Another option in our region for the your Indy Pass skiing pleasure:

Indy Pass Adds Tussey, Pennsylvania and Peek’N Peak, New York (stormskiing.com)

Puts PA at 5 Indy resorts, with Blue Knob, Montage, Shawnee and Sawmill.

 Thanks for this update.  We have family in WNY. and ski Peek once or twice a year.  Indy may be on my radar next year with BK and CV

superguy wrote:

Another option in our region for the your Indy Pass skiing pleasure:

Indy Pass Adds Tussey, Pennsylvania and Peek’N Peak, New York (stormskiing.com)

Puts PA at 5 Indy resorts, with Blue Knob, Montage, Shawnee and Sawmill.

Adding in Massanutten, Bryce, and Canaan Valley, the Indy Pass can be a great deal for people willing to do some driving.  Even if they are limited to weekend for skiing.

I had a great time using Indy at Berkshire East, Catamount, and West Mountain while based in Lee, MA in the Berkshire Mountains of western MA last season.  Was there over Pres. Day week, which is a busy week because the local school systems have winter break the entire week.  Got a bit crowded at Catamount because the new lift wasn't ready yet and rain limited the number of open trails.  Berkshire East was fine even during Pres. Day weekend.  West Mountain was quite fun in the morning and then we went shopping at the outlets in nearby Queensbury.

marzNC wrote:

Adding in Massanutten, Bryce, and Canaan Valley, the Indy Pass can be a great deal for people willing to do some driving.  Even if they are limited to weekend for skiing.

I had a great time using Indy at Berkshire East, Catamount, and West Mountain while based in Lee, MA in the Berkshire Mountains of western MA last season.  Was there over Pres. Day week, which is a busy week because the local school systems have winter break the entire week.  Got a bit crowded at Catamount because the new lift wasn't ready yet and rain limited the number of open trails.  Berkshire East was fine even during Pres. Day weekend.  West Mountain was quite fun in the morning and then we went shopping at the outlets in nearby Queensbury.

I had the Indy pass last season and skied Catamount, Berkshire East, Magic, Bolton Valley and Cannon. I must say that Catamount had the oldest looking, perhaps homemade, fan guns I have ever seen, picture below

That looks like it should be in someone's backyard lol.

Almost looks like it's not much better than a box fan with garden hose lol.

superguy wrote:

That looks like it should be in someone's backyard lol.

Almost looks like it's not much better than a box fan with garden hose lol.

 I dunno.  Nub's Nob is using DIY snowguns that are very effective.  Have been around for several decades as I understand it.  Clearly a lot cheaper for a small ski area than spending thousands of dollars on new snowguns.

That said, after the Berkshire East family bought Catamount they have spent a lot of money on upgrading the lifts and the snowmaking infrastructure.  Got messed up by the pandemic with construction delays.  In addition to the Indy Pass, folks NYC or the Berkshires can also consider a combo pass good at both mountains.  I'd get that pass if I lived within an hour of either mountain.

That snowmaking gun pic is great. The Indy Pass is becoming a better deal each week it seems. They have almost doubled the number of resorts on their list over the last year.

superguy wrote:

If the homemade guns are effective, someone show BK how to make them. :D

 Haha!  Makes a big difference when a small ski area has always been owned by a family.  Even more important that the crew taking care of all the equipment are long-time employees who are completely dedicated to keeping everything working for the least amount of money possible.

I learned about the Nubs snowguns listening to the Storm Skiing podcast recently.  Looking forward to interviews of GMs in the southeast.  Stuart is planning on checking a few places this season.  Since he grew up skiing in the midwest, his viewpoint is different than ski journalist who grew up in the northeast or the big mountains in the Rockies.

Podcast #100: Nub’s Nob General Manager Ben Doornbos

snowsmith wrote:

MarzNC - agree, Berkshire East is a great mountain. Skied there the day of the great blizzard last February. However, the blizzard really did not get that far west. We did get 4" of nice fluffy snow making it a great day. Catamount had a brand new ski lodge. The terrain was not as nice as Berkshire East, which reminded the Vermont ski areas further north.

 Agree that Berkshire East has more interesting terrain.  However, Catamount is easier to reach for most people.  The day I was there there wasn't much open but the race teams were ready and waiting for the lifts to open.  It was the Saturday of Pres. Day weekend.  I was impressed at how patient the kids were when the lift opening was delayed for 20 minutes as the grooming finished up.  Said a lot about the community that called Catamount their home hill.

wfyurasko wrote:

I never made it over to Tussey while I was at Penn State. I probably should have and more importantly joined the ski club.

Youth is wasted on the young.

 I traveled to State College for work.  Slowest lift I have ever been on and best Chilli at a ski resort I ever ate.

In the cafeteria while eating you could listen to the Penn State Skiing PE academic portion of the class (the physics of skiing), it was fun.

"In the cafeteria while eating you could listen to the Penn State Skiing PE academic portion of the class (the physics of skiing), it was fun."

I don't remember anything physics in my Skiing Phys Ed, but I was still at PSU Hazleton when I took it. We skied Big Boulder on Tuesday nights. Quite a proving ground.

I did go to Tussey once for snowtubing after graduation with my girlfriend before she graduated. As far as I could tell, they spent ones of minutes figuring out the setup. It's probably more than a rope tow to the top and hay bales at the end now. In retrospect, doing that without a helmet seems more dangerous than skiing without one.

 Do you like peek better than holiday valley?

Blue Don 1982 wrote:

 Thanks for this update.  We have family in WNY. and ski Peek once or twice a year.  Indy may be on my radar next year with BK and CV

superguy wrote:

Another option in our region for the your Indy Pass skiing pleasure:

Indy Pass Adds Tussey, Pennsylvania and Peek’N Peak, New York (stormskiing.com)

Puts PA at 5 Indy resorts, with Blue Knob, Montage, Shawnee and Sawmill.

I'll lean slightly to the Peek just because of the family ties over the years. Our relatives had a seasonal condo rental there for several years so it was the place to meet.  Super easy 2 hr drive and a place for all of us to crash one night.

HV in NY is really cool, much bigger, has better lifts and more challenging trails.  In full disclosure, I've only been to HV - NY one time.  I really liked it and will try make it there again.

Grumpy dad wrote:

 Do you like peek better than holiday valley?

GGNagy wrote:

I did the skiing phys-ed course back in '90. Something like a half dozen "eastern hardpack" night sessions until thaw hit and ended the practical part of the course. Never skied there during the day, and never got to go over to the western part of the hill that seemed to be reserved for the ski team. 

 Sounds a lot like Big Boulder in the same timeframe. Of course, BB had outright ice in a bunch of places. It "built character" I guess in me as a skier. No interest in skiing in that kind of conditions now, but I think it made me a better skier quicker.

I think of all the wasted years between 98 and 2017 when I more or less stopped skiing because my exwife and now wife didn't ski, and I didn't have anyone to go with.  It never occurred to me I could go alone if I had too until 2017 when I was on a business trip in Sacramento in Feb and realized Tahoe was only 2 hours away.  What really sucks is 6 of those years I lived in Utah with some of the best snow and mountains around.

Sad how much I missed out on, especially when my body was in much better shape back then.

wfyurasko wrote:

I never made it over to Tussey while I was at Penn State. I probably should have and more importantly joined the ski club.

Youth is wasted on the young.

I did my undergrad in Utah and we did the skiing PE at Sundance. It was pretty much a 2 hour lesson and 2 hours to have fun.  I was in the most advanced class back then, so we had the head of the ski school as our instructor. We pretty much stayed at the top skiing Bishop's Bowl, Grizzly, and some of the other fun runs back. Never saw Redford though.

Airline broke my skis on my way back from Christmas break. Instructor hooked me up with a screaming deal on some top of the lines Rossis for about half price.

Between those lessons, and days at all 4 Cottonwoods (mostly Brighton, as my friends were boarders and Alta (still) and Solitude banned boards back then), it was a great semester. Had my best mogul run ever under the Eagle quad at Solitude. Still think about that one, wishing I could do it again lol.

Now I find myself wishing I had the body, time, confidence, and lack of fear I did back then lol.