the same think about Camelback.) All four of the resorts you featured have more to offer than Epic's Jack Frost / Big Boulder (which are not bad, but just smaller with less interesting terrain). Montage has the most challenging terrain in PA. The Elk Mountain skiing experience is very similar to the feel on many Vermont mountains, just on a smaller scale. Their prior tagline was "It's like skiing VT without the drive" True.