Pocono Mountains Ski Areas

The Pocono Mountains are located in the northeast section of Pennsylvania, United States, and easily accessible from New York City, Philadelphia, and Albany. Given its easy access from major northeast cities, the Poconos have long been a popular vacation area for hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, rafting, skiing, and other sporting activities.

The ski destinations located within the Pocono's are popular winter destinations for both day and overnight trips, and while they don't compare to ski destinations out west or in New England, they provide an ample variety of slopes, lodging, and amenities for get-aways and day trips. Ski conditions are always best on weekdays, but given their proximity to large metropolitan areas, weekends tend to be extremely busy. Your best skiing will be in the first two to three hours. After that, your adventure quickly turns into a test of skills in how well you can dodge the overcrowded slopes or avoid an ice induced fall resulting from the rapidly degrading conditions.

Each ski area has its own unique attributes. Blue Mountain boasts the highest vertical, and is an easy 1 1/2 hours from Philadelphia. Personally, Blue Mountain has the best and most challenging offering in the Poconos's. But, and this is a big downside, for many years this destination did little to modernize their facilities. That all changed a few years ago when the ski area started implementing a new master plan. While they still have a long way to go to catch up to other local ski areas, the lodge, lifts, and snow making improvements are impressive.

Another popular destination is Jack Frost Big Boulder. These two are purpose built resorts, with traditional lodging and restaurant offerings located on or within a few miles of the resort. The slopes at Jack Frost are moderate and more family oriented, with a few nice expert trails with exceptional views. They have a very nice lodge, restaurant, and pub area. Big Boulder, a companion resort a few miles away, is a smaller ski area focused on offering the best terrain park within the mid-Atlantic region. TransWorld Snowboarding rated Big Boulder Park a top 5 Terrain Park on the East Coast of Canada and the United States, which is a lofty accomplishment for a Pocono ski resort.

Camelback Mountain Resort, previously voted "Poconos Best Ski Resort", is a popular four season destination, with a large assortment of local lodging, restaurants, and apres ski. The area features 800 feet of vertical terrain with 34 lighted trails serviced by 15 lifts. In addition they also have a large snow tubing park. Despite its popularity, and the overall offerings are nice, I didn't care too much for the slop design because the trails seemed to offer a quick burst and then leveled out for an extended length, making the runs uneventful.

Shawnee Mountain receives a lot of press regarding their nice facilities. They bill themselves as a "Beginner Friendly Mountain" located in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Hmmm... A beginner friendly mountain! Need I say more...? Anyway, the vertical is a small 700 feet, and they have 23 trails serviced by 6 lifts, and offer excellent lighting for night skiing.


The last two to round out the lot are Alpine Mountain and Ski Big Bear. Alpine is much less popular than other Pocono ski areas and is less challenging, but also lacks the long lift lines usually experienced at places like Camelback, Jack Frost, and Blue Mountain. Ski Big Bear is not close to key thoroughfares which keeps skier visits down, but also makes it more difficult to get to. They have a very nice summit lodge but the runs are narrow and short.

http://www.onlySkiing.com - your adventure starts here...