JFBB has a website advertisement of its group sale rates: http://www.jfbb.com/group.asp. The only requirement to get adult group rate is having "19 and over" persons, according to the description listed on that website. However, when a group of us that had 27 persons reached the group ticket office at Big Boulder on 2/24/2008, the staffs there refused to sell us tickets at the advertised rate. The excuse they used was that we hadn't made a reservation. Then we pick up a JFBB broucher in the ticket office, and found a phone number printed on it that can make reservations. We called that number, 570-443-8428, and the operator was very friendly and said we could make a reservation for that same day. We made a reservation, and happily went back to the ticket office, but a lady who claimed being a manager there still refused to sell us the group tickets. This time, the excuse was, the reservation had to be made 24 hours prior to the purchasing point and that was their policy. We read the JFBB broucher carefully and there was no such a policy for group sales at all. Then we asked why the operator agreed to sell us group tickets, the answer was "she doesn't know the policy". All right, if even a JFBB staff didn't know a so-called policy, how could they expect customers to know about it? We argued for a while, but the manager just didn't care about our complaints at all. Since all of us had driven for more than 2 hours to get to Big Boulder and it was already close to 11 am, we didn't want to waste our time to continue arguing or just drive back without skiing, we had to buy tickets at the regular rate, which was $25 more than the advertised group rate.

I learned to snowboard at BB and have to say it was great for breaking me into the moderate slopes, however the mountain is too small for any advanced courses, they do provide a few black diamonds but expect them to be short. Also a lot of people bicker about snowboarder and skier, but realize that its a smaller resort so you're going to be "close" with your peers. also if you're looking to avoid the "obnoxious teens and snowboarders" don't go Wednesday night, its college night, go figure.

I have been to BB 4 times since they opened for preseason. In fact I was just there today ,for the day. The conditions were okay because of the rain storm that hit the mountain the day before. Normaly their conditions are amazing. During the day the snow is a very great powder. At night the trails can become icy though if it was a busy day. They have some tree skiing off the Bunny's Elbow trail. Me being a boarder I am very disapointed the way skiers hog the whole trail. Also if you're a boarder stick to the terrain parks because on most of the other trails there are skiers who fall alot and cut you off. Familys also go with young children. Overall it is a great mountain to learn a trick, have fun or just learn to ski or ride.

Big Boulder has a great reputation as a friendly place to ski. Here's the thing, it takes more than a good image and some extra kids programs to become "friendly". The last time I skied at Big Boulder, I was skiing with a large group of family and friends. Not only was the mountain tiny, flat, and extremely icy, but it was overrun with out-of-control teens. One member of my ski group was taken out at the knees by a snowboarder riding their board like a sled. This kind of poor behavior was common all over the mountain, yet ski patrol was nowhere to be found. So here's a word of advice to families planning to ski in the Poconos, if your kid is going to stay in lessons all day, Big Boulder will probably be fine, but if you're looking for a place for your kid(s) to start advancing past the bunny slope, go to a mountain with polite skiers and a professional attitude (for example, Elk Mt). And if you are a more serious skier as I am, stay far far away.

FYI, Big Boulder is open Nov 10, 2007 with Freedom Park. Thanks to Peak Resorts for a wonderful job. Life is good @ 2,000'!