Vernon, NJ – New Jersey’s Mountain Creek is a bifurcated ski resort, with two independent base areas located about two miles apart, and connected by a lift and trail network that’s known to locals for being long and slow in both directions. This summer the resort decided to trade the 40-year-old Sojourn double chairlift for a new trail connecting the terrain park at South Peak with Granite Peak.
The new and as yet unnamed intermediate trail is a mile and a quarter long, adding nearly 12 more skiable acres to the resort total. Initial clearing and cutting for the trail has begun and while resort management is pushing hard for completion in time for the current season, it will certainly be skiable with 100% snowmaking and lights for winter 2011-12. In the meantime, the resort is popping out a fleet of gussied up shuttle buses to transport skiers and riders between the two base areas.
 
Mountain Creek’s redrawn trail map depicts the new trail connecting the New Jersey ski resort’s South Peak and Granite Peak. |
Once complete, the new trail will allow skiers and snowboarders to truly ride peak-to-peak all season long. This is the first new trail expansion at Mountain Creek in more than a decade.
“We’re really pumped up about this expansion plan, which is a great example of looking beyond challenges with traditional solutions, and finding a purloined gem of an opportunity to enhance our guests’ skiing and riding experience,” says Joe Hession, the newly appointed General Manager at Mountain Creek.
Other resort improvements this winter include top-to-bottom grade work on Horizon, the resort’s most popular and primary artery trail at Vernon Peak. The extensive cut-and-fill work will provide for more efficient snow coverage on that first to open top-to-bottom trail, and allow for more terrain to open faster in the critical pre-holiday period.
At Mountain Creek South, snowboarders and freeskiers can look forward to a revised Park layout, a bevy of new features and the return to the pipe, with a 13-foot halfpipe located on Bear Peak where the core of the resort’s snowmaking firepower lives. A bit of the video-friendly lighting from the Grand Prix Superpipe will be relocated for better capture of night runs.
Mountain Creek’s Park Crew has invested in a purpose-built venue dialed into the frequent Rail Jam requirements. Branded as “The Arena,” the easy-access zone will boast stadium quality lighting and sound system, is wider after deep-sixing the old Magic Carpet, and re-graded allowing for optimum snow coverage as well as more creative setups.