Hitting the Slopes

By Sandra Deckelman & Steve Flynn

Montage Mountain

Nice easy beginner slopes, a fun terrain park, challenging double black diamonds and great staffing make Montage Mountain worth the hour-and-a-half travel from Narrowsburg.

The beginner slopes vary in size and experience levels, from traditional down-the-mountain slopes to a twisting snake, Easy Street, through the woods. The Easy Street snake was fun, but packed with skiers and not wide enough to handle  different skill levels. The boarders found some challenging rides through the woods, so we made a few runs down this slope.

Most of our time at Montage was spent on the terrain park, black diamond and double black diamond slopes. Our first run of the day started with a sign at the top of the slope: No rental equipment beyond this point! It was a great run (double black diamond) and presented some great vertical skiing. These runs were really cool, but I would have loved a warm-up run first to make sure my boots were tight enough, and my muscles ready to handle the trail. The upper half of trail, leading into the double blacks, was for the expert (black diamond) but could be negotiated by an intermediate skier or rider. The terrain park was a run made up of six or seven large jumps designed for aerials and other stunts by skiers and riders alike.

The Pontiac Sno Jam 2001 event was happening while we were at Montage. They had great giveaways, lots of free stuff and a raffle for a Pontaic Sunfire and a set of skis. Oxygen snowboards was giving demo runs on its boards as part of Sno Jam and a raffle was held for an Oxygen Snowboard at the end of the day.  We got hats and T-shirts, as well as a chance to win gloves.

The staff at Montage was great. They were polite, and light hearted. The girls in the guest services office were a great help when we got there and were trying to locate our lift tickets. Everyone on the slopes, from the lift operators to the ski patrol, was nice.

Once again we visited the lounge to have lunch, and were carded at the door by two bouncers. Our waitress was cool,  tolerating our questions, comments and jokes very well. She talked with us for several minutes at the end of our meal. Our meal was good, and worth the money. Our order consisted of a personal pan pizza, cheese fries, mozzarella sticks, a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a BLT with fries. The bill came to $47, which also included three bottles of beer, a shot of liquor and two Bailey’s Blizzards (hot chocolate, Bailey’s and raspberry liqueur.)

Montage has night skiing on all of its trails, so it’s a great slope, day or night. You can find more information online at www.skimontage.com or by calling 800/GOT-SNOW.

Be sure to check us out next week when we report back, weather permitting, on Jack Frost and Big Boulder. Read about the slopes we have visited already by following the links in the sidebar.