It’s the real deal and super steep and unless you’re a legitimate and strong expert, you have no business on the trail. However, what separates the wheat from the chaff is White Lightning. Rattler, a Black Diamond run that I thoroughly enjoyed, is a narrow, winding run that connects Lower Runaway to Cannonball. Boomer and Smoke are two double-black trails you can reach by using the Phoebe Snow Quad lift and they are relatively steep. When it’s groomed out and with packed powder conditions like I experienced last week, strong intermediates can handle trails like Lower Fasttrack, Lower Runaway, Cannonball and Express. The upper third of the mountain has lower intermediate and novice terrain and the slopes are extremely wide, making for very comfortable skiing and riding for lower-level skiers and snowboarders.īut beware the lower two-thirds of the ski area, where everything is black and double-black diamond. The resort also has a very large tubing area with its own magic-carpet lift. There are 26 trails and a terrain park with six lifts, including a quad chair, two triples and two double chairs, along with a magic-carpet lift. Montage is a fairly large ski area with 140 acres of skiable terrain. Other than White Lightning, which was added about a dozen years ago, the trail layout is the same as it was when I last skied there. Clearly, the current owner understands the need to produce lots of snow in very short periods of time in the fickle weather of northeast Pennsylvania. The snow-making system has seen a major upgrade and there were a number of tower-mounted fan guns on many trails, including the steeper expert pitches where I saw guns spaced only 50 feet apart in spots. The base area entrance and lodge have been renovated and modernized and lots of evergreens planted to act as windbreaks and to beautify the landscape. Under the current ownership, a large amount of money has been invested and it shows. The ski area has had an up-and-down life cycle, being run by Lackawanna County at one time and filing for bankruptcy before being bought by a private and local investor about six years ago. Montage is only 80 minutes from Middletown and an easy drive on Interstate 84 to I-81 south and Exit 182, following the signs along Montage Mountain Road. I hadn’t skied there in about 25 years and figured I should check out their claim that White Lightning is the second-steepest trail in the East. The storm that came in overnight on Saturday was a surprise more-snow-than-expected weather event with up to four inches in the Catskills and the forecasted rain never materialized.Īfter doing some research on the steepest trails in the East, I came across a listing for a trail called White Lightning at Montage Mountain in Scranton, Pa. Saturday was the best day of the season with bluebird skies, temperatures in the 30s and low 40s, no wind, low humidity and deep bases with packed powder, groomed surfaces throughout the Northeast. Patty’s Day celebration at ski resorts on Sunday. Skiing and riding stayed in the snow zone this past weekend and even with a forecasted brief warm-up, conditions are shaping up to be great for the St.
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