Blue Mountain Resort

Blue Mountain Resort is a ski resort located in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, United States, on Blue Mountain. As of May 2021, KSL Resorts, which owns Camelback Resort, manages the resort.

History
The resort was opened by Ray Tuthill in 1977 as Little Gap Ski Area; he re-established it as Blue Mountain in 1989. In 2007, Tuthill's daughter, Barbara Green, became the President and CEO of Blue Mountain.

In 2002 and 2003, Blue Mountain added two advanced runs and a teaching hill with two beginner slopes, fed by a triple chairlift and a conveyor lift. In 2006, the resort added eastern Pennsylvania's first high-speed six-pack chairlift.

In summer 2008, the resort implemented a $3.1 million upgrade for the 2008-2009 ski season. It included improvements to the resort's snowmaking equipment, a newly built dining facility, and the addition of a new intermediate trail between Razor's Edge and Paradise named Dreamweaver.

In 2018, Blue Mountain partnered with the United States Luge Association and created a natural luge, for the US Luge team to evaluate Olympic Candidates.

In 2019, Blue Mountain resort expanded its RFID access. As of December 2021, snowmaking was added.

A new 6-pack chair (Main Street Express) has replaced the Burma and Main St Chairs in the 2022/2023 season.This makes Blue Mountain the only East Coast resort with 3 High Speed Lifts.

The Mountain
Blue Mountain has a summit elevation of 1407 ft and a vertical drop of 1087 ft, the biggest vertical drop of any ski resort in Pennsylvania. The summit is accessed by Comet high-speed quad, 2 six-person lifts(Challenge Express and Msin St Express), or Vista double chair. A beginner trail and an intermediate trail run down the outer, eastern side of the north-facing slope. Four expert runs follow the chairlifts to the bottom, and an access trail connects the summit to the western half of the resort.

One double chairlift risis up the western side of the resort, accessing mixed novice, intermediate, and expert terrain. The main resort lodge, located at the top of the mountain, is accessible by road. A dedicated beginner section adjacent to the lodge is served by a double chair and one surface lift. A beginner trail, Burma Road, connects to the beginner section at the bottom of the hill. A second lodge and the resort's snow tubing facility are also located at the bottom of the mountain near the Valley Lodge.

The resort has a total of 40 slopes. Blue Mountain has glade trails, beginner through expert, various terrain park installations, and training slopes. Blue Mountain uses RFID ticket scanners at every lift. The mountain offers 46 snow tubing trails, each over 1000 ft long. It was the only ski resort in Pennsylvania to offer family-size tubes which have been replaced with figure 8 tubes as well as single tubes, with both day and night snow tubing.

There are five terrain parks, which include Terrain Run, Lower Sidewinder, Come Around Park, and Central Park. The longest trail is 6400 ft in length; the mountain has 164 acre of skiable terrain. Although it receives an average of only 33 in of natural snowfall per year, natural snow is supplemented with 100% snowmaking coverage.

The resort hosts an alpine ski race team consisting of more than 125 USSA competitors and 75 developmental competitors. Its ski patrol is featured in the reality series Ski Patrol. which aired on truTV in the 2008-2009 season.

Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Blue Mountain Ski Resort has a warm summer humid continental climate (Dfb). Dfb climates are characterized by at least one month having an average mean temperature ≤ 32.0 °F, at least four months with an average mean temperature ≥ 50.0 °F, all months with an average mean temperature ≤ 71.6 °F and no significant precipitation difference between seasons. Although most summer days are slightly humid at Blue Mountain Ski Resort, episodes of heat and high humidity can occur with heat index values > 98 °F. Since 1981, the highest air temperature was 100.5 °F on 07/22/2011, and the highest daily average mean dew point was 73.8 °F on 08/01/2006. Since 1981, the wettest calendar day was 5.25 in on 09/30/2010. During the winter months, the average annual extreme minimum air temperature is -7.0 °F. Since 1981, the coldest air temperature was -17.9 °F on 01/21/1994. Episodes of extreme cold and wind can occur with wind chill values < -19 °F. Ice storms and large snowstorms depositing ≥ 12 in of snow occur once every couple of years.

Ecology
According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. potential natural vegetation types, Blue Mountain Ski Resort would have a dominant vegetation type of Appalachian Oak (104) with a dominant vegetation form of Eastern Hardwood Forest (23). The plant hardiness zone is 6a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of -7.0 °F. The spring bloom typically begins around April 22nd and fall color usually peaks before October 20th.