I have to take my Kid up to Philly area for weekend. I plan on droppng him off friday and skiing sat, possibly sun AM somewhere in PA area. was thinking of either Blue mountain (about 1.5 hrs farther) or Elk Mountain (~2.75 hrs farther). I am thinking Elk will have better snow, but have never skied Blue. Before I make lodging reservations, thought I would see if anyone was skiing at one of these or another close by resort.

I was in Camelback this past weekend. Conditions were good to excellent. Blue gets crowded. I mean crowded....

I was thinking crowd may be issue, particularly since so many have monday off.

I decided to go all the way...to Elk that is. The thought of fighting long weekend crowds at close to philly/NJ resorts made me think going north might be better and wanted to hit something with more then 600 vertical which narrowed down choices. I am on my own this weekend, so look for me at the local bar at the end of the day. I will be the out of shape, graying, over 40 guy with an ale and a powder day ear-to-ear .

Good choice. I know Camelback is a zoo on Holiday weekends, Blue is probably worse.

If you find a local bar worth the stop near Elk, speak up. There's not much around.

I may be up that way this weekend as well. Could be time for some more practice on Tunchannock.

Well, I think they have some sort of bar/resturant in the lodge (Don't remember if I tried it before). If you go watch for me. Red spyder jacket, black helment, and red googles. Just finished a little base repair(already ), edging, and waxing.should be good to go for the weekend.

There is a restaurant in the base and I highly recommend it for lunch. Not that it's spectacular or anything, but it's the same price as the cafeteria while at the same time having both beer and table service.

Wow what a day I had Saturday!! From about 0830 to 1000 there were very few people on slopes. Once it started to get busy they had a singles line on the quad. I went all day one run after another, with a break for sandwich and beer. I spent most of my time on tunkhancock, chippewa which were bumped up, and the other trails accessible from the north lift. The east lift was pretty crowded. Conditions were packed powder with little glazing in AM but fluffed up some with all the skiers through the day. It was cold, but no wind to speak of and a little dusting of snow falling off and on throughout the day. I saw a few really good skiers on the bumps and one guy making some of the nicest rolling edge to edge carved turns I have seen. Gives me something to aspire too. Early in the day, I think I did some of the best skiing I have done. Also my legs held up surprisingly well for as many runs I made, but knew it was time to stay on the groomers when late in the day I hit tunkhancock and couldn't hold my line down the hill. What a difference being a second slow in getting into your turns make. Except for one tired and cold kid screaming at her father and brother all the up the lift in the chair behind me it was a great day and as the preteen boys who I ended up sharing the quad lift said, I could have ended up one chair back!

oh yeah, in case anybody is heading that way. I stayed at a little motel called Orazzi's. Its as basic as you can get with single mattress beds on wood frame and next time will bring my own pillow; but the owners were great and kept the Tavern open late until I arrived after I was delayed on the night of my arrival. It is only about 8 miles from the slopes. I had dinner there Saturday and locals were very friendly with a couple rounds of shots ordered for their guests, which besides me and were a group of snowboarders from Baltimore. I think the fact Baltimore loss to Pittsburg had something to do with the good cheer, but very glad I chose to stay there.

It was indeed a great weekend. Tuncannock was great. I didn't care for the bumps on Chippewa. They were just weird. No pattern, bumps missing, etc. Iroquois had better shaped bumps, but a lot of ice in between.

If you thought the kid screaming during the ride was loud, you should have seen the 6-7 year old girl who forgot to get off the quad and went around the bullwheel. She was too short to trip the safety stop and had cleared the other side of the lift platform by the time the attendant got it stopped. Attendants did a great job getting her down, but she was seriously freaking out.

Interesting, I liked Chippewa, snow seemed a lot softer there then the other two. But Tunhannock, was just a much faster, fun run. I did Iroquois a couple times, but didn't click with me, like it did you. But in full disclosure, it was the only place I fell. . Started down thinking about something else and ended up out of position and took a little roll, but I popped-up (the speed of a pop-up vs. an old man get-up is relative at best ) and finished with much more focus.