By Pat Turner Kavanaugh
Snow Chronicles Correspondent

TANNERSVILLE, Pa. -- Just so there's no misunderstanding, I'll admit right off that Camelback is the first place I skied 31 years ago.

And over the years I've spent plenty of time at this Pocono Mountain resort. In the early days, in fact, lift line waits could be pretty fierce.

But I haven't skied Camelback in several years, so I turned to a friend from Pennsylvania for advice of what's going on at Camelback.

Jay Lloyd retired early this year as a radio broadcaster in Philadelphia. He, too, has been skiing about 30 years and typically gets out about 20 days a season, most of that in Pennsylvania, although the last time I saw Jay, both of us were in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.

"I really like Camelback," Lloyd said.

Asked about the once long lift lines, he said, "That has been mitigated even on the weekends. The development of the east side of the mountain takes a lot of the crowds. And there are two high-speed detachable quads."

However, Camelback is easy to reach from the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas, so Lloyd's advice for Saturdays and Sundays is to get here early.

"The earlier you ski, the better. You'll get in more skiing from 8 to 11 a.m. than you will any other time of the day."

Lloyd said Camelback offers an impressive amount of cafeteria space. He singled out for special praise the restaurant at the peak, called Cameltop. "It's under-utilized and has magnificent views. The food anywhere at Camelback is high quality."

The base lodge has the East Cafeteria, West Cafeteria, Presto Pizza Bar, Deck Grill, Fireside Lounge and Main Lounge. The Glen Lodge has a cafeteria and a lounge, the Sunbowl Lodge, a snack bar and cafeteria, and the Cameltop Summit Lodge cafeteria.

And you can ski down from Cameltop on your choice of green, blue or black runs.

Officially Camelback claims 15 percent of the trails are expert, 24 percent intermediate, 54 percent novice and seven percent beginner. The 13 lifts have an uphill capacity of 18,600 people an hour.

Noting that Pocono Mountain ski and snowboard areas "live or die by their snowmaking," Lloyd said, "The snowmaking has been great at Camelback. Their thrust is to improve the quality of the product that comes out of the guns."

"Camelback builds it (snow) early and stockpiles it to be able to build a hell of an inventory," he added.

In fact, Camelback has 100 percent snowmaking on its 33 trails, 156 acres of terrain. The system uses 40 miles of pipe and 1,300 snow guns; the compressor has a capacity of 40,000 cubic feet per minute.

Snowmaking is upgraded almost every year. For this season 40 new high efficiency tower and sled-mounted snowguns were added. Another 100 percent statistic is the lighting for night skiing. Lower Cleopatra, a popular green trail, received better lighting for this season. Considered by many as one of the best cruising trails on the mountain, Lower Cleopatra is a popular route from the mid-mountain to the Sunbowl or base area.

And while we're talking about "what's new," we might cover one of the less glamorous, however necessary aspects of snowsports resorts -- restrooms. Camelback added a new slopeside restroom building this year, nearly doubling capacity in the base area. Lloyd says he hasn’t personally inspected this improvement.

Besides snowmaking, Pocono ski and snowboard resorts "live or die" on equipment rentals. Camelback purchased 600 pairs of Elan XRC skis with Salomon bindings, 300 Like ski poles and 350 OVO helmets to augment the supply, as well as 125 Burton Cruzer snowboards with Switch bindings and 200 Auclair wristguards.

Altogether the rental shop has 3,100 sets of skis, 100 percent of them shaped; 700 Rossignol snowboards with step in bindings, 100 Burton Learn to Ride boards and the new Burton Cruzers.

Snowboards are an important fact of life at winter resorts. Camelback offers two terrain parks, both on black diamond trails, which include rails and hits, plus a competition-size halfpipe.

At the other end of the spectrum are two designated beginners' areas, each serviced by two chairlifts. There is also a Magic Carpet surface lift which makes learning easier for children in the adjacent Leaning Center.

And children under 46 inches tall in their boots receive free lift tickets. (One per paid adult.)

Popular with families, some of whom hit Camelback to neither ski nor ride, is the Snowtubing Park, which boasts nine chutes and four automatic tows, probably one of the largest of its kind in the country.

Four of the chutes can handle family-sized tubes, and the fun goes on until 9 p.m.

Camelback has an adaptive skiing program for individuals with physical impairments.

Asked his favorite trail, Lloyd singled out the Nile Mile. "It's nice easy cruising. There's a lot of it and it's wide."

Pat Turner Kavanaugh is a news reporter for the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger. She has reported news of skiing for the past three decades.