Elk Mountain - PA. Th.3/22/12 - Closing Day

[Rambo]

I live in Binghamton, NY. Drove down to Elk Mtn. in Northern PA for their last day of the season. A quick 44 mile drive. Lift tickets were $10. for the last day. Was surprized to find that Elk had groomed the trails. Got on the lift at 9:15am. As I skied by the old picnic lodge, Cornhead yelled out. He had just got there and we skied the rest of the day together. The base was firm and softened up nicely when the sun warmed everything up. Skied every run fairly fast... cruising speed. Mainly skied Susquehanna, Slalom and the Tioga cruising trail. I didn't ski the Tunkhannock mogul field but Cornhead did about 3 runs down it at the end of the day. Great sunny, warm day with great skiing. I skied Elk 3 times this season (usually ski Greek Peak w/seasons pass). Cornhead skied Elk, 5 times this season. Elk rocks - a skiers mountain.

If anybody gets a chance, check out Elk Mountain... it does NOT disapoint!

Looking down Susqehanna trail:

Slalom Trail:

Some beginners:

The case of the "exploding ski boot". A skiers older boot suddenly cracked apart and the whole front section fell off.

Snowboard girl:

Tunkhannock Mogul Field:

Top part of mogul field was bare for about 10 feet or so:

Cornhead crossing the bare section:

Cornhead skiing the mogul field:

A parting shot at the end of the day:

 

[twinplanx]

It might disapoint those who wish to ski the glades... Whats up w/ that? Otherwise I agree Elk is a hidden gem.

 

[spring_mountain_high]

way to get there for one more day...jealous

i heard a kid died skiing in the woods there, hence mgmt's strict policy...no idea if this is true...they also rarely have the coverage for it...it's a shame though since there are some really nice woods there that would make great glades

 

[twinplanx]

i heard a kid died skiing in the woods there, hence mgmt's strict policy...no idea if this is true...they also rarely have the coverage for it...it's a shame though since there are some really nice woods there that would make great glades

gulp I hope that is just ye ole rumor mill. I don't think they ever had any offical glade skiing. The whole state of PA seems to be against tree skiing. Although I recently read of some offical glades at JF/BB. While it is true they rarely have the coverage, it would be pretty sweet on those choice occasions!!

 

[Cornhead]

Rambo, so nice skiing with you this season. It was kind of funny when we re-met at Elk, "Are you Big D?", name on another forum, "Are you Cornhead?" I knew we had met briefly before at Greek. What a great day at Elk, so glad I blew off work to ski it. Funny you were the first person I saw coming down the hill, I had a feeling you'd be there. Here's a few more pics.

Tunkhannock was just awesome, a little more work than usual, but well worth the effort.

Slalom skied great all day.

Tunk was a popular trail today, with the twenty or so, maybe that's generous, people that were there.

Some of the "crowd" descending to the snow on Tunk.

Rambo navigating Delaware, it was pretty rough, we skied it only once to get to Iroquois, wich hadn't been groomed, and was a pretty bumpy ride in the morning.

Looking up Susquehanna.

Yeah, the only drawback to Elk is the lack of tree skiing, other than that, the place is great. Much better grooming and bumps than Greek.

 

[JulieSchleepy]

Coverage looks better than than most places up here in NH right now!

 

[Tooth]

I love Elk.

 

[spring_mountain_high]

gulp I hope that is just ye ole rumor mill. I don't think they ever had any offical glade skiing. The whole state of PA seems to be against tree skiing. Although I recently read of some offical glades at JF/BB. While it is true they rarely have the coverage, it would be pretty sweet on those choice occasions!!

blue cut 2 'official' glades prior to last season & they actually blow snow in there to get them open...i know a few people have spoken to mgmt about opening up the woods and they seemed pretty adamant about not doing it...i talked to a patroller once who echoed the sentiment...said they'd never do it

looks like we have decent elk crew here...would definitely be up for some meetups/tailgates there next season...onward & upward

 

[ScottySkis]

Great report, I think next season I have to check out Elk for sure.