Jason Bays had an exciting idea: he wanted to extend the season as long as possible at Camelback, saving snow on the Pennsylvania ski resort’s Cliffhanger trail. He grew up skiing there, but had been inspired by Killington, Vermont, which famously keeps winter going into May or even June.
There was a problem, though. Bays, at the time, was ten. And ten-year-olds, as far as we know, aren’t often asked seriously for their opinion on ski resort operations.
“I had to put that dream on pause while I did other jobs,” Bays, who went on to work several positions in the resort industry, said, laughing.
But this past October, when Bays returned to Camelback as the resort’s general manager and vice president, he finally had a chance to execute his vision. Driven by a passionate belief that there was, indeed, a real market for spring skiing in Pennsylvania, he began planning with the Camelback team. The month of May would be the end zone.
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Courtesy Camelback Mountain Resort
For Camelback, it was the start of a significant turnaround. Previously, parts of the community, irked by pain points common at resorts all around the country—paid parking, a lack of communication, pricey tickets—had soured on Camelback.
“The last several years have definitely not been our best seasons, our best foot forward,” explained Clinton Frantz, Camelback’s vice president of facilities. With Bays’ leadership, the goal, in part, was to win back some of the locals, Frantz continued.
Alongside the May push, changes included offering free general parking (a departure from past winters), running the terrain park chairlift more often for freestylers, and bringing back kids’ ski programs. Bays also started appearing online regularly in an apparent bid for transparency. He shared letters on Camelback’s social media, providing an inside look at operations. All of it slotted into a broader strategy, making sure “we’re delivering a good experience for our guests out there,” said Bays.
While late-season skiing might have seemed realistic for the crew behind the scenes, not everyone was convinced, at first. Last fall, when murmurs of the extended season hit the ears of longtime local Jillian Morris, she didn’t believe it.
You can’t blame her. Pennsylvania’s famous for the Liberty Bell, not tall peaks or huge snow totals, both of which make it easier for a resort to survive into spring. In Camelback’s home region, the Poconos, the elevation hovers around 2,000 feet—that’s 8,000 feet lower than the parking lot at Arapahoe Basin, Colorado. During past seasons, Camelback tended to close in March.
As winter got underway, though, Morris started seeing evidence that Bays wasn’t kidding around.
“We had a lot of those great snowstorms here on the East Coast in January and February,” she said. “And even with those, anytime they could be making snow, they were making snow, and they were stockpiling snow.”
Courtesy Camelback Resort
By February, mounds 20 to 30 feet high had appeared on the trails where Camelback planned to make its final stand. They chose the winding intermediate trail Nile Mile alongside Cliffhanger. The snow level got so high that the lights they used for night skiing had to be adjusted, making for one of the effort’s biggest surprises, Bays said.
While the snowmakers benefitted from a cold start to the season, March proved hot. Given the toasty weather, Frantz said they knew it would be a battle to last until May. To outlast the heat, Camelback carefully planned when to move around the snowpack they’d built.
“We’re used to the freeze thaw cycles,” said Frantz. “But the focus on managing the snow and working the snow as little as possible … was definitely something that we were learning on the fly.”
Those measures paid off. Camelback cruised past its previous record closing date of April 9 and kept going. On April 20, the resort blew more snow, even as the leaves started to bud on the trees. Morris, a full-time teacher with a side gig as a photographer, cleared her weekend schedule so she didn’t miss out. When she learned Camelback planned to be open on Tuesday, May 5—a.k.a Cinco de Mayo—she also saved a personal day at her day job.
“I wanted to be able to be there to say, Wow, we skied in May up in the Poconos,” she said. “We started putting a lot more faith into it, and figured, well, we’re gonna be here, and we’re gonna be skiing.”
The final stretch saw all the classic hallmarks of spring. People wore t-shirts and shorts. Someone played their guitar as they slid down the slope. The line between employee and guest blurred as new friendships formed. Skiers from all over showed up, including at least one from Denver, according to Bays—a twist on skiers’ usual westbound migration. Nile Mile shut down in April, but Cliffhanger stayed open longer, cutting a striking image against the Poconos greenery for the send-off earlier this month.
In honor of Bays and the part he played, stickers that read “Jason Bays for President” appeared. “Those were flying around like hot cakes,” said Morris. Clearly, the new general manager had left an impression.
When the party finally stopped on May 5, Camelback had set a new record for itself by a wide margin. Through the effort, Camelback joined a few other unlikely-seeming resorts with extended seasons in North America. Killington’s long been a part of that crowd, while others like Black Mountain, New Hampshire, have recently drawn headlines for their head-turning commitments to spring operations.
In Colorado, California, or Utah, May skiing is wonderful but less shocking. The same isn’t true on the other side of the country Here, scrappy mountains—like Camelback proved it can be—have an opportunity to truly defy nature.
“One hundred and thirty-eight days in Pennsylvania, and I’m just really grateful for our operations team that executed all winter long,” said Bays. “That’s how the business succeeds. When we go all in.”
As our conversation wound down, I had one last question for Bays. Did Camelback plan to do it again next season? In his response, I could see some of the kid that just wanted to ski as long as possible.
“Yes, with one caveat,” he said. “We’ll make more snow, and we’ll make it even bigger.”
Related: Mammoth Mountain, California, Extends Ski Season Beyond Memorial Day
