I've got Ikon and not thrilled by this. Gonna be a zoo.
Weren't they already?
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. The early AM group at Blue are dedicated weekday skiers who usually split by lunchtime. They have a leaderboard for most runs skied (posted on Blue’s website). These people ski far, far more than the 7 day limit that Ikon offers, often 30 days plus.
I'll be one of those. Last season was a wash, but the year before I would head up to Jack Frost a lot during the week. Ski from open to about 11:00 or noon then head home for work. Now with Blue and Camelback as options, I'll gladly avoid JF. The distance to Blue and Camelback is shorter so they save me a bit of time in the car and have better terrain. Win-win.
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I keep hearing "crowds". Crowds at Camelback are nothing new, they have been there since the 1970's with the slow Sullivan chair, slow triple and even the Bailey chair, 30 minute lift lines, or what felt like 30 minute lines, were not uncommon on the weekends.
I may venture over to camelback a few times to mix it up.
I missed the '70s, but started skiing there around '84 and I definitely remember weekends being packed. All the spots were. We typically skied the second half of the day, and in the evenings it would finally lighten up a bit after the masses traded the slopes for the bar. I remember it being COLD.
A couple years ago, over President's weekend, the line of cars for Camelback extended out to route 80.
You know, that road that leads to your Reno house. 
Word at Blue always was that the owner didn't want to give up total control, so that's why they weren't on Ikon, as the current agreement with KSL allowed the owner some say in operations. Not sure how valid that is, but at any rate, that is moot at this point so will be interesting to see if there are any changes in operations or facilities. They had plans to build a hotel/condos so not sure what's happening with that. I always thought that was a BAD idea.
Well I wouldn't be surprised to see a hotel and water park (that's the trend in the Pocono's is it not?) built. The one at Camelback is very successful and actually quite a nice facility. I always understood Blue had quite a bit of land to expand (CBK has some too but not as much). Will be interesting to watch what happens to these resorts.
When they built the hotel they took away a huge chunk of parking. Basically the hotel foot prints worth of parking. They have also done some lift upgrades (Stevenson and the now Black Bear 6) so the lines are not what they were in the 70’s. They have not run the Triple or Marc Anthony in a couple of years and could really use a lift to the summit between the 2 detachables. Maybe Ikon gets that done. Like Wendy said they back ‘‘em up back to 80 (and sometimes down to Bartonsville) so I just don’t know where they could put more cars. Snow tubing pack them in as well. If I’m there past noon it’s probably at the bar.
