Montage Mountain Resorts

Montage mountain is my favorite place to ski on the east coast. The service is great, the food is the best I’ve ever had at a ski resort, and the runs are challenging with great conditions. Love spending my winters up here!

Montage mountain is a ski resort during the winter and a Waterpark during the summer. They are mostly known for their ski resort. There are multiple ski slopes ranging from beginner to experience. As far as I know it’s one of the only ski resorts in the area.
During the summer they have a waterpark with a couple of rafter rides they have a wave pool and a little kid pool. During the summer there’s also a zip line that you can go down from the top of one of the ski slopes.
Overall montage Mountain is a nice resort I don’t know if I want to spend more than two days here but if you’re looking for a place to ski I definitely recommend it here.

Most of the reviews are for skiing– let me tell you about the water park! RUN AWAY! 2 days after what we thought was a nice day, my son came down with many bacterial infections. Pink eye, throat infection, ear infection, bronchitis. The water park is the only place we went so had to be the water. And from what I now read about things that go on there, I have no doubt. I’ve never seen my son this sick and have spent $ 200.00 on dr so far. Reported it to Montage and of course they deny any wrong doing and delete all my posts to their face book page. There are many complaints about the water conditions there. I have even notified the Scranton Health Dept.

I’ll be frank… Not really impressed. I bought tickets that included both ski rentals and lift tickets through Liftopia for about $ 65 per person. Really not a bad deal, especially since this mountain seemed to be better than any of the options in our local DC Area.
After checking in to redeem our lift tickets late Saturday morning, we were greeted with an extremely long line of people which caused a wait of at least 45 minutes before we could get our ski rentals. Not to mention, there were just not enough people working, so those who were seemed to be completely overworked and bombarded by customers. Maybe we came on a super busy day, but one would think any given Saturday during the season would be busy and especially later in the season they would be better prepared to handle many customers.
Anyways, moving on — after finally making my way down all the stairs (which are really badly placed all around the resort, as others have mentioned), we realized how crowded all the lifts were as well. Finally making our way down a few times, we started to get into the groove of things and enjoyed ourselves.
Now once again, as with everything else at the resort, the slopes were totally crowded. I am a beginner skier and I could barely get down the mountain without someone practically knocking me over. I feel like part of the issue here is that there are not enough blue and green slopes. There is one real green and then the blues are ridiculously hard. Overall, I did have a fun time on the slopes though, and it was great when they did play the music! Not sure why they stopped during the middle of the day…
There is a restaurant/​bar at the resort, where we decided to stop at for some linner because we were famished from intense skiing. The bf and I both got soup — his tomato bisque which actually tasted like tomato sauce and mine french onion. Mine was good, but our waitress took so long to greet us, check up on us, etc., all the while with a snarky attitude. She even greeted a table next to us that had arrived later than us before she greeted us!!! We ordered a few drinks, which tasted watered down. Overall, the restaurant proved to be a total disappointment, but I guess they can afford to be that way when they know customers have no choice when they need to eat at the resort.
Would I return here? No. But I had a fun time, minus several factors.

My family had a wonderful time here snow tubing! Line waits were minimal, staff was friendly, gorgeous grounds and lodge. We had sooo much fun and can’t wait to return!

Montage is a great, uncrowded mountain a mere two hours away from Center City Philadelphia. With a 1,000 vertical, you get the uninterrupted long runs of Blue Mountain without the price and sometimes overwhelming crowds. Less of a crowd also means fresh snow gets skiied off much slower than at some of the more popular mountains. In my opinion, the double blacks at Montage are some of the most challenging in the Poconos (though do remember, they are still in the Poconos). The sit down restaurant/​bar has excellent food (I went with the veggie burger with rosemary fries) and a fine, expansive selection of draft and bottled beers.
There are a few downsides to Montage: (1) The main lodge is down about 30 metal steps from the parking lot. If you have your lift tickets already, you can ski down from the top of the Phoebe snow lift. If not, you have to walk yourself down the stairs with all of your equipment. When leaving, you have to have people with you that can go down the black trails so you can take the lift up to the top of the parking lot, or, you have to carry all your equipment back up the stairs again. (2) There is a large flat area by the lodge, and a long walk from there to either of the lifts, which makes it more difficult than need be to get started for the day. (3) The lifts are incredibly slow. No high speed lines here.
Montage lift tickets are often available on
at a discount. I bought tickets through the site on my last visit and had no issues exchanging them for a lift tickets.

