COVER FEATURE
Shortly after SnowOps completed this article, it was announced
that Vail Resorts would be acquiring 17 Peak Resorts’ properties,
including Jack Frost and Big Boulder, in a move that is expected
to close this fall; pending shareholder approval and regulatory
clearances, according to a press release from Peak Resorts. It is for
this reason that Peak Resorts is referred to as owner in this article.
At this point of his career, Pat Morgan finds himself
calling The Poconos home. Also called the Poconos
Mountains, it’s an escarpment tucked into
Pennsylvania’s northeastern corner. This is where
you’ll find Jack Frost and Big Boulder (JFBB), two properties
of Peak Resorts. It’s an interesting spot to be for Morgan,
JFBB’s director of freestyle terrain, being neighbors with 27
million potential skiers and snowboarders.
“With our guests coming from Philly and New Jersey and
New York, there’s often no snow in their backyards. They’re
pretty much basing it off our company messaging being, like,
‘It’s very much winter at the resort.’”
To be sure, Jack Frost and Big Boulder are separate resorts,
about five miles apart. Morgan oversees the freestyle terrain
programs for both ski areas. While they are usually referred
to within the same acronym, they are distinctly different
places. Big Boulder has been around since the late 1940s,
while Jack Frost began in 1972. Jack Frost’s summit elevation
is 2,000 feet and the base elevation is 1,400 feet. Big Boulder
has similar statistics with a summit elevation of 2,175 feet
and a base elevation of 1,700 feet. Big Boulder also has eight
terrain parks, with half of its area devoted to freestyle terrain.
“Definitely Big Boulder has a lot of boarders and then Jack
Frost has a little more of your traditional family feel,” Morgan
said. “There’s a ski race team and more family-centric
events. We do have a good park over there; it’s called ONE
Park because there’s… one park. And there’s truly something
for everybody. Just intermediate level, pretty good links, generally
there are 40-plus features on that, between jumps and
rails and things, but nothing that is over the top, like what we
kind of sometimes do at Boulder.”
The Boulder Gang
The proximity to Philadelphia makes itself known in other
ways, says Morgan, especially at Big Boulder.
“We call the regulars, ‘Boulder Gang.’ It’s a play off of the
(NFL Philadelphia) Eagles’ thing; they say the term ‘Bird
Gang.’ We just started saying Boulder Gang. You’d be riding
down the hill and you’d hear catcalls from the lifts.… And it’s
like, those are your buddies. Those are our die-hards. It’s a
culture like no other.”
Does the location translate into a steady supply of skiers
and snowboarders? By the company’s own indications, the
numbers were looking good over the 2018-19 season, with
robust sales of their Peak Pass, which gives passholders access
to five different types of passes at 10 different locations,
including JFBB.
According to a Peak Resorts December 2018 press release,
“Peak Pass sales are up by approximately 18 percent on a unit
basis and by approximately 20 percent on a revenue basis,
compared with the prior year. Sales of the Drifter Pass, Peak
Ryan Keglovics get air at Boulder Park at Big Boulder
PHOTO COURTESY OF REED WEIMER
snowopsmag.com | SnowOps 27
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