‘Highest attended ski season ever’: Poconos finally catches a cold, but in a good way
Pennsylvania ski resorts finally caught a break after a string of warm seasons.
Modern ski resorts in the Poconos entice skiers and snowboarders to their slopes with continuous snowmaking, wide food choices, craft beer, and discounts through season passes.
One thing they can’t do: create cold.
This winter, the resorts finally enjoyed months of extended cold after a series of previous warm winters — the difference between powder and ice, gliding and skidding.
“This has been Blue Mountain’s highest attended ski season ever,” said Ashley Seir, a spokesperson for Blue Mountain Resort in Palmerton, Carbon County. “Our previous busiest season was [during] COVID.”
This season, Seir noted, surpassed that by 70,000 visits. Blue Mountain was originally Little Gap Ski Area, which opened in 1977.
Despite the lack of natural snow, the average temperature at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown, Lehigh County, was 29.6 degrees for December, January, and February, the three months known as meteorological winter. That’s six degrees lower higher than last winter’s balmy average of 35.6 degrees.
Overall, this season ranked as the 48th warmest for winters between 1939-40 to 2024-25. In other words, it was a mid-range year, leaning toward the norm, according to data logged at the airport, which is the closest station with a long history of continuous recordkeeping.
To put that in perspective, seven of the 10 warmest winters over those 85 years have come since 2010, leaving ski resorts to face above-average warmth. Last winter, 2023-24, was the eighth warmest in that span.
Little snow, but just enough
About 18 inches of snow fell at Allentown this winter, with similar amounts falling in nearby counties that make up the Poconos: Wayne, Pike, Monroe, and Carbon. That’s down from about 25 inches last year.
She noted that even though there were no large storms this winter, there were enough small ones.
“That deep cold is fantastic,” Seir said. “We made an incredible amount of snow this year. And a long as it’s snowing, even just a little bit, especially down in the Philly area, skiing pops to the top of mind for people.”
As of this week, Blue Mountain had 40 trails open with no immediate plans to close, even with the forecast of a warmup this weekend. Blue Mountain is owned by Peregrine Hospitality, which also owns the Camelback Resort in Tannersville, Monroe County.
‘Maximize snowmaking’
Vail Resorts also owns two Pocono ski mountains, Jack Frost and Big Boulder, both of which reported a good winter.
“This season at Jack Frost-Big Boulder has been fantastic, thanks to consistently cold temperatures that allowed us to maximize snowmaking and deliver excellent conditions,” Tony Santora, general manager at the Vail mountain resorts, said in an email.
Santora said that Vail doesn’t release attendance figures but said that this winter saw “strong enthusiasm from our guests.”
Big Boulder is closing Saturday for the season. Jack Frost has not set a closing date yet.
Gary Kline, a spokesperson for Bear Creek Mountain Resort in the Lehigh Valley, said the mountain opened for skiing Dec. 7 and will close Saturday.
“This has been a season to remember,” Kline said. “We were open a total of 97 days this season, which makes this one of our longest ski seasons ever.”
Now that many ski mountains are winding down, they are already gearing up for their next big event: selling season passes for the 2025-26 winter.