MONROE COUNTY, Pa. — It wasn't the perfect day weather-wise to hit the slopes at Shawnee Mountain in Smithfield Township, near Marshalls Creek, but that didn't stop people from coming out to carve up the trails.
"The weather has not been super cooperative, but we're really lucky. Our snowmakers are fantastic, our groomers are fantastic, and we did a huge upgrade with our snowmaking equipment, so it gives us the opportunity to have as much open as we do right now," said Rachel Wyckoff, the marketing director at Shawnee Mountain.
Wyckoff says the below-freezing temperatures at the start of the season gave them a big head start, helping them keep conditions solid.
The mountain is about 50 percent open, with 13 of the 23 trails ready for guests to use.
"As soon as that weather drops below freezing, our snowmakers are anxious and waiting and were going to cover this mountain up. The bare spots will be gone, so we're just waiting for that cold weather to come in," Wyckoff said.
At Camelback Resort, the mountain has a strong base, but earlier this week, the ski area had to limit its hours to help preserve the snow.
"We were kind of ready for it, and we not being on the eastern side of Pennsylvania. We knew it was going to happen at some point before we had opened for the season. That's why we spent so much time building snow and building up that base, so if and or when we did get a little warm spell like we did, we were ready and were still holding strong," said Molly Coneybeer, Camelback's social media manager.
The mountain has 25 trails open, and Coneybeer says as conditions improve, they will be opening up more.
"We have our amazing mountain ops time and snowmaking team ready to go and to just do it ourselves just in case Mother Nature does not deliver," said Coneybeer.
Both ski mountains encourage guests to look on their social media to get the latest information on conditions as they gear up for Martin Luther King weekend on the slopes.
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