Fresh powder, no lift lines, well groomed trails, gorgeous renovated lodge, clean restrooms, delicious gastropub food… plus two thumbs up for the outdoor fire pits and craft beer selection. Why wouldn’t I come back?

Took the kids snow tubing for the first time. I’m glad that I got the passes through an online deal. The line for the big hill was really long but manageable. Unfortunately that meant we only went down the big hill about 4 times.
If you do the shorter tubing slopes, it’s much faster because you can just hop in line to go a quarter way up the conveyor belt. That said, the bottom of those slopes has nothing but a net to «stop you». You had to use your feet or hands to brake before running into it and that defeated the purpose of going down this hill. The one guy was pretty rude and told us that we needed to figure out a way to stop ourselves before getting to the bottom. Uhhhh seriously? We saw one mom and her kid go right through and under the «safety net». I almost hit my face on one of the stakes holding the net up because I was trying to brake with my hands while our tube was spinning around.
My kids had a good time but I doubt I will ever return to this place.

We traveled to Montage Mountain as a last-​minute decision to visit some family in the area. We were enticed by their children’s carnival and thought it would be a good activity for our kids. I began skiing in 1987 and have snowboarded for about 25 years, so I have a good sense of the industry as I used to ride about 30 – 50 days a season, mostly in New England.
First, the mountain and facilities were a pleasant surprise. I thought it was well-​kept and nicely groomed. It reminded me of a nicer Mountain Creek. It’s well laid out and actually bigger than expected, and there’s also a water park for the summer. The lodge was pretty small and full but there were all the amenities and a restaurant/​bar area.
The big issue was the customer service. Our kids are young, and we wanted them to get some lessons so we called about a week in advance. I guess we should have made a decision based on the phone call CS, but figured it was probably just a one-​off experience. Anyway, after playing phone tag, the woman with whom we spoke said everything was booked and there were no lessons available for either of our kids. She was not terribly pleasant or helpful and actually seemed put off by the call. We found a similar experience visiting the resort; most of the people with whom we spoke weren’t at all helpful.
When we got there, we went directly to the rental center to see what we should do. We were told there was a learn to ski area with a magic carpet. Perfect. We figured we’d get the kids out on skis and help them in that area, so we spent $ 131 on rentals and a ticket for our older daughter (our younger daughter qualified for a free ticket). We then proceeded over to the magic carpet area only to learn that it’s closed to everyone unless you’re in a lesson (which were all booked, remember?). The woman at the fence was completely unhelpful. We were trying to figure out what we should do with our two little kids, in their gear, and she wouldn’t even take the time to explain where we might be able to take them. After waiting on line at the CS desk, I leaned that the only learn to ski area for people outside of lessons is an actual chair lift. Seriously? I can’t think of a resort, big or small, that forces beginners on chair lifts. I asked about a lesson and she directed me over to the ski school. After waiting on line there, and some trying conversation, I found out there were lessons available, but I needed to being the receipt back for our rental and lift to purchase? So I went and found it and got in line again. The option was a private lesson at $ 145. Fine. At that point my kids had been standing around for an hour and I just wanted them to have a positive experience.
We were asked to have their equipment checked out (that we rented from them) and it turns out their have both kids the wrong sized skis. So we re-​outfitted them and then got them on the snow. Their instructor was great and helped make the day for them, but the hour-​long private lasted only 45 minutes. So, for $ 276, our kids got to ski for 46 minutes.
Overall, I’m not sure if I’d come back. Again, the facility was nice overall but most of the people we encountered were not helpful, and it wouldn’t have taken much to help us out.

I came here a few days after they opened so not all trails were open but was still fun and chilled we loved the bar and fire pits i would give 5 stars but the bartender didn’t want to give me any more drinks, cause she said I had too much to drink

