Have you
been wanting to go skiing but never gotten around to it? Hopefully my blog has encouraged you to sit
down with your dad and talk about taking that first day trip.
Luckily,
there are small, unintimidating mountains real close by. Set a date aside to go up to Camelback
Mountain in Tannersville, Pennsylvania, about an hour and a half from central
New Jersey and about the same from New York City. Make sure you dress warmly though. There are always those glaringly obvious
beginners wearing jeans… Don’t be one of them!
Head over
to the ticket window and buy yourself a lift ticket for $51 (all day) or $35 (3
P.M. to close). Once you’ve gotten your
ticket, go into the rentals shop right next door and get yourself a pair of
boots and skis and a helmet all for $37 and from there head across the
hall to the “ski school.” There you can
buy a two-hour group beginners lesson for $35 or a two-hour private lesson
for $90 (not a bad price if you think you would benefit from having one-on-one
instruction).
If you
think you’re going to go more than once (I promise you will want to), it is
probably worth it to buy the Explorer Card for only $129. This gives you three days of all day lift
tickets, all day rentals, and a group lesson each day at an extremely
inexpensive price.
On the Mountain:
As a
beginner, you will certainly want to stay on the lower part of the mountain. If you are not familiar with the trail
markings, green circles are the easiest trails.
On the trail map below, find the green circles that are also highlighted
green. Those are the slow-skiing
designated areas, which means you won’t be disturbed by people flying down the
hill; these are excellent trails to get comfortable on. I highly recommend going up to Cameltop (the
lodge at the top of the Sullivan Express Lift) for lunch as it is consistently
less crowded than any of the other lodges.
Off the Mountain:
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| Camelback Trail Map |
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| Clinton Station Diner |
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| Clinton Station Diner's Mt. Olympus 50-pound burger |
I really like the idea of having a beginner level guide for those that have never skiied. I'm just juandering if this is something suitable for both a father and a son or if this is just something for kids while dad does his own thing. On a separate note, are jorts considered jeans?
ReplyDeleteWell in my situation, my dad and I learned to ski at the same time. In most skiing families, the parents know how to ski and have the kids learn. I think part of the reason my ski trips with my dad have been so awesome is that we learned together. But the lessons and packages that I talked about in this post are available for all ages above 10. And yes dylan, jorts are certainly considered jeans and if you don't want to get run off the mountain, I suggest you leave the jorts at home.
ReplyDeleteWow I will definitely go to this place in the near future. Do you think it's enough to get 1 session of the 2 hour private lesson to get you started?
ReplyDeleteI wanted to go skiing/snowboarding with my friends and this seems like a great place to go since we're all still beginners. Some of us haven't been on a mountain before. And on a separate note: how much do you have to ski for it to be better to buy all of your gear instead of renting it?
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask the same question Praz. I went skiing for 3-4 times but I was still learning about it. Snowboarding is just one piece of board right? How hard is that? I really want to try but I don't want to hurt myself.
ReplyDeletePraz, one two-hour private lesson would definitely be enough to get you started. After that, you could definitely ski by yourself the rest of the day, but I'd certainly recommend multiple lessons in your first season. Starting off with good technique is hugely important.
ReplyDeleteWill, yeah Camelback is the perfect place to go with a bunch of friends, beginners or not beginners. And regarding buying equipment, a lot of ski shops (not affiliated with particular mountains) do seasonal rentals, which lets you rent equipment for the whole season. It's an amazing option if you're not ready to make a long-term commitment to skiing but you know you're going to be going a lot.
Diana, that's awesome, yeah a snowboard is just a one-piece board. I've been snowboarding a handful of times and it's definitely a lot of fun, I just much prefer skiing. I would say it's about just as hard to learn to snowboard as it is to learn to ski. And don't be afraid of hurting yourself, it's too much fun to worry about that!