Has anybody skied Elk Mountain in NEPA yet this season? I am planning on going there on Saturday and am curious how they are doing.
It looks like a good trail count, but I'm concerned the snowmaking conditions haven't been good. Looks like subzero temps at night.
Love Elk - I skied there for one weekend per year during college when we raced there. Great rolling terrain that spreads out over a fairly large hill. Vertical isn't amazing but they have a great variety of slopes with a good pitch. Plus they are in a very cold part of the state with decent natural snowfall.
That said - its a hike and in the middle of nowhere
SKI-PSU wrote:
Love Elk - I skied there for one weekend per year during college when we raced there. Great rolling terrain that spreads out over a fairly large hill. Vertical isn't amazing but they have a great variety of slopes with a good pitch. Plus they are in a very cold part of the state with decent natural snowfall.
That said - its a hike and in the middle of nowhere
I go about halfway Friday night and then ride up with a Penn State friend from Hershey. Too hard to pull off in a day trip any more. I was really impressed in 2020 when I went. Next year, we're thinking of doing Montage Friday night, staying over and then hitting Elk on Saturday morning.
Montage and Elk would be a solid combo for a weekend trip
wfyurasko wrote:
SKI-PSU wrote:
Love Elk - I skied there for one weekend per year during college when we raced there. Great rolling terrain that spreads out over a fairly large hill. Vertical isn't amazing but they have a great variety of slopes with a good pitch. Plus they are in a very cold part of the state with decent natural snowfall.
That said - its a hike and in the middle of nowhere
I go about halfway Friday night and then ride up with a Penn State friend from Hershey. Too hard to pull off in a day trip any more. I was really impressed in 2020 when I went. Next year, we're thinking of doing Montage Friday night, staying over and then hitting Elk on Saturday morning.
I have done several 3 day trips from DC, Liberty or RT on the way up, Elk on day two and Montage on day 3. You can hit RT or Liberty on the way home for a nice four day excursion. Lots of variety in the resorts in 3 or 4 day and in my experience the snow at Elk and Montage holds up well. Lots of cheap hotels in Scranton :-). You can also hit the bowling alley/bar from The Office for a few games, beers and dinner too.
wgo wrote:
Montage and Elk would be a solid combo for a weekend trip
wfyurasko wrote:
SKI-PSU wrote:
Love Elk - I skied there for one weekend per year during college when we raced there. Great rolling terrain that spreads out over a fairly large hill. Vertical isn't amazing but they have a great variety of slopes with a good pitch. Plus they are in a very cold part of the state with decent natural snowfall.
That said - its a hike and in the middle of nowhere
I go about halfway Friday night and then ride up with a Penn State friend from Hershey. Too hard to pull off in a day trip any more. I was really impressed in 2020 when I went. Next year, we're thinking of doing Montage Friday night, staying over and then hitting Elk on Saturday morning.
I was there Sunday. Snow surface was spectacular except far western/north trails were a bit slick. It was very busy due to the best weather of the holiday weekend but I didnt wait more than 5min and they were not running the north double probably to preserve snow surface with not quite 100% open yet (also the trails were still quite empty as usual). Elk has RFID so if you go the online route you can skip the ticket line and lodge shuttle. They were blowing all weekend and will likely open several additional trails this weekend mainly on the north side. That area got like 3 or 4 separate small to mid snow events the past week.
No bumps yet as of last week but they might soon be letting Tunkhannock bump up idk
abeski wrote:
Tunkhannock and Wyalusing have not been groomed, hopefully Tunkhannock at least is beginning to bump up. Sunday even it seemed it might not have been groomed. I'll continue to pay attention as I will be back there Saturday. Seneca now open, and Lackawanna and Kickapoo have had snowmaking, I imagine would open this weekend nearing 100% other than Lehigh which is never open
I looked at my recap from last time and saw that I skied Tunkhannock twice.
"Eventually, we felt we were stretched out enough to take the more challenging black diamond runs and prepared for ♦Tunkhannock,
steep, ungroomed and a bit bumpy. As expected, it proved challenging to
us, a pair of Type II skiers who get one or two days on the mountain in
a good season. We got through it though, perhaps without elegance or
technical excellence."
The second time down wasn't clean.
It looks like we'll have lots of trails on Saturday.
First-hand report of a bluebird day of skiing at Elk Mountain in Northeast Pennsylvania on January 22, 2022.
Nice report! I was surprised to find it just as crowded yesterday as last holiday weekend, along with lower staffing levels, however, the snow was definitely prime this weekend!