This review will be hard for me to do, so bear with me. Our cabin is situated 10 minutes from Elk, so in my mind, for PA skiing, Elk is the gold standard, and it would be asinine for me to drive anywhere else, especially after driving upstate from Lancaster. However, as my beloved Elk has blackout dates where they do not honor the PA Ski Passport for 4^th/​5^th graders (SHAME ON YOU), we looked to take our family elsewhere while staying over New Years, and Montage turned out to be an incredible value… as in, if we had done what we did at Montage, it would have cost an additional $ 230 to ski the day at Elk. And that, my friends, is nothing to sneeze at, and is worth the consideration of driving the 35 minutes from Elk to ski Montage more frequently. Talking points? Here we go!
The Good:
1. Parking: Actually close to the ticket window and lodge. No shuttles, no bridges. Unfortunately, 4 flights of stairs… but overall, nicely close.
2. Prices: We purchased our tickets online through Ski PA Association website for $ 38 for adults, $ 21 for one of our sons. Ticket was good from 9 AM-​10 PM. That’s some serious skiing at a great price… about $ 3.50 per hour! Son #2 was free, and son #3– first time skiing– $ 85 for rental, ticket, and a 2-​hour lesson… Elk would have been $ 180. We added on another afternoon group lesson for $ 40. Not bad.
3. Ski School: Good facilities. Rentals for ski school kids are in the ski school building, which is nice. The beginner area has its own magic carpet conveyer belt, and has good security for checking kids in/​out. Instructors were informative, funny, and patient. Unfortunately, 7 kids in a beginners group was a bit much, but no avoiding that one.
4. Lodge: Nice layout. 48 picnic tables in the dining area, bathrooms near entrances for those of us in ski boots, plenty of food offerings, and a nice-​looking bar/​restaurant with a commanding view of the mountain. A cool wrap-​around deck with multiple fire-​pits allow you to enjoy the view without completely freezing.
5. Trails: A wide variety of trails kept our sons entertained today. Boys liked the terrain park, older son tried the diamonds, and I enjoyed watching him completely humbled by the double-​diamond run with moguls. Gotta keep those pre-​teens in a state of humility every so often!
The Bad:
1. Snow. Mother nature hasn’t been kind to PA skiing, and Montage is behind the curve this year. Lots of unopened trails meant that all the skiers were condensed and the snow-​cats were trying to level out two more trails during the day.
2. Bathrooms: That faux-​whitish wood vinyl flooring doesn’t do well with wet ski on the three longer beginner/​intermediate trails. Our day at Elk two days prior revealed the same percentage open, but square foot-​for-​foot of made snow, Elk is bigger and has produced much more snow. The cannons were firing, however, boots. Poor choice of flooring. My ego can accept falling on an unavoidable sheet of ice lurking below a massive jump… but on a bathroom floor? No way.
The UGLY:
1. WATER. There is no place to access drinking water in this establishment. Nothing, unless you want to stick your head under a faucet in the bathroom. We brought in our own lunches, and when I went into the food court to get a few glasses of water, none of the fountain sodas had the «water» tab, and when I asked the cashier, she wanted to sell me four paper cups at $.50 apiece… yes, to fill in the bathrooms. «PSSSHHHHHH», says I, and storm off. My wife, tired of hearing the kids moan for water, goes and buys two Aquafinas and a Brisk tea for $ 8. PSSHH. Thievery. Unheard of. What is this, Guantanamo? Give the people water, say I. Set my people free!
The Verdict:
Tough call. For nearly $ 230 less, I have to think long and hard, though the decision might be clearer and more logical than I want to admit. If my wallet can convince my loyalty– and it usually does– then Montage will be seen more frequently. With good snow and everything open, this would be a hard bargain to beat. However, one more visit with poor snow may cause the battle re-ignite.and there certainly won’t be any free water provided to put it out!
3 Solid stars… on a return visit with better conditions, that will be bumped to a 4.
PS. These pictures of the water park in summer sure look intriguing!

Snow making management is poor. Could be great place but under poor management since they have the infrastructure it must be poor management

Small mountain a bit hard to find GPS wasn’t great at locating the resort. Long line for snow tubing but a great place for kids. Slopes are reasonable and prices are great. Definitely want to come back in the summer for their waterpark

If I could offer a minus star, that’s what you’d see. If I could post a «hazard– danger to your health» sign, that’s also what you’d see. My family got passes for snow tubing and the disaster started as we stood in line for tubing. We witnessed a customer hit the net when she got to the bottom of the hill and received an injury. Only to have it happen AGAIN, after employees sent more people down the hill after a second person also hit the net and was being lifted to a snow mobile. It was like watching a scene from Dumb and Dumber. Absolutely absurd. It was clear conditions were not suitable and not safe, nor was there competent staff. After talking with the manager about our disappointing experience, they would not provide a refund. We’ll never go back.

Listen, I get it. This is not Vermont. This is not CO. Not Lake Tahoe. CERTAINLY not Heavenly, BUT as far as pocono skiing goes, I really enjoyed myself here! Could the lifts and tickets use some updating? Sure. The lodge was very nice for the poconos and the food and drinks were decent. The trail conditions were quite nice and it wasn’t overly crowded for a Sunday. I’ve skiied most of what the pocono’s has to offer (wow, I know, I’m like super cool LOL) but in all seriousness, this is a solid option. Take it for what it is people, stop being so snobby!

This mountain has so much potential. I think the new improvements have been fantastic. I’m just happy to have a place so close to my residence in Scranton where I can shoot over and take some runs. The restaurant is a whole new level and the prices are shockingly low. The snowmaking has been outstanding even with the great snowfalls we are receiving. The adult ski racing on Thursday nights has been a blast! Overall the facilities have been improved to the point of increasing the quality of life for me. I have skied my whole life. Learned at Elk Mountain around 7 years old. I taught skiing at Montage a few years after it opened for a few years. It is a great relief to see the success of all the improvements made so far. The other cool thing was listening to people on the chair from NYC, points way south of there and Delaware rave about their experience…

Skied this weekend with my friends and WOW is all we had to say. The new bar is amazing and the food is not only good but reasonably priced. The conditions were amazing and the lifts were running smoothly and lines went fast. The slopes are so large that people were not on top of one another. Great atmosphere and amazing slopes for this side of the east coast. I would recommend to anyone!

Just snowboarded at Montage and Woo!!, what an improvement over the 1992 – 1996 experiences.
I had a season pass in 192‑1993 season and skied here 35 xs. The place sucked period. Why?, lossy ski conditions most of the time and terrible customer service period. Then it was called Montage and run by the county. I would rate it as 2 stars then and today 12/​19/​2013 I would rate it 4 – 4.5 stars. Why such a dramatic change?
The parking lot is huge with large circle for easy unloading of equipment plus you are greeted with a statue of a skier in the center. This alone gets you into the mood. I was then greeted by two smiling faces at the ticket counters that were courteous & prompt and showed they were happy to welcome me, not to mention a $ 20.00 ticket for 4 hrs, 9am-​1pm. They also polled me as to how I heard about Montage. These girls should remember me, I was wearing Blue ski jacket with a white Penn State Ski Hat and I am an older gentlemen. Give these girls a raise. Later at the concession stand I was greeted by the cashier who apologized for having me wait for about 3 seconds to cash-​out my order, plus he informed me that he would get me a cup of ice for my bottled drink if I wanted it. Iwas also given a warm welcome by all the lift attendants on all the lifts which included 3 – 4 lifts and last upon entering their beautiful brand new ski shop I was greeted with a big smile an a courteous
much much for a amenities what about conditions for skiing/​boarding. These were excellent except for the Northface which of cource is Expert Terrain and in the shade which causes ice/​hardpack. Besides if are not an advanced skier/​boarded you should not be on NorthFace.
I’ve been skiing 35 years and boarding 5 years been to Aspen, Hunter Mt, Killington + all ski areas in Eastern Pa and have never received customer service at this level. One more thing did I forget this is an excellent place for beginners and intermediates, yes great place for kids. I would highly recommend this place. My favorite ski areas are Elk Mt, Camelback and Killington, Vermont. Montage would be close to these. The main difference is variety and
the later.

My daughter and I skied at Montage on December 17^th. Conditions were great but the experience left room for improvement. I’ll start with our arrival and continue through the rest of the day.
After carrying our gear down the stairs from the parking area, we were surprised that there were no ski racks near the ticket window. We eventually found some around the back of the lodge but it would have been nice to have one in the courtyard area while we bought our passes. Next up was trying to figure out the mountain. There were no trail map signs neat the lodge or at the top of the lifts. The paper 8.5″ x 11″ copy I received from Guest Services helped but the trail names weren’t legible. Even the trail signage was spotty compared to other resorts we have visited. We eventually found our way around the mountain but it took more effort than we expected.
Onto the skiing… Conditions were as good as we could ask for. A light snow was falling over the machine-​groomed trails and the mid-​week trip meant that we had the place to ourselves. We really enjoyed the runs but did notice some peculiar things. First off, the edges of some of the trails were not marked. With snow falling and reduced visibility, it was easy to ski off the groom and into snow-​covered grass. I don’t know if this was normal or if they concentrated on making snow on only a portion of the width of the slopes.
After skiing two greens and three blues, we were ready for more. Unfortunately, the lifts on the left-​side of the mountain were closed along with their associated terrain. The website had listed most of those runs as ‘open’ so this was a significant disappointment. The staff was working on opening more terrain in the afternoon but we were ready to head back to the hotel by then. In the end, we had the five open trails on top of the mountain and another five on the black /​double black diamond terrain on the bottom of the mountain.
I would have rated Montage as two-​stars but the open slopes were well groomed, the staff was friendly, and the pizza was pretty good. It was worth visiting but I’d consider exploring a new resort before heading back.

We went there as a family. It was unorganized. I won’t go there again. The staff there was mean and rude